U of A Crit

James and I hit the road just before 7am to pick up our buddy Jake and drive down I-10 to Tucson for the U of A criterium in Tucson. We had a beautiful desert sunrise as and great weather for our day.

I attended the U of A for a couple of years back in the day so this getting to hang out on campus for a day was an added treat. The campus area has changed quite a bit since I left in 1986 but Tucson hasn't which is nice.

We rolled into town, hit the Safeway on Campbell and Broadway for a bathroom, espresso and chamois butter stop before driving the few short blocks to the campus. We went through the regular circus of registration, unpacking and warming up which always seems like a crazy rush.

Jake raced the cat 5 at 1020a. James and Jake were up next at 1100a for a 30 minute junior race then it was my turn to race the the masters 40 + and masters 30+ back to back.

James had a great junior outing missing the break but racing like a pro from that point on. He ended up placing 2nd in the 15-16 field. He ended up setting a new best 20 minute power suggesting the race was very fast. The great thing about junior racing out here is that the fields are bigger and have stronger racers. Forty juniors lined up yesterday! James said he used to dream/make videos about such a thing.


That's James in the white, black and yellow DNA kit six riders back.

The 40+ race seemed very strenuous to me. I haven't raced a crit since the Priority Health crit in Grand Rapids in August 2008 so it could be that I had forgotten how hard these races are. Of course, there were those pesky older cat 1's and 2's who either felt too old to enter the P1/2 race or wanted to do a second race so the field had some very strong riders. The course had six turns and was very smooth with lots of large buildings that had some effect on a stiff southerly breeze. The finishing straight was the only long stretch of road with all other sections being 100-200 meters before a ninety degree turn. Moving up wasn't a problem though as there were sections that offered natural opportunities.

I raced aggressively near the front for most of the race finding my way into a four man break that I had great hopes for. It was too short of a race, I guess and we were too early on in the race for it to stick and we were brought back. At the second prime bell I was 3-4 back and I could see an opportunity may be developing. Sure enough a rider two up went on the back hill and I grabbed his wheel. I let him pull me hard to about the 50 meter point and I gave a little sprint to get him at the line. James thought I waited a little long to go around him but I wasn't interested in burning too many matches to win. I felt good that I used just

enough having to throw the bike at the line to win it. In the end a couple riders small gap but were caught by the field sprint. I didn't race as a aggressively as I needed to on the last lap and ended up eighth out of forty. Not bad for my first day out but the kicker was I was scored as a DNF! Because I went immediately into the 30+ race then finished up my 3 hour volume for the day I neglected to check results until the protest period was over. My fault I guess so I won't complain. I have the finish on video thanks to James and I clearly finished in 8th position.

That's me in the black, white and red DNA kit on the right hand side of the screen.

After finishing I changed bibs, rode around the course one lap and lined up for the next race. The guys around be were talking about how fast the last race was and how this one was going to be even faster because there were some pros in it one who raced the Tour of California in 2009 and made some noise there. Great! My goal was to hang on and get some extra intensity into my legs. This was all about the training.

I raced this one conservatively knowing I didn't have a full tank of gas. I figured cramps were on the menu but I didn't know when. In light of that I just found a large, fast rider who was very predictable and sat on his wheel in the pack. It worked well as my normalized power for this race was almost 40 watts lower than the first one and I averaged almost a half mile per hour faster. Some lessons to be learned with that one!

I began to feel some cramping after the first 20 minutes but nothing limiting. I keep thinking about the coming full leg shut down but it never happened. I felt a cramp or two but as soon as the intensity let up a bit I recovered and could go again. It was funny because I wasn't racing aggressively and I found myself in a good position on the last lap! It just sort of happened without me really working it out. If I had a sprint in my legs I could have had a very good finish but as it was I sat in my saddle and spun as fast as I could across the line for 9th place.

Tmax

That was one short brutal workout. I performed the test at 400 watts, (my peak power output on test), to see how long I could go until total collapse. That was fun. After some recovery I managed four Tmax intervals. Each one was really tough to complete. The last one was just a brutal suffer-fest. On warm down both calves cramped. Can't wait for the next round!

