STS #1 Recap

We awoke to 33F temps and overcast skies this morning the day of our first race of the 2008 road season. Today was the AAVC Spring Training Series race #1. James and I were out the door by 7am to get coffee and bagels at Panera bread. The wind was blowing fairly strong out of the east which made if feel colder than it was. In light of that, James and I elected to do more of a mechanical than active warm up. We cranked up the temp in the car to 90F and just let it cook. Before long we were developing a sweat.

I left James in the car to go through the race day ritual of signing in and pinning bibs. Additional duties this year included coaching the C-racers. Anyone who wants to can join us for a half hour training session on the do's and don'ts of criterium racing. We had a sizable group numbering over 20. I bundled up in my North Face jacket to keep the sweat going from the car warm up while we rode around the course.

James and his fellow C-racers got off arond 9:15 am or so and boy was it a fun race to watch. I rode with them to give advice on staying upright and tactics. The actions was fast and furious as several attacks, (I hope I instigated some of them!), got off the front. None lasted very long. Ultimately one rider did ride away with it and never looked back. He was clearly a B-rider who was warming up. The rest were really racing. James stayed with the big dogs in the field and they eventually shattered the field. Their little group of 8-10 riders stayed intact and James took 6th in the field sprint giving him 7th overall. I pulled off for the last couple of laps to watch the sprint. On the last lap I yelled for James to not "go to early!" Almost as soon as I said that, He launched a major attack! I was standing with the other coaches and some team mates and we just had to laugh. I figured he was going to blow up and was going to just come riding in solo. Well, much to my surprise, I spotted James still with this group as they were climbing the hill just before the finish. Oh man did he finish this thing well! He later told me that his attack was designed to get him to the front to slow the field to get Alexey back on so they could do what they do when they race together. Well, it was a nice try but I don't think the others liked his idea. It was a splendid effort.

We debriefed the C-riders and then I put James in the car to take him home to get ready for church. From there it was off to church then back to runway for my race with the heat blasting out 90F air.

Our race was pretty standard Miscene crit racing. We were missing some of the best riders. There was a TT on the other side of the state and a practice race the day before so maybe those things explain the slim field. It could have been the low temps...I dunno.

So here's how it goes...fast, fast, fast for 10K or so then a break gets off and everything goes into slow motion. That is the recipe for most Michigan crits that I have raced. This one fit into that mold more or less. Our team managed to insert 3 riders in a 6? man break! That meant the rest of us had to slow the field and keep them from chasing the break. This sounds easy but it is not. It takes a lot of energy to do this because you have to cover every attack that threatens the break. I think we were successful in this because the break ended up lapping the field. We had Vince, Rob and Eric in the break and Joe, John, myself, James K., Pat, Scott Gifford and Alex in the field.

Paul Alman gave the lapped riders a 3 lap warning that their race would end so that the break could sort out their race on the following two laps. Somewhere in here Vince attacked again and the break was off the front again. I felt good coming down to the last lap and I was holding the position I had for most of the race. During that time I was chasing down Tim Finkel over and over again. He was doing his utmost to make an attack stick. So, I came around the last turn and Alex sprinted by me going up the hill to the finish. I jumped on his wheel and as he began to fade I turned on whatever jet power I had left and I took the field sprint for 7th? place overall.

Reflecting on the race, I think I did a good job after my team mates got away. The only thing that is bugging me is not going with Tim Finkel. He was giving me ample opportunities to make a go of it. At the time, I was concerned about holding anyone back that might threaten the break but there was a point when another break might have made sense for us. It's all inside baseball stuff because even if I had done that, I wouldn't have placed any better than I did and our team wouldn't have done any better. It is just a tactical decision I made that I am questioning. If you have any insight just leave me a comment.

As for how I felt all I can say is I felt great! As the race went on I felt stronger and stronger. It seemed like the hill was getting easier and not harder as the laps clicked away. I have never been a cold weather racer and maybe I needed to have a few laps to warm up some more. Anyway, it was fun and I learned some more about racing today! My boy did great and is showing promise and I had a fun reunion with friends I hadn't seen in several months.

More ramblings

You gotta love rest and recovery weeks. Tons of zone 2 work and a test or two. I was so excited to test that I moved my 30 minute CP test to yesterday thinking all the hard work in build would render big changes. It looked like that was going to be the case for the first fifteen minutes. I was feeling really good thinking I would really rev up the pace at the midpoint but, alas, that was not the case. At that point I began to feel weaker and weaker. By the time I was coming down to the last 3 minutes I knew I was not having a good day and instead of suffering needlessly I ended the test. I probably could have raised the result by a watt or two by going full anaerobic in those last few minutes. Instead, I retired. The power file revealed 296 watts which is an 11 watt decrease from last month. Egads!! This is where self-coaching gets really hard. I got down on myself and just figured I was going in reverse but what really happened?

