The year is over: 2 of 3

New Year’s was followed by a super restful week and really only enough intensity to keep the body from going stale. I felt tired during the week, but the power was big and the enthusiasm was big too. As a newer rider, I still am learning how to peak, so I had to rely on coach Gordy to get it right.. From what I could tell i was peaking right on time. I was able to make it out to the course a few times to watch some of the races, but as the week progressed and the forecast became clearer, I began to realize that things were going to be completely different than the current conditions at the time. The sloppy mud would thicken, and as temperatures dropped, it would completely freeze over. So pre-riding was limited. I did my openers and packed up the night before, and tried to get a good night’s sleep.

That morning the temperatures were low, but so was the wind. The course had a sense of wasteland to it. Hearing about the cold temperatures always makes you think a little, and with everyone else expressing their worry, it was easy to forget what I could handle. In reality, 15 degrees is nothing tough to handle for me. I’ll be honest that the CycleOps Warm Up tent did help a ton, but I came into it pretty worried. I got a couple laps in and dialed in the tire pressure. I ran a similar average pressure to what I normally do, but had a huge pressure difference between the front and rear. While this made the back end slide a lot, I was able to count on it in the rough stuff and not have to worry about flatting. The low pressure in the front allowed me to still get decent traction in the corners where there were not ruts. After a good warm up, it was off to the start line.

I need to take a moment to thank those who helped me. On Wednesday before the race I picked up a second set of mud wheels from Trek, the Bontrager Aeolus D3 wheels with Challenge Limus tires on them. I was honestly blown away. They are such a stiff and strong wheel set, spoiler alert, they held up in the race like a champ which is no small feat. Beyond the sponsor love, the KS Energy/Team Wisconsin crew was there helping out and cheering me on, even though I wasn’t in a KS kit, that’s team support. The whole UW crew was there too. We had a good group of people racing, and about as many there just helping out. Nick Frye and Andrew Rosch were in the pits and taking care of equipment. My parents were there helping keep me warm and well fed (thanks for the cookies) and of course Margy, my girlfriend was making sure those little details were all set. I think I had like 4 people willing to take my warm up jacket at the start. I think between Tom, Dino and Tyson, someone could have though I had a body guard squad at the start. haha! Thanks guys!

Conclusion will be up soon!

Weekend Update

It was a pretty low key weekend planed. I had the Matt Wittig Memorial Race Saturday and then 4 hours of dirt on Sunday. It was shaping up to be an awesome weekend.  The Crit would have tons of UW and TW riders to cheer on and I was excited for that, and Sunday was mountain bikes, what’s not to love. It was made even better by the fact that my mom called me on the way to the race to say she’d be there to watch!

Things unfolded in pretty standard fashion. I signed up, chilled out and got ready. I had a good warm up, which made me happy because I tried something new. I usually do some single leg stuff and some high cadence work  but I added in a 1 minute FTP effort and 2 sprints to get my heart pounding. This is very similar to what I did for Iola and it seems to work pretty well because I was ready to go from the gun. Maybe for WORS I should add in the sprints and 2 FTP efforts because I remember being a little in the hole, but I’ll see. I lined up and the gun went off.

Being the Matt Wittig Memorial race, the UW riders rode together and wore UW jerseys. We sent Eric up the road and blocked. He seemed to have a pretty good chance to stay away, he almost got out of sight from the pack, but got brought back with a few laps to go. From there Josh, a UW alum pushed the pace on the last few laps to string things out and provided the perfect setup for me to sprint for the win. Overall I was proud to put the motion W first across the line, and it was a ton of fun riding with those guys.

I then hoped in the P/1/2/3 to see how I’d fair, turns out pretty well. I felt comfortable in the pack, but I was burning matches to follow accelerations. I flated with about 13 to go and got my free lap. When I joined the group again I worked my way back up and started trying to bridge to the group up the road. I was able to do it and began doing work to try and keep it away. With only a few laps left I was ready to do anything to stay away and secure a pretty solid spot in my second P/1/2/3. It was a 5 man group and I was in the money so I was pretty happy. With 5 laps or so to go 2 wheel and sprocket riders and a stan’s rider bridged and it became a little more tactical.

