solobreakaway

Lost the hammer, Attleboro, New Britain?, and the UCI ...

2011-07-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

Well this week did not go quite as planned at the Tuesday night races. I was in a good group off the front until Ben W. attacked it, after that it all went downhill. I eventually rode myself out of the race. Oh well, good workout I suppose.

One positive? thing that came out of the Tuesday night races was Joe T. convincing me to go up to Mass and race at Attleboro with the lure of a free ride up there. So I guess I will race at least one day this weekend. Jose is also trying to get me to race New Britain on Sunday. If I do both it may be a quiet weekend in the evenings. Sigh. Perhaps I will test out my "toughness" with a late Saturday and New Britain Sunday ... hmm. It is tour time so maybe I should see how tough I am ... yeah, yeah that's the ticket ...

Anyhow in the tour this past week there was news that during bike check for the team time trial saddle level was checked and the UCI made every rider set their saddle perfectly level. The guys are riding along the last 20 km at 40 mph in their leadout trains and the UCI is worried about saddle level? Apparently tilting the saddle down in front provides better lumbar support, thus allowing riders to push a slightly larger gear so now the UCI says it's illegal. So if it's healthier it should be illegal but drugs like EPO that can cause blood clots and death are all good. Anyhow I might tilt down the nose of my saddle 2 millimeters ...

I found my hammer ... will I put it down soon?

2011-06-30T17:21:00.000-07:00

Starting to ride well: Here I am attacking the lead group after we lapped the front of the field (and the back, and all the other groups). I was caught with two to go, but the legs seem to be coming around. I take it as a positive I was able to withstand Ron L.'s constant attacks and counter off of one of his to go solo. (Ron was recently 22nd in the national championships, a very good result.)

Other news: Instead of riding 5 to 6 hours a day I've been relatively lazy. I found an app on my phone that counts calories and have very slowly been trying to lose weight while lifting and riding quality miles to maintain muscle mass. I was thinking just ride a ton of miles during my break but as a coach I had to remind myself that plan could be disastrous. I sensed signals from my body that huge mileage wasn't the best idea and I listened. I think my recent race shows that I'm on the right track. I also found www.endomondo.com. It's a pretty cool website for blackberry users that uses your phone to GPS your ride. It takes into account your weight, elevation changes during the ride, and speed to calculate caloric burn. It also records other workouts (running, weight lifting, fitness walking to the bar, etc.) It's been great for me to really keep track of my diet, etc. For instance today I realized that if I want to party tonight I needed to do a 2nd ride. So I went out and rode again this afternoon and I should be good to party. :)

20110607 Rentschler Field A Race - 3rd - SprinterDellaCasa Helmet Cam

2011-06-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of the last race I was in (on June 6th). This race was a fairly quick Tuesday night race, we averaged 27.7 mph for about 50 minutes. Considering slowing for the corners, that is about 30 mph or so down the straights on average. Note: the video may take a little while to buffer. Aki Sato, a fellow racer, used a helmet cam to video the race. He gives his perspectives on the race and shows you how he moves through the field on the last lap on the way to finishing a respectable 3rd place. Aki is a field sprinter so it's a unique viewpoint for a breakaway rider like myself. He's probably swerving through the field on the last lap at close to 40 mph, lol. Anyways I noticed I look like a bit of a tub in the video so I've started my "scientific" training program (note: not scientific) since school has ended.

I started my "scientific" training program by riding a little over 5 hours on Saturday. Today I went to the gym as I needed some structural fitness (everything bothered me after Saturday ... ankles, knees, back, hips ... which is not normal for me). My "scientific" plan is to ride 5 to 6 hours a day on days when I feel like it, go to movies / fill out job apps / beg for change in the street on days I don't feel like it (I'm a teacher), cut back on the beer, hit the gym some, and throw in some races until July 18th when summer school starts. After July 18th I will cut back on training and do more short intense workouts due to time constraints. I will also type poorly written blogs with bad grammar and run on sentences when I'm bored. Totally scientific ...

1st Massachusetts tt of the low key mid week races.

2011-05-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

Today started with work and then a trip to the DMV to clear up tinted windows and a license plate that got lost or was stolen off the front of my car. Needless to say I had a lot of pent up rage.

I was ready to ride hard and long ... well not that long, average. I do have good endurance though. Anyhow at the start there was an older gentleman lining people up. I asked if I could start near the back, although not last, so I could have riders to pass. I figured I was in the fastest five riders. He said to me, "well we can start you near the middle." (The fastest riders start near the end so they have others to chase). Finally I convinced him to start me more near the end riders after assuring him I was a cat 1 albeit a bit out of shape due to perhaps spending a bit too much time at the happy time factory this past winter.