To get to the bottom of this you have to know something about the "Valley of Fatigue". This is a term I learned from Joe Friel. As you train with intensity you begin at a certain level of fitness. Let's assign it an arbitrary number of "10". As you begin to train over build 1, fitness begins to fall as the stress of training wears on your physiological systems. This overload is necessary to force adaptation. After week 1 fitness falls to, say, 9, then 8 in week two and so on until you arrive at week 4 which is rest and recovery. A that point you are dangerously close to being overtrained. Let's assign another arbitrary number of "2" to denote this point. The goal is to train hard enough so that fitness drops to 2.0001 then administer rest in the fourth week. The body then adapts to the stress and fitness rises back up to say "11". Now build continues as does this pattern of falling fitness back to just above the point of overtraining. Then, peaking kicks in and a gradual pulling back on volume and intensity allow fitness to rise. Finally, race week comes with even more dramatic reductions in training stress and fitness soars to, let's say, "15.

So, here's what I think happened yesterday. I finished build 1 on Sunday with a zone 3-ish ride. Saturday was a killer Tmax day. I managed 6 of these very nasty things. I didn't sleep at all Sunday night and rested on Monday. Tuesday came along and I tested. I believe my fitness was still depressed from the training stress and adaptation didn't have time to do its work. My fitness was recovering from near overtraining. To score higher than previous tests, I needed enough time for fitness to rise above our arbitrary beginning point of "10".

The training plan is correct and the training stress combined with proper rest should do its work. This is where the athlete has to believe in his training and not panic. I do and I won't but it is not easy for the self-coached athlete. In my mind I have to fight the inclination to introduce even more training stress thinking I haven't trained hard enough.

So, I am going to rest even more this week and skip my graduated exercise test then, hopefully, race this weekend. Paul asked me to coach the the neophytes before the C-race on Sunday which means it will be difficult to get to the A-race with church and family requirements. BB has been on me looking for a plan. He's okay. He will get the C-race for sure then he can go to church.

Rock on...

Coaching

As I look out my window I see large patches of snow on the ground, the temperature hovers around 30F and we race this weekend. The forecast calls for a high temp of 40F on Sunday which means my teeth will be chattering during the early moments getting James ready for the C-race. Reflecting on last year, we had some cold STS races and some wet ones, (who can forget the worm slaughter), but I also remember racing without warmers. There is hope.

Coaching is fast becoming a large consumer of my time. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with these fine bike enthusiasts. I learn more every week as I sit down to think about them and their training. Monday's are rest days for me and it is also a convenient day for writing plans and writing up test summaries. I started my work day at 9am yesterday and finished up around 6pm. I still have one more plan to write and a full week of testing but I still love it. Most are now in build and real gains are just getting rolling. Most seem to feel strength building.

See you all at the races this weekend.

Insomnia

It's three am and here I am at the computer. Bummer. I have greatly reduced my caffeine intake over the last few months so when I had a grande half caf at Starbucks yesterday I guess I overdid it. The decaf americano at the airport probably sealed my fate.

First Outdoor Ride

Hey, I finally got outside last week and man was it sweet. Wednesday was my first foray. 58 miles via AA and HRD, Dexter and Chelsea. I made my first stop at Zou's for the year. It was like old times with the staff. They noted I hadn't been there since whenever and I told them it was the first since October. I love that place.

Thursday I put in some time on the trainer, (3 x 20 zone 4), then James and I joined some other folks out at Barton for what should have been an easy spin. My legs were shot from the intervals and I needed low intensity work. James and I both ended up working it. He was in zone 4 and I was in zone 3. It was still fun.

Friday, I put in 4 hours/75 miles back to Chelsea and the Waterloo Loop. It was in the 50
s and absolutely beautiful.

Jetting Home!!

Finally, I am on the last flights home after being out on the road for 8 days. I feel pretty good compared to my last trip to Asia. That time, the jetlag lasted 4 days and it was just brutal. Sleep came pretty easy while on the trip and our flights were usually during the daylight hours and not on the back-side of the clock. Sadly, I couldn't get first class so I am sandwiched into coach for this five and a half hour flight to Minneapolis. It's tight but at least I have an aisle seat.

Here's a picture of some glacier in Alaska as we were flying out. It is beautiful up there with the mountain peaks all covered up with snow and glaciers everywhere.

I am looking forward to getting back into the routine of family life and my exercise routine. Build 1 week 1 was almost a complete loss. I managed one day of VO2max intervals in Japan but nothing else. It is just too tiring to travel like this and the equipment is pretty spotty. There was a minor incident while in Japan. I worked out on the bike and then went to the exercise mat to stretch. My mistake was in not taking my shoes off. This is a big no-no in Japan. One of the very attentive workers in the gym came running across the room and made it clear with raised voice and waving hands that a serious infraction of the rules was being committed.

My new Power Tap arrived while I was gone. With the outdoor season getting rolling soon I plan on putting it to good use. I'll use it for my own training as well as James and my other athletes.

Here's another pic from the trip. This is on very short final approach to the Anchorage airport.