I do have to say though, it was very dumb for the other big teams to allow 2 teammates to bridge like that, but I guess I wasn’t there so I can’t say much. My mistake was that I kept doing work when I should have begun to pay attention to the gap. Once they started working I could have sat in a little, the group was big enough for that. I kept working and got screwed in the sprint taking 7^th. To say I got screwed though is kind of weird, because I was happy with getting in the break in that race, especially after racing the 3s.

One topic of discussion with my friends lately has been my upgrade. I have to say, I’m a bit nervous because If I upgrade I’m fearful that I’ll be getting spit out the back at memorial day weekend. While that isn’t the worst thing, I was planning on doing well at snake alley and Memorial Day this year and I feel I owe myself the completion of that goal. At the same time if I do upgrade, then do well in the P/1/2, well that’s huge. That’s money and recognition I just can’t pass up. I need to think about it a little more, but there is one thing for sure. If I race Memorial Day as a 3, I’ll be sandbagging hardcore.

There is a lot to say about Sunday, but I can sum it up really quickly, it was amazing. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to just go ride off-road and enjoy it and enjoy the day. On top of that I was with Matt Gehling, a teammate who is on the same level as far as fast as me. He’s definitely better technically and I’m arguably stronger. So riding together pushes me to learn to handle and him to push himself. We never really said to each other, ok let’s rip it. But a few times we just got going fast and really kept it going. Teammates don’t do you much good off-road during races. But training like that? That makes both of us faster and it was honestly some of the most fun I’ve had in months. I can’t wait to do it again.

Next weekend is the Crystal Lake WORS race and I’m still hunting that top 5. Things are looking better and better.

Total Redemption

This past weekend was the Marian/Purdue Collegiate set of races. This included a long crit on Saturday and a TTT and road race on Sunday. I was coming off a terrible weekend and really needed to redeem myself. Monday I rode and still felt tired and slow. After a rest on Tuesday, I put down some serious power on some hill sprints followed by some huge 20 minutes intervals on Thursday. With an easier ride on Friday to open up the legs I was feeling solid for the weekend.

The crit was a long 1.5 mile course with some insane corners to finish up the lap. As an avid mountain biker and cross racer, I was excited but as a newbie on the road I was nervous. The pace was fast and people were falling off the back like flies. My teammate put in a serious amount effort to chase down breaks for me, allowing me to sit in a little. With only a few laps to go, it was time to party. I broke away only to later get caught with 1 to go. As the group came together again a Marian rider broke away. I let the two OSU guys chase him down and before we caught him I attacked and gave him chase myself. Through the corners I was able to make contact and made a bid for the sprint in the 100 foot dash to the finish. I beat him by about an inch. I need to get the photo from the finish, I was so close.

The TTT on Sunday was also amazing. The B’s groups worked like a well-oiled machine as all of us were putting in equal strong pulls. We passed the Lindenwood TT group and never even looked up. We won the race by 45 seconds to Marian in second.

The road race was also incredible. Huge 40mph gust made it a day for the sprint. Many breaks attempted to get away, but the pace was kept fairly easy as the wind was killer. There was a lot of acceleration. There was a monster head wind section and a huge hill for the finish on the other side of the 4 mile loop. I put in a few attacks because I was feeling good. I figured if a strong group could get away, it would make things easier to manage. There was a few time I almost got away, but there was always a lack of cooperation in the group due to the huge toll of the wind. It came down to a sprint on the hill, and I love climbing. I was able to put a 20ft gap on the second place Marian rider, the same Marian rider who placed second the day before. This win needs to go to all the people cheering for me at the finish. The cheering was so loud that even when my legs said stop, I knew I had to keep going. I was truly lifted to the top by my teammates. For that I thank all the UW-Cycling people cheering.