Today I decided to ride regular road position with just a front aero wheel. The time trial course featured rolling hills and was 9.78 miles long according to another rider's computer. Starting out I was chasing Mark G., the eventual winner, who I told the older gentlemen to let start behind me. I knew he would be faster due to the fact he spent less time at the happy time factory. Other riders appeared to have avoided the happy time factory altogether but I felt I could beat them due to the fact they had not harnessed their inner BA yet. Not only that but their grip on sanity appeared intact ... not good for a bike racer.

Once the race started I settled in for a brief period and I felt I was closing in on Mark but after a few miles he started to pull away. The wind was difficult yet again with a headwind / sidewind combination on the way out and sidewinds on the way back. The effort for me was interesting as I went from going at a good pace in a 53 x 11 on sections to sitting up on uphills barely riding 15 mph. Nonetheless I feel like I am priming myself for the weekly summer races for all important liquid carbohydrate fun juice.

After the race there was suggestion of a slight fee and a trophy for the winner at the end of the series. Mark G. suggested a 24 oz. can of Fosters with 1st place written on the front of it. Perhaps though they can aim higher and have a 40 oz. first place trophy with 36 oz. for 2nd and 24 oz. for third.

First Expo TT of 2011

2011-04-27T18:23:00.000-07:00

Well the night started on a bit of a down note. As I turned onto I-84 a cop stopped me on the entrance ramp. I ended up getting a warning for tinted windows. I now have twenty days to get them corrected and checked by the DMV or I will get my registration suspended and possibly my license. I should note that as a middle school math teacher I am a serious threat to society and should be harassed by cops. Luckily he didn't search my car. Only God knows what kind of crazy lesson plans he might have found.

Anyways I got to the time trial and saw a familiar face from the past, Tom Phillips. He didn't recognize me as apparently since my teen years I've gotten "thicker," lol. I prefer to think of myself as buff or beer strong.

The time trial started with not a single person warming up properly before, yet chatting at the start line while waiting to start. Noting that it makes you tougher when you don't warm up for a hard effort I followed suit. Soon it was time for pain.

Riders started at 30 second intervals and I had plenty of riders to chase. I started and quickly ramped up my speed to 40 kph ... then I noticed I was going up hill and slowed down to 27 - 30 kph on the up hill portions during the first part. I started to pass riders and then felt sort of badass despite these weird burning sensations coming from my legs. Knowing that the hill was ending and I knew I would be rewarded with more body friendly terrain I started to get psyched as I reached the halfway point.

On the more body friendly terrain I noted my speed going up to 48 kph (30 mph) from time to time but today there was a strong headwind and it was a _________________ (insert bad word here). I literally hid my head in my aerobars preferring to hide from the wind as much as possible versus looking at the road. I figured if I crashed the effort would end and that burning sensation would at least be transferred from my legs to other parts of my body. Eventually I made it through and despite passing 5 people and not being caught myself I figured I'd have a good time but alas it was nothing to write home about. Yet still I am typing.

After the race Ben and I compared notes. He is 6'3" and 198, while I am 5'11" and 199 or so. He noted my arms were bigger than his when we flexed. We got some weird look from some guy pretending to be a cyclist as he left. Ben noted that "we can do whatever we want, we're cyclists." Obviously that guy was not a cyclist or he would have thought, "whatever, two cyclists randomly flexing in a parking lot after a race, totally normal ..."

Anyways, Aiden, the skinny one, won the race. To add insult to injury, Aiden's van has window's that are totally covered and he doesn't get harassed, probably because he doesn't live near Uconn. I guess I can take solace that if Aiden and I were in an arm flexing contest I would totally win.

2011-04-26T19:44:00.001-07:00

Test blog

Nationals, Merckx course record at Expo

2010-08-21T04:17:00.000-07:00

In the last few weeks I traveled to Louisville, KY for the national championships. I did the TT and the criterium, finishing 14th in the TT and unfortunately not finishing the criterium. The TT went well as it was a hilly 25.8 km course and I averaged 27.4 mph. The winner however did 32.6 mph by my calculations ... FAST!!!

Anyhow this past Thursday I did the Expo TT on a regular road bike, no aero equipment. They have a Merckx "cannibal" style category (non-aero). The record for that was previously 15:13, the best time for that category in the two years it ran. I managed 14:54 so yeah, I get the new course record in that category. Sweet!

Anyways I haven't been racing too much outside of nationals this year. In the earlier part of the season I was barely riding at all. However after my girlfriend and I broke up I decided to get back to riding more. Who knows, maybe I'll be inspired this next year to race more seriously.