Update

Not much posting going on lately due to my flying schedule. On January 17 I took Alaska Air up to Anchorage to pick up a trip. We spent a day there before flying on to Chicago and Morristown for a quick layover before flying home to Phoenix. The next day I flew right back to the east coast landing in Cleveland for a layover. The next morning we were off to Cincinnati and Phoenix. It was six days on the road and it totally blew up my training schedule. To accommodate this I moved my rest week back and started build 1 this week. As it turns out it was all good. My old legs needed the rest as I found out on Monday when I went out to perform 3 x 12's at my one hour power. The intervals felt easy and I kept my power 10 watts high. It seemed a shame to leave it at only three intervals so I completed one more up Usery Pass.

Today will be my first Tmax interval of the year. These are very hard to say the least. In fact, it could be called a break through workout. Saturday James and I will be racing in Tucson at the U of A crit. James is doing the junior and cat 3 races. I'll race masters 40+ and 30+. I watched the 30+ race on Sunday and those dudes were flying. This should be a very good early season test of my fitness.

Home Sweet Home

After leaving California the brutal cold of Alaska was an amazing slap back to reality. The beauty of that state from the air is nothing short of amazing but after landing in thirty plus knot fifteen degree winds I have to say winter in Alaska is best experienced sparingly. I got off the airplane walked to the bag compartment and my hands were in serious pain. It took all of ten seconds.

Second straight day of posting

Hi Doug! Here I sit in southern California flying for the "Man". The "Man" pays so the man gets my services.

Today we walked to Balboa Island and had lunch after which we took the ferry over to Balboa penninsula. This area is one of the most amazingly wonderful places I have ever been too. Back in my Ford days we made regular trips out here and learned the ropes. We stay near a big mall which has the obvious conveniences but we are within an easy walking distance of Balboa Island.

I managed an hour on the spin bike.

Bringing a dead blog back to life

They say that keeping a blog alive requires daily entires and maintenance. Well, if this is true then I have failed magnificently. Let this be the first of a season's worth of entries.

I am on the road flying for Honeywell this weekend but while on the road I am riding hotel bikes and trying to maintain my training focus. Today's ride included a 2 hour torturous ride on two very primative hotel bikes. I survived.

The season starts soon and James and I are prepared to give Arizona our all!

DMO's Cyber Attack

It would appear that my lack of blogging has inspired a cyber attack by Dr. David "DMO" Morrissey. I admit that I have opened myself up to this by total disregarding my pathetic blog. But enough about me, let's focus on Dr. Morrissey.

For those of you who are fans of The Smiths, you might remember Dr. DMO, Professor of Speed, as the lead singer for this awesome 80's alt band. After the band fell out of fashion, DMO went back to school to get his PHd in physics and advanced TT aerodynamics.

DMO, as many of you know is a vegan. Do you remember the classic Smiths album "Meat is Murder"?

David making a statement



DMO pictured on his second solo album Bona Drag

Does anybody else think it is fishy that DMO is hangin' with a bunch of "physicists" in Aspen??? I, for one, ain't buyin' it. I know for a fact that they check for physicists at the Aspen city limit and unless they have a Screen Actors Guild card they don't get in. No, DMO is in Aspen as a celebrity. The famed Morrissey of the Smiths.

Nice try "Dr. Morrissey". I think the pictures reveal who you really are.

My plan for today was to take it easy and just log a few miles in zone 2. I was doing well riding through Scottsdale and up to carefree where I sampled a new coffee shop. Looking over yahoo maps I decided to ride out to Bartlett Reservoir and which would be a 34 mile loop. I had no idea what the terrain would be like. After riding uphill to the Bartlett Reservoir Rd I aimed my bike downhill from an elevation of 3,000 feet. I rapidly descended 600 feet before see-sawing up and down 500 feet for the next 10 miles. I made as high as 3,100 feet before riding 6 miles downhill to the reservoir which is at 1600 feet. Next up, turn around and ride out! These are all small ring climbs without question and much of it in my 25.

After digging my way out, I rode back to Fountain Hills to log my longest ride of the year, (95 miles).