The drama however was not over. After the finish my teammate Lindsey gives me a high five and says you are awesome, but I have some bad news. I had taken a hand up on the left side, a huge no-no. The official was going to DQ me striping me of the win and charging me a $35 fine. I had a chat and was able to talk him out of the fine, but he said that he needed to talk to the head official about the DQ. Later the officials come and talk to me and notify me that they would not be DQing me, giving me the win and the upgrade points I needed to race A’s. The relief I felt was incredible. I am trying to stay humble about the wins as they were in the B’s. But I suppose what I am really excited about is that I set a goal, and I accomplished it. I wanted to win so I did. My big goal for this road season is to race nationals. At this point it’s all but there for me. Picture from the race will follow soon.

One of the weeks, again, again, again.

Since my last post a lot has happened as the collegiate road season had begun. I am still training hard, but mixing it with a lot of racing.

Result of the LWC attack

The first weekend was in Kentucky at Lindsey Wilson College. This was, for all purposes, my first road race ever. I raced the Men’s B race and was happy to be finally riding in shorts after the long Wisconsin Winter. It was very clearly my first race as I was surprised by so much. I found myself sort of riding off the front a lot, as I seemed to out of touch with the ebb and flow of the rest of the packs changing pace. I ended up getting used to it soon enough. There was this awesome hill right before the finish. I am not a particularly good climber, but I love climbing. I decided that if the pack came home in one piece that I would attack on the climb, about half way up the ¼ mile lump. As we came into the final few rollers before the finish climb and caught the break away, I was antsy to say the least. An attack went off a half mile before the climb and the pace quickened, but only matched the attackers speed. I was getting antsier. I attached right at the bottom of the climb and seriously gave it everything I had. I opened up an impressive gap on the field and thought I was home free until like a Looney Toon walking off a cliff, my legs were no longer underneath me. I looked back and saw a charging attack coming toward me as I passed the earlier attack. I ended up getting beat by 3 guys on my way into the finish line, placing 4^th in my first ever race. I’ll take it. The crit was pretty sweet the next day. I felt good, and was chasing breaks and holding my own in the pack. A Lindenwood guy attacked and almost lapped the field, incredible. I was able to organize the pack enough to keep that from happening. The group stayed together, and the sprint was for 2^nd. I opened up a long spring at the final corner up the little kicker. Got a sizable gap and gave everything I had to the finish leaving a huge wake of destruction in the process.

Ohio was shitty. The temp was cold and got colder. It was raining. It was shitty. Attacks on the first climb made the pace fast the entire time as the group broke up right away and a break formed. They ended up splitting and we caught all but 5 of the break and sprinted for 4^th. I got beat on the line by a guy from some school that I don’t care about. 5^th on the day and I am satisfied with that. The crit was canceled so that sucked balls.

SPRING BREAK! NO PARENTS NO PANTS! Spring break was awesome. Better than last year. I had some issues with my body holding up, but still got in some killer rides that really pushed me to another level. I don’t feel like I made any physical gain but defiantly showed the club that I am strong making it 3^rd to the top on Cheroholidy. Combine that with a few other rides and I had a total of 450 miles give or take. I was very tired after that.

So tired in fact that I still felt tired the next weekend in Norte Dame; I can’t really explain it. I couldn’t get the engine going with any real intensity. I was able to push it hard, but couldn’t get out of the saddle with and ferocity. I was dropped on the second lap of 4 and sat in the pain cave the rest of the 2.5 laps home. Same thing at the crit except I did win one prime and held with the pack just until the end for 21^st, out on like 25. FML on that one.

As for now, I have been down this week. I just cannot get any fire in my belly for anything. I am trying but I keep letting things, mostly formula slip. I’m hoping that a few good nights sleep and a good performance on my exam tomorrow will bring me out of the slump. To be honest, I am not too sure if the problems on and off the bike are not unrelated. Maybe I just need to find my spirit animal. My mom keeps asking me if I have a girlfriend yet, which really doesn’t do my ego anything good either. Mom, I love you to death.