2nd in the state championship criterium!!!

2010-07-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

Fattie - piper-cub wins a race.

2010-07-07T17:13:00.001-07:00

This season I finally won something. Granted it was a Tuesday night race at Rentschler but this year I have to take what I can get as I haven't trained much due to graduate school. I attribute the win to the 100 degrees we had to ride in versus actual form. For some reason, perhaps due to being cold blooded, I ride faster in the heat while everyone else rides much slower. Even with the extra insulation I've been riding with this season. It was interesting carnage last night as some riders were recovering from Fitchburg as well. We were two and a half laps ahead of the field and it seemed like no one could sprint at the end either.

the racing season so far ...

2010-06-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

So I've done a few races since my time in Florida. On the way back up I hit a race in VA, which was master's 30+ and I ended up 5th in that one. Then I did a Tuesday night race at Rentschler and ended up in a chase group all night in that one. We stayed ahead of the field, but it wasn't a spectacular ride. My last race was the master's 30+ at New Britain. That was not spectacular either, but I feel like I am slowly starting to come around. I'll be doing the Keith Berger Memorial race this Sunday so maybe I'll be able to get a result in that, although I'm not super confident that I'll be able to do something in the Pro 1/2/3's.

Right now though I've been having fun doing it while pursuing jobs and traveling around with my girlfriend so maybe priorities are a little different than in previous seasons and this had lead to some lackluster results. I think I'll be o.k. by August when most guys fade so maybe I'll see some results then.

It's been a while

2010-05-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I blogged but I feel the need to bore you with some more of my blog so I will. Let's see graduate school is finishing up, I graduate this Saturday! Wee! This means more time to train this summer, as opposed to last summer. That's good because I need it. After I graduate I'll be heading down to Daytona Beach, FL for a few days then off to Gainseville, GA providing I sign up for that for a three stage omnium. Then maybe Florida for a bit more to soak in the sun, possibly VA for a race or two, then back here to lovely CT, hopefully for the Nutmeg State Games.

Crank lengths

2010-03-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

Mike M. asked me about modifying position with crank lengths so I'll give you my rambling thoughts as of this moment (void in Mississippi). Anyhow if you're changing crank lengths you have to change leg extension and fore-aft saddle position to adjust for crank length change. For example if you were going up from say 172.5 mm to 175 mm you would move the saddle forward ~2 mm (to get the same knee over pedal at 3 o'clock) and move the saddle down approximately ~2 mm. Why not 2.5 mm? Well if you move the saddle forward say 1 cm you effectively lower the saddle height ~3 mm, so if you move the saddle forward ~2mm you lower the saddle ~0.6 mm (I'm laughing as I type this) so by moving the saddle 2 mm forward and 2 mm down you effectively lower the saddle 2.6 mm. You should therefore probably only lower the saddle 1.9 mm, now to do this properly get out a micrometer and ...

No seriously you get the point. However it isn't quite that simple. Usually when it's a small change in crank length, like 2.5 mm, it's either moving the saddle forward or backward 2 mm and the saddle down or up 2 mm at the same time and done. However bigger changes in crank length don't always correlate to the same fore - aft and up down saddle changes. For instance I can ride 165's with a saddle extension that is 3 cm lower than say 180's. I have to do this almost on the short cranks or my body gets "wacked" out. For 172.5 to 175 and vice versa I can pretty much make the small changes without a huge effect, depending on the weather I have to ride a bit lower on the 170's than the extension on the 172.5's and if I go up to 177.5 / 180 I have to ride a higher saddle. For some people though these changes could be more or less profound. For instance if you are 6'5" and change 5 mm in cranks you may not notice it at all whereas if you are 5'7" the 5 mm could make a huge difference in feel, due to the proportionally larger change for the smaller rider. Anyways these are the thoughts as of now.

Race reports!!!

2010-03-07T18:14:00.001-08:00

First race report of 2010 is on my facebook account. (Race reports will now be on my facebook account from now on for various reasons).

Too much fun

2010-02-28T09:33:00.000-08:00

Well next week is the first race ... I may be in trouble. I've been slacking on the training a bit, as cyclists would say "having too much fun" but then again you only live life once and I might as well have fun. Plus I may have put on too much upper body muscle from lifting, oh well. In a way the races may be more fun, yet painful, because I'm coming in with no expectations. Originally I thought I would come in and try to win but I threw that idea out the window as graduate school and life have gotten in the way of training a lot. Oh well, I'm older now so I guess it doesn't really matter. Maybe I will race into shape this year. I am looking forward to the miserably cold Bethel races this year for some reason, maybe it's the lack of training. Just don't expect me to be attacking a lot.

uh oh - I found a new way to irritate my competition

2009-11-27T05:34:00.001-08:00

Another nice day today ...