Ups and Downs

Here I am back in Arizona. I flew in from Detroit last Monday and picked up a Honeywell trip Thursday through Saturday. While on layover, one of my Facebook friends suggested I do the Arizona State Road Race Championship which took place today June 7. Well, as I crossed the country on Saturday morning I thought about my week's training goals and it dawned on me that doing the road race would have some great training value in addition to experiencing the local scene.

As most of you know, I lost my job at Ford last December and that event pretty much blew up my training. My form is really at base 1 day 1. Last week's effort at West Branch ended in a DNF due to muscle cramps. Since then I have been formulating a plan to deal with this menace for once and for all. The main cause is probably a lack of training but I believe secondary factors could be potassium, calcium or magnesium deficiency. I have been messing around with supplements and diet this last week and the road race would be a great opportunity to see if anything I was doing was effective.

The race was in Globe, AZ which is about 85 miles from my apartment in Fountain Hills. That meant getting up at 3:30 am which really wasn't any problem since I had just spent three days in the eastern time zone. The drive was really cool with the sun coming up over the mountains. There was some really beautiful countryside to look at but the towns were kind of isolated and, well, strange. I really needed a pee-break by the time I hit the little town of Superior, AZ. At just the right time I came upon a rest stop with what looked like a new building containing the bathrooms. When I pulled in I noticed a "CLOSED" sign at the women's bathroom. A Mexican woman charged out and let fly at me:

"The bathrooms are CLOSED!!! Can't you read, C-L-O-S-E-D!! We have had some vandalism and you have to go somewhere else!! Don't you understand? The bathroom is closed!!!"

All this before I moved a foot away from my car. Truth is I began to get some kind of kick out of watching her get more and more stirred up the longer I stood there without saying anything. She never really disengaged from her rant long enough for me to leave anyway. Awesome. As I pulled out another car pulled in and she went right to work on them.

Globe's main feature is a copper (?) mine. Trust me, it's no Scottsdale. The race registration was at the IBEW which didn't have the parking necessary for all the riders so I moved over to a shopping mall nearby. I was pressed for time and was rushing to get ready. After pumping my rear tire I heard a hissing sound. Yep, flatted. I got a new tube in and didn't even have to use a tire lever. I have Michelin's on the bike right now and they are much easier to get on and off than the Vittoria's. I managed to get myself registered, pinned and peed with 10 minutes to go! Pretty typical for me even without kids I guess. Everyone seemed to be in a similar position so the first 5 miles were at an easy warm up pace.

The first climb came at around the 7-8 mile mark. This is where my eyes were opened. Clearly the climbers were bent on shattering the field right away. I normalized 370 watts for 6 minutes to just hang on to the main group. Even at this effort we still couldn't keep the goats with us and a little group got away never to be seen again. That climb was about 1.5 miles and it nearly killed me. If I would have done a little homework on the course I would have turned around right then and there because another climb came up just a 1.5 miles later that was a little slower since the really fast dudes were already gone. This one was only 331 watts for 6.5 minutes.

After finishing these two climbs I figured cramps were definitely on the menu but from here the course was easy. That is until after the turn-around point. It was great riding downhill for what seemed like miles. Of course, that meant we were going to have to go back up that same road but in my oxygen deprived state of mind I wasn't paying much attention. Amazingly, my legs were feeling great and I felt very strong as we proceeded to the turn-around. I was basically playing defense the whole time not knowing who the real threats were. One team had at least 7 riders in the field. I was near the front until mile 41 when we hit that big 5 mile hill that was so much fun riding down. It was at mile 42 that I felt the first hint of a cramp. Not bad considering and it really wasn't a problem unless I stood up. I made it through the first 1.5 miles at 290 watts then the lights went out. As Phil Ligget would say, "Bridge to engine room, we need more power but there's just nothing there." I finished the climb dropping off the back at 231 watts and even that was a struggle. If the race ended at mile 40 I was in good shape! Problem was I had to make it to mile 59!