Here’s the plan for shit to improve.

Follow my training plan better, closer, and talk to my coach about nutrition.

Keep things clean

Get good sleep

Prepare for races better with food and supplies ready

Make bitches hurt

This will teach me to go see my family and leave my bikes home

Angry margarita face

Call me the Cobra Killer

Words to live by

Be more aggressive, on and off the bike

Taking some rest

The season is over for me. About a week ago there would have been a finally added in there, but since then, I have already had a hard time staying off the bike. I had my Wisdom teeth out on Monday, and not even that is stopping me. The season went really well, but I defiantly got burned out toward the end.  I learned a lot about myself, my body, and what I want to live like for the rest of my life.  I never stop running though; I’m already looking to next year.

Last Sunday was the Wisconsin State Cyclocross championship race in hales corners. I did not plan my year around cyclocross at all this year, and it had been showing for a while now, but last weekend was a reminder of my poor planning. I was feeling alright, but the competition in the pro/1/2 race was stiff. Tristen was there, and Isaac seemed determined to go down swinging.  This made for a really fast pace, and a hyped up Joe thinking he could take it. I couldn’t. I rode pretty well though, felt really good, but started to fade a bit faster than everyone around me.  I was also really lacking in pop. I didn’t have any fire in my legs. But I held on for 12^th, so I wasn’t too sad.

I got my wisdom teeth removed on Monday, I would love to tell everyone all about it, but I really don’t remember much. I went to the doctor and woke up 2 days later missing 4 teeth and my mouth hurt. I kinda felt like the horse in Charlie the unicorn at the end. But I didn’t miss them all that much. I healed quickly, so I was almost able to eat Thanksgiving dinner to my full enjoyment. But my mouth got tired, that was new to me.

Today I went to a Badger game with my Dad, I had a blast! Not only did the Badgers kill Northwestern, but they did it looking good. Here we come rose bowl! I really did have a lot more fun than I thought. It was good, it showed me how much fun things besides biking can be, and made me second guess bikes a little, which is good I think.  The rest of the weekend is homework. It will be nice to get back to getting things done after a week of lying around. I feel rested and ready to go!

But without fail, my brain turns to next season already!

Next year should be a lot of fun; I plan on involving myself more with the cycling club here in Madison. I want to race a lot more collegiate next year, because I feel that although the competition isn’t as good, I will be able to showcase my fitness on a bigger stage than what I do now, and possibly get noticed for some bigger opportunities in the coming years. My plan is to race a nearly full collegiate road race season with just a few Wisconsin state races peppered in, in addition to ToaD. My team for next year wants to make a bid for an GC win next year, and I know I’m not going to be the guy, but I think I will be an important player in making it happen. I want to race as many collegiate races as possible though, to help my teammate win the national road race. He is a strong freshman and I think with a good team he could win, and beyond that I bet he could clean house no problem.

For my own exploits, I was in a personal struggle. I really do love cross, and nationals will be here in Madison next year. I was thinking of making cyclocross my priority and trying to win the national cyclocross collegiate race next year. After thinking about it, although I think I can still make a serious attempt, I don’t think it’s in the cards yet for me. I think that a national mountain bike collegiate title could be possible though. MTB are my first love in cycling, and I am much better off road with fat tires than with skinny ones.  My plan is to have a small peak for road season and then really hit it hard and peak again for the mountain bike championship. As I see it, I will still be strong after MTBs and I can make a strong showing at cross nats. Good to get this down, I’m done with bikes for a few weeks!

A little mid week update

This week has been crazy with the school work. I had an exam last Friday, and rushed to Missouri after that and “forgot” to work on homework all weekend. I got a little behind. I haven’t had much of a chance to ride at all this week, but in some ways I think that’s good for me. Have been riding really hard for the last couple months and was starting to get burned out. So I suppose school came at the right time.