2009-11-22T12:24:00.001-08:00

It was another nice day today so I put in another 4 hours on the bike.

started training again.

2009-11-22T04:40:00.000-08:00

I went for a 4 hour ride yesterday. Started to train seriously again. I'm a little sore today but the weather is good so I'll probably ride some again today.

Only over 100 days to go

2009-11-21T02:51:00.000-08:00

I checked Aki's website and he has Bethel starting most likely March 7th. It's only a little over 100 days until then (107). Time to get training.

positioning and training

2009-10-05T14:52:00.001-07:00

My training has been quite different this year. I've been doing really long night walks on the weekend (usually resting at Uconn halfway). This past Saturday I walked 20 miles. Besides the nice blister on my right toe and sore feet I'm good. I've been doing this for about a month now, once a week. My next one is scheduled for Thursday night as I don't have school on Friday. These help stamina and fat metabolism I believe, granted I could just be telling myself that because I like them. I've also been commuting back and forth to school with a 20 to 25 lb. backpack (depending on the day). It's only 6.5 miles one way but a lot of hills.

Anyhow I've been feeling fast but yesterday I put some Lemond Lewedges on my shoes and tried them without orthotics. It was unbelievable how fast I was, especially on the hills and my weight is still a tad high (vs race weight - 12% b.f. vs. 6%). Anyhow I'm looking forward to next season as I think I'll be riding in a lot of breakaways.

Planning next season

2009-09-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

Right now my training has been very light and by light I mean sort of heavy. I've been riding back and forth to the school I am student teaching at carrying a 20 to 25 lb backpack (depending on the day). I usually bring my laptop so I can write up plans on it during my prep period. However the total training time I've been doing has been low ... about 5 hours a week on the bike and a 4 to 5 hour hike on the weekend. Anyways I started to plan out the training for this next year and will start to work into more serious interval work in January.

Men's rankings

2009-09-12T17:42:00.000-07:00

I just checked the men's category 1 (the top category) criterium rankings for CT riders 30 and up. I'm not sure how they do this as I barely raced and ...

1	12	3	Timothy Unkert	60363
2	10	1	Eneas Freyre	146736
3	4	2	Eric Brownell	144563
4	3	4	Anthony Alessio	146429
5	0	1	Lane Rodgers	47112
5	0	5	Stephen Badger	62085

Didn't race much this year ...

2009-09-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

Well to anyone reading this who is a racer it was obvious that I didn't get many racing miles in this year. However next year I plan to do a lot of criteriums. Probably not a lot of road races though. It takes a lot of effort to train for 100 miles races, plus I like the speed and cornering of the criteriums more. This winter I'll probably spend a lot of time in the gym, getting jacked ... no seriously I'm doing most of my training now commuting back and forth to the place I'm student teaching at. The backpack which weighs 21 lbs makes this some considerable effort and in all seriousness I will spend a fair amount of time in the gym.

The actual last Tuesday night race of the season.

2009-08-26T16:54:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was the last Tuesday criterium of the season and eventually a break of six went. Noted riders in the break were Ben Wolfe, Ron Larose, his teammate, and myself. I went with two to go but could not get clear. Ron counterattacked followed by Ben and then myself. Ron's teammate followed me up and then went off me to the front and won. Ben passed Ron and was second. I ended up fifth.

The pressure

2009-08-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the last Tuesday night criterium of the season and possibly the last race of the season, the pressure is undeniable. Just kidding ... it should be fun.

The last Tuesday night crit

2009-08-21T06:13:00.000-07:00

After winning a preme Tuesday night I missed the winning breakaway and had to chase all night. Somehow despite chasing nine guys all night I was able to get back some and catch and pass three of them, so the end of the race went o.k. I haven't been training that much.

Dr. Hand again!!!

2009-08-18T12:53:00.001-07:00

running?

2009-08-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

I randomly went running 5 miles today as I wanted to do a little bit different endurance exercise. I haven't run though in several years, but it was fun nonetheless. It won't help much for going fast on the bike but it's good to vary the workout routine every once in a while.