I watched the group ride away from me but was satisfied that I was achieving my goals by continuing. When I backed the power down my legs felt better but I began to notice that I just couldn't generate significant power from this point on. I just became a different rider. My raison d'tre now was getting deeper and trying to see if and when the cramps would force me off the bike like last week. After topping that long hill my power dropped to 206 watts from that point to the end of the race but I made it and it was a lot tougher than I could have managed on my own out on a training ride. It was also great to be around the sport and watch others gutting it out.

Stats on the day:

Entire workout (185 watts):
Duration: 2:49:25 (3:17:58)
Work: 1879 kJ
TSS: 226.7 (intensity factor 0.896)
Norm Power: 243
VI: 1.31
Pw:HR: -16.8%
Pa:HR: 28.92%
Distance: 56.983 mi (my bike computer needs calibrating...should be 59 miles)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1190 185 watts
Heart Rate: 121 192 169 bpm
Speed: 2.1 47 20.2 mph
Pace 1:17 28:24 2:58 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 1427 163 lb-in

Check out that max speed. I didn't even notice it when I was on the bike. There was some occasional downhill hammering that must have dialed it up to 47 mph. My HR hit 192 bpm on that first long climb at 370 watts. Geez that hurt.

Note to self:

Next year, do this race 10 pounds lighter, get someone to work the feeds so you can carry just one bottle at a time and for goodness sake get your training plan together with a big emphasis on big, big hills!!

West Branch

James and I are signed up for West Branch. My head tells me this is a mistake for me to enter this race but I felt so good at crit practice last night that I just had to enter myself. Granted, it is the 45+ but those hills would shred me in the 1-2 field.

James is racing the 4-5 field which is going to be fun.

A New House

Dear Friends we have a new home! Jeanne came out to Phoenix last week to work with Eva, (our awesome realtor), and I on final selection. Eva and I realized before Jean came out that we would have to rule out short sales and foreclosures because of the ridiculous amount of time the banks are taking to give a response to offers.

We got our list down to four homes. All were conventional sales. One was a flip, one was a new build and the other two were Las Sendas homes that were overpriced. After pouring over the data we determined the new build spec home was the best bang for the buck. The flip was very competitively priced but it was under contract before we gave it serious thought. That left low-ball bids for the two Las Sendas homes and the new one. In the end the latter was the only one left standing.

Google maps/Earth doesn't have the road on their latest edition so if you want to have a look try these coordinates:

33° 26' 52.88"N 111° 38' 37.65"W

That's our house on the right. It is about 80% complete. Below is a pic of the model after landscaping which will give you a better idea of what we think it will look like. We ordered up a pool for the kids that should be complete by the time they arrive in July.

We aren't thrilled with this whole thing move to AZ thing but having a nice home in a good location for riding and living will be nice. All are welcome for visits and cycling camps. Remember, racing starts the last week in January so if you want to get an early start come on down. Chris Aten will be in Flagstaff and we'll be seeing him at the races and maybe even Larry Warbasse if he is still with Waste Management.

...one more thing...DMO, sorry, no spa! Could be a big mistake I know but we just couldn't spend another five thousand right now.


On The Cycling Front

I've been logging some early morning miles in AZ lately. It is beautiful, really. Getting up before the sun and riding out with lights, watching the sunrise over the mountains, what can you say? My routes have between 2,000 and 5,000 feet of climbing. No matter how easy you intend to ride you cannot escape some zone 5 climbs unless you stay in the parking lot. The daddy climb so far is Usery Pass but Dynamite Rd. at 9 miles is by far the longest hill. Dynamite is an easy climb while Usery is much steeper but definitely shorter. With a hard effort, I can get up Usery in 15 minutes. I feel like I am gaining form but still at the very beginning. James and I are targeting two TT's in July which will be both a test and a target to train for. We are highly motivated to make a good first impression there. Looking over past results we think we should be able to make some noise. There are some fast 45+ masters but if I have decent form I should be top 5 on the 40K. The state RR championship is coming up in early June but I won't be able to attend.

Saturday found us making the trek to Frankenmuth for a typical edition of Das Tour of Frankenmuth. Rain and slightly chilly. Abi and James raced and I had no bike which meant I was relegated to bike mechanic, bib pinner and feeder. For the race I worked the feed zone. It was very fun I must admit. All the fields were just flying through the zone. Picking up a bottle at 25-30 miles is quite a task. I managed to hand off two bottles and had one bad transfer.