Out of China

We exited the PRC last night after a day and a half there. We landed earlier that same day back in Anchorage where we handed the airplane over to a relief crew. Travelling abroad gives me such an appreciation for our country. We don't know what pollution is here. The air is so dirty in China that you can taste it. I must complement them on their bikeb handling skills. I watched many a middle aged man or woman perform a track stand waiting to turn a corner.

Japanese Food

We are a crew of 5 and one of us is a woman and blond. So, every meal goes something like this: the 4 men want to get a pizza or pasta that we can actually enjoy but the fifth member of the group wants to have a dining experience. Eating here is a chore because of the language barrier and the nature of Japanese food. Every meal we end up painfully deliberating the issue and finally make a decision. Last night we actually sat down at an Italian restaurant then got up and moved to a Japanese restaurant. It was raw, bland and fishy tasting. Japanese standard. In spite of all that we laughed all the way through the meal mostly at ourselves.

I think I'm turning Japanese

If you can name the band that wrote that 80's hit you win absolutely nothing. Not even James' virtual non-existent pizza.

Yes I finally made it to the land that gave us Godzilla, Speed Racer and Kimba the White Lion. Yesterday was pretty uneventful which was a nice change. We had a relaxing day in Anchorage while waiting for the other crew to bring the airplane up from Detroit. We set a record turning the airplane around in 25 minutes from touchdown to lift-off. Not bad considering we uplifted over 3,000 gallons of fuel. It was daylight the whole way which was nice. In addition to that we have 3 pilots on this crew which means long breaks for everybody!

I went to the A-bomb museum today which was very interesting. The Japanese see the whole thing differently than we do. In fact, it was a little distressing the way they presented it. There wasn't a single word of the behavior of the Japanese government during the war years and before. How they fought to the death as the Americans clawed their way across the Pacific.

A-bomb dome

How they massacred over 300,000 in Nanjing China over a long weekend. How they tore through Manchuria with genocidal fervor. How they refused to surrender even though they had lost the war with their cities lying in ruins. How their military misadventures led them to launch a surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor. All these things that influenced the decision to drop the bomb were ignored. According to the museum, the Americans dropped the bomb to , (1) prove to the American people that the 2 billion dollar investment in the bomb was justified, and, (2) send a message to Stalin that we could do the same to him. Additionally, the museum details the terrible destruction wrought upon children to the exclusion of all others. The museum gives the impression that few adults or servicemen were killed even though Hiroshima was a major military staging area. That is why the Americans targeted the city. This disturbs me because the museum leaves one with a strong whiff of self-delusion. It is like they haven't yet come to grips with the past. The museum gives the impression that Japan was a peace loving nation not seeking to expand its borders and striving to live in harmony with all men. This, I believe, is delusional. History is what it is. We have to deal with it or we face the prospect of repeating it.

Anyway, I am going to go and ride the bike. I hope they have a better one than the one in Anchorage.

Hotel Death Ride

I finally get to Anchorage after an incredible string of bad luck. Great, I have enough time before dinner to bag an hour on the hotel stationary bike. All was well until I got about 45 minutes into the ride. I just couldn't get comfortable at first. Then, it was just plain miserable. At 1 hour I called it quits. I made my way back to my room and into the shower. It was then that I realized I had done some major damage to my taint'. Talk about tender....whoo. I am not going any where near that thing tomorrow!

Plans Disrupted

So I battle a raging snow storm to get to the airport and driving up to the gate at our hanger I hit the brakes on my 6,000 pound Expedition EL and nothing happens. The driveway was so slick the anti-lock brakes wouldn't allow any braking at all. I slowly rolled right into the gate! The poor guard saw me on the video cam and tried to open the brutally bent gate not knowing the damage me and my behemoth vehicle had done. Par for the course. I was running late due to the storm, bent the gate silly and now we made our way to the terminal for the next phase in my odyssey.

After an uneventful check-in and security screening, we strolled to the gate, (the one at the very end of the concourse), and were quite surprised to see a jet parked there. In my mind, I was sure there would be no airplane there because of inbound delays. They were unloading bags and we knew we would be running late but things looked promising. We had about 40 minutes to catch our connection in Minneapolis. It was going to be tight but we had a good shot. Well, we boarded 20 minutes before scheduled departure so things were still looking up but that is where the good news ends. We sat there over an hour. When we finally did push back we had to go to de-icing. Bottom line we took almost an hour and a half late. We did have a faint hope that the connecting flight would be delayed.

After we landed in Minneapolis I scanned the terminal for our connecting flight's gate and much to my surprise there was a 757 parked there which is the kind of airplane we were scheduled to fly on. We had a shot. We jumped off the airplane and ran to the gate only to see the jetway being pulled back and the airplane pushing back. We missed by the slimmest of margins.

So, we get a night in Minneapolis which meant dinner at the Twin Cities Grill at the Mall of America. NWA has us on a flight out at 1140 am today.