Today I was able to get out to cross practice. The course was set up to mimic the Grafton course, which I plan on racing this weekend.  This included a lot of off camber corners and a sand pit. I rode through the sand pit a few times, but man that thing was deep. I ended up just running through it most of the time, to keep the bike nice. I still have some kick though, I was happy to see that. I was able to keep up with the faster guys, but my buddy Isaac was killing it, and I think nobody could hang with him. I didn’t feel so bad when he dropped me. But despite not really riding outside of racing, I’m happy to still have my speed and fitness.

So this weekend is the Grafton Cross race, which should be fun. I haven’t done any of the WCA cross races yet, so it will be nice to not be racing against the crazy fast people. I might have a chance to win even. Then Sunday is the last WORS race of the year, in Sheboygan.  I love the heck out of this race, the course is fun, but what makes it special is the competition. Fast people show up, and even people I race with all the time seem to challenge me more. Plus the crowd and the money makes it fun for races and spectators. Should be a good time.

Collegiate Regional MTB race @ Mizzou

This weekend was the collegiate regional race down in Missouri. There were only 4 of us Badgers going, the other two left at around 1 on Friday, but I had an exam, so Alex and I ended up leaving at like 6. The drive was surprisingly nice; Alex is a really cool kid. Plus he’s way faster than i am, so i had some questions about training and things, and he had some questions about mountain biking. Unfortunately my best advice was close your eyes and don't touch the brakes. Luckily he didn't take any of my advice during the race. I was really nice we didn't get lost once on the way down, but got there at 1:30. With a race the next morning at 9:30am, i sighed and figured that was pretty standard for UW cycling. We got there in the morning and it was cold. Now of course in my hastened packing, I brought shorts and a thin jersey. The first good news of the weekend came with sun, and it warmed up just fine before the race. I was really stupid this year in not buying my collegiate license until Thursday, and I realized a bit late that I was a B. I asked the officials to upgrade me at the race, but they didn't have any of it. And frankly, in their position, i would have done the same.

The race went off a few minutes late, which was fine, I was looking for every excuse for it to warm more, I was really cold. Going into the first corner I was 3^rd wheel, and trying by all means not to go to hard from the start, as I have made a fool of myself a few times doing that. Having not ridden the course, I was also a bit hesitant to ride at the front, and lead the race off course, as funny as that would have been; I wasn’t going for that kind of first impression on collegiate MTB. However I was riding behind the leader for a few miles and just felt I could go faster, so on a climb, I did. I never saw them again until the finish line. I did in the process take a few small falls, and a hand full of wrong turns. The course was well marked, but I decided to run through the tape, instead of around it like I’m supposed to. The race was only two laps, which I had voted for 3, but was out voted. I was damn happy for 2 laps when about half way through lap two; I noticed the front end was stiffening up. This was either a broken headset, or a front flat tire, and king no-thread sets don't break, right? Turns out it was a slow leak flat which rode to the finish, but not without rolling the shit out of it into some trees, it was fun.

We decided it would be a good idea to get some food, and take a nap. I felt like I was in kindergarten, and it was good! We ended up over sleeping, I was ok with that, and we then went back to the park to ride the trails some more. We only got 2 laps in, but I had a blast, and there were a few falls too. Tyler took it into the creek, and got soaked, right in front of this kid and his dad. The kid freaked out, I wasn’t sure if it was because Tyler fell, or because it was Tyler. We finished up that lap, and Alex and I took a fast lap, I wanted to see what he could do, turns out he can kick my ass on the road, but I am much faster of the road. We went back the hotel, and passed out with a few beers and Wendy’s in our bellies.

On Sunday was the short track. The course was much better than I thought, after hearing it was in a field. I figured it would be like cyclocross, and turned out to be short, but one of the better short track courses I’ve ridden. I also won this race, proving to everyone that I should have been in A’s. I think my lap times were faster than the A, which is cool, because I might have short against some of the racers next year in collegiate and WORS. I think there is more, but I tried for now, may more will come to mind soon. And maybe I’ll buy a chair for my room too (that’s right, no chair, I’m sitting on the ground baby!).