The fours had a bad crash in the feed zone on the last lap. Several Fusion riders and another guy from Rockford tangled up at high speed trying to get position. The guy from Rockford flipped into the ditch on the left side of the road. The awful grinding sound was finished off with a blown tube which sounded like a blast from a pistol. We ran over to help and as we did you could hear the Fusion guys swearing. I knew they were okay. The Rockford guy was climbing out of the ditch after which he collapsed with a broken collarbone. Another guy was laid out trying to catch his breath. He ended up riding to the finish. The Rockford guy needed medical attention. I hope I never suffer that particular injury. His pain seemed intense. I felt badly for him and all the others involved.

James missed the crash and ended up placing 24th which made him very happy. He has really gained strength. That field was absolutely flying as were all the fields. No wind, perfect temps; nothing to slow them down.

Abi was first in her age group by 5 minutes! The other girls wanted to make nice and ride together but sweet little Abi put down the hammer and just rode hard until she couldn't see them any more.

Coincidence

Out on my morning ride the other day I noticed a fit looking rider up the road. I kicked it up a bit to see if I could catch him. He noticed me at a stop sign and asked if I was from Michigan. I replied that I was and he told me that he just recently graduated from Cooley Law School and was practicing in AZ! When in Michigan he raced for Team Venom and he knows Joey Schaard very well! Small world 'eh? His name is Alex Benikov and he now races for Bike Haus.

Jean and I bought a house today in Mesa. I tried to look it up but the address is coming up about 8 miles west of where it really is. It is in a brand new development that is on the bike route. No crowded city streets to get to the prime riding roads.

What it is?

It has been a while so I thought I would throw up a post for the five people who still stop by.

We sold our home in Saline and hope to ink a deal on one here in Phoenix next week. There are lots of things that still have to happen before any kind of normal life can begin. Maybe, just maybe, we will be settling in around Christmas. Really, no hyperbole here. After the move we need to get school squared away with lots of issues to be sure.

House shopping in this market is a real hoot. Most of the homes are either short sales or foreclosures. If the owner is still living in the home during a showing things get interesting. These folks are living in their home without paying the mortgage. They are not motivated to clean their home or make it the least bit appealing. I had two homes yesterday that were intentionally trashed up! I won't go into detail but suffice to say they went out of their way to dirty things up.

The riding is incredible out here. I can't get over the daily scenes I am blessed with. Incredible vistas and wildlife. I rode by a rattlesnake today and it surprised me. I went back to look it over and it was dead. Poor little guy was just trying to warm up and something must have ran it over.
I rode by what I thought was a live one a few days ago at the edge of the road but upon further inspection I determined it was some kind of constrictor that mimicked the coloration of a rattlesnake.

My rides usual begin just before sunrise, (around 5am). This gets the ride in before the heat of the day. It's actually really nice. I love getting it completed so early. At this time of the year it can be a little on the cool side riding downhill out of Fountain Hills. At the moment I am chosing between two routes. One goes north around the McDowell Mountains through Scottsdale which is 43 miles. The other is out towards Saguaro Lake and Usery Pass which is more like 65 miles. Many riders meet across the street from my apartment at the Safeway to begin their ride. I haven't met many hard-core roadies yet. Most are tri-folk. That whole thing is crazy-poplular out here. I was passed for the first time today by a motley group riding a mix of road and tri bikes. I shadowed them but elected to give them some room. TT bikes and road bikes don't mix well in my opinion. The 43 mile route features an 8.5 mile climb! I don't mind these at all. You just set up your effort and sustain it. Usery Pass takes me about 15 minutes to climb at 280 watts. It is a natural interval that makes for a nice workout.

I miss my family a lot. It gets kind of lonely out here sometimes. I don't work very much so human contact is infrequent. The local sports bar has proven to be a great place to watch the Red Wings though. Lots of displaced Michiganders wearing their colors and loudly cheering the boys on. Pretty cool.

A Tribute to Bikeboy

Yes, he is my son and I am biased but I want to honor him here on Midlife Bike Crisis.