New pedals

2009-08-14T17:41:00.001-07:00

Cruised up Avon mountain on the new pedals, they felt good. I did notice a difference feeling I was more "in" to the pedal (same foreaft ... maybe stack height?). Anyways starting to feel like I can motor again which is good given the lack of cycling training this year.

pedal stack height

2009-08-14T04:28:00.000-07:00

So I've adjusted my seat height to compensate for the decrease in pedal stack height which from what I can figure is about a cm from the old look to the new time. It was a bit of effort to figure this out, aside from measuring it and going to speedplay's website. I even found one post about a guy who did a similar switch and claims to have lowered his 15 mile time trial time by one minute, just from more efficiency. I'm a bit skeptical about this ... but if it is true I should just attack next Tuesday night and solo lap the field seeing I can ride 15 miles at the field's pace and stay about the same distance ahead of the field (providing I was riding all out). Therefore since it only takes about a minute to lap the field at Rentschler I would therefore lap the field, because of the pedals ... right? Yeah, riiiiiggghhhht. It's nice to dream though.

pedal axle break

2009-08-13T15:29:00.000-07:00

So I got about 5 or so miles and my pedal axle broke on my left pedal. It must be due to my strength ... yes, that's the ticket. Anyways I went down to Tolland Bicycle and got some Time RXE Edge pedals. Put those on and set up the cleats / adjusted the saddle height and whatnot accordingly. Tomorrow maybe I'll go for some training of some sort after the class stuff I have to do.

The weather

2009-08-13T07:15:00.001-07:00

Why does the weather have to be horrible the one day I have off from classes?

Most irritating Tuesday night criterium ever

2009-08-12T03:15:00.000-07:00

So as the title reads this race was rather annoying. A small break of three formed up front. Shortly later four more of us went up. Using advanced addition you can realize that the break now had seven guys. We worked well for a while until Ron L. decided to ride like a goofball and attack everyone. So I chased him down and then Trent and I watched him while the other four went ahead, including a teammate of each of the three of us. After a while Trent and I decided to collectively work to still try to lap the field. Ron sat on us, then after a while, like a goof attacked us. At this point Trent said the hell with this and sat up. Ron, meanwhile, had vastly overestimated his ability and found himself in no man's land for the rest of the race. Somehow he thought he would solo lap the field. I guess he was looking up to me as his hero? Thanks Ron, thanks I appreciate the love. Anyways I continued on behind him with my 3 hours a week training form and kept about the same distance behind him for a while until with two to go the field caught me. However by this point I had a teammate who had lapped the field with the front four, so I did what I could in my fatigued state to help him out. With about 3/4's of a lap to go I couldn't do anymore and sat up. At about a 1/2 lap to go bam!!! there was a crash, my teammate went down. Fingers immediately began pointing at another teammate of mine, Mike Norton. After the race there was a lot of yelling and arguing. Trent was saying "Mike you're pathetic." and I was saying "Trent, offer constructive criticism". I didn't see the crash close up so I cannot judge. However outside of who actually caused it I did notice some things: First off, only four riders lapped the field, yet everyone was going for the field sprint, and even when I was trying to lead out I had guys a lap down that were coming up and fighting me for position. If four riders lap at a Tuesday night race where only the winner recieves a "prize", the prize being a beer or soda then only the four riders that lapped and their teammates should be up there contesting. Their teammates can help out in the leadout. However I did notice several riders who had no team interest up there going for what was in effect 6th place (Ron was still ahead). This makes it dangerous for everyone. Also please take a larger view of what may have caused the crash and not just point fingers at one person. If one person did cause the crash then constructively tell him what he did wrong. Also yell at the person who obviously deserved to be yelled at ... Ron! I think Trent wasted a lot of energy yelling at Mike when he should have yelled at Ron. Just kidding Ron. Anyhow two more Tuesday races to go, hopefully they will be raced hard and there will be no further controversy and crashes this season.

Riding up Avon "Mountain" in the heat

2009-08-10T18:10:00.000-07:00

Today I rode up Avon "Mountain". It was pretty warm but it needed to be done after class in West Hartford. I weighed myself this morning and noticed the weight creeping up a bit so more frequent training is necessary I think ... granted I've only been racing the flat Tuesday night criterium so it's not super important. However you always want to keep fit for various things. Despite the scale I noticed a suppleness in my pedal stroke today up the climb that had been missing. It was rather easy to ride up it without effort so that's a plus. On the downside I noticed traffic back up, from some sort of accident I think, so I went off road until I found another side road. The adventure through the grass / gravel was fun and entertaining. All in all a good ride. Then after the ride I got a grape coolata. These are heavenly after a hot ride. Anyway tomorrow is the Tuesday night battle at Rentschler, providing it doesn't rain.

I'm surprised I'm still in graduate school after this ... he he he

2009-08-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

Yeah I did this as part of a polygon lesson for my technology in education class. I'm not sure why "Joe" had such an odd accent but whatever ...

victory at Rentschler a few weeks ago

2009-08-09T14:14:00.000-07:00