Nationals, Merckx course record at Expo

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!!!

Fattie - piper-cub wins a race.

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 ...

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

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

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!!!

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

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.