James came onto the miscene in 2005 at the age of 10. I entered him in the Hines TT and fretted as he rode off on his own for 20K. After he left the start line I jumped in my car to follow him to the halfway point to make sure he was okay. After, I sped back to the start to see him come in. He gave his all on his little 24 inch road bike.

Since then he has been much more than a bike racer. He is an advocate for the sport here in southern Michigan. Anyone who visits his blog knows what he does for our sport. I can't tell how many times complete strangers have come up to him to say they read his blog. I guess he is a rock star of sorts.

His on bike performance has been magnificent. As his coach I couldn't be prouder. Look at the TT times for him against others when they were his age and you'll see he is a special bike rider. His training year begins in December with base training. He works hard on the trainer all through the winter. Recently he discovered nutritional science and has added that to his regimen cutting out many foods that teenagers covet.

Most of all, I am proud of the way he has handled adversity. He has sought to become a man and not just a bike racer. He wants to live a good and honorable life. He wants God to have first place.

Well done James. I am proud of you.

Spider Monkey on the Loose

I officially begin my training and racing season this Saturday with the Willow TT. Sure, I'm 46 and out of shape but I shall not whine any more. If I am willing to enter there is no excuse for anybody! One more thing, I won't be hiding, I entered the 1-2 field! I must be the favorite!

Home

I made it back to the "D" around 5:30 am today. James and Jeanne came out to pick me up. We all went back to bed for a few hours.

We decided to see if the Black Widow would fit James this afternoon. With a couple of adjustments we determined that James has a new TT bike! He is pretty psyched but I am restraining him from going too crazy. He has to get used to the bike if there is going to be any real benefit by the first TT.

Back to PHX on Monday.

Desert Life

After the ride mentioned in my last post, I had a pretty rough recovery. I ate, showered then made an attempt at going to the library, (they have places to sit down there.) I was so blasted that I felt that a short nap was necessary. After that I was well enough to move on.

I did the same course on Sunday. This time I packed twice the calories. I made it to Saguaro Lake six minutes faster than Friday and felt great. Continuing from there I climbed Usery Pass and rode down the other side to Mesa, around Las Sendas, down Power Drive by Red Mountain before heading back to Saguaro Lake for more water. The difference between the two rides was quite noticeable. I got home in about 3.5 hours after riding about 62 miles and normalizing 211 watts.

Monday, I went back to work. Things are still pretty new and it had been almost two weeks since I had flown the new airplane. I sat down and it was as if I had never been to training! As James would say, it was "horrible!" To make things worse, the jet acted up every single day of the trip, (4 days in all). If it wasn't the plane it was the passengers showing up early and forcing us to work at crazy fast speeds to get the flight out.

The good thing was that I got to see the Cubbies play at Wrigley in Chicago. I am now a Cubbies fan, sort of. Tigers first but I am hooked! Wrigley is just crazy cool with the old scoreboard, grandstands on the buildings and on this day Michael J. Fox led the chorus of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

At the moment, I am sitting at Sky Harbor airport waiting on a flight to go back to see Jeanne and the kids. It is going to be fun but I already dread the flight back on Monday.

Getting back to the bike

I rode out of Fountain Hills today bent on making it to Saguaro Lake and maybe even Usery Pass. This video is taken on the climb a lot faster than I took it. I was moving along at 10.2 mph pulling 290 watts all the way up. It just kept going and going. When I got to the top I turned around and went back down hitting 43 mph. Incredibly, I had some dude in a pickup truck, (why is it always someone in a pickup?), lean out the window and yell at me for riding on the road and not in the bike lane. I just shook my head. The speed limit is 45! At those speeds I darn sure wasn't going to ride on the loose gravel and all the junk that lives on the shoulder.

Cippo Gets Pranked

Cippo nearly gets clipped on a training ride and is shocked to see that the dude that nearly ran him had two of his bikes strapped to the back of his RV!! Enjoy!

School

Greetings from New Jersey! I am halfway through the training program for my new jet. I have my Blue RC4 here with a set of rollers doing intensity whenever I can. Time is quite limited.