Eating Other's Dust - Hodges Dam Race Report

I never quite understood the phrase 'eat my dust' as acutely as I did after finishing this race. Hodges Dam had driest conditions I think I've ever seen in a race - the complete opposite of just about every race I did last year.

It was also probably the most well-rested race I’ve done so far this year. I did absolutely zero riding in the three days leading up to it. While this made for well-rested legs, there’s always the chance/likelihood it can cause stale legs. For some reason, I knew I had enough training in my legs that a total rest away from the bike for a few days were what they needed, and that staleness probably wouldn’t be much of an issue. I contemplated ggoing out for an easy ride with some short sprints thrown-in on Saturday the day before the race, but just wasn’t feelin’. It. Being in a post-all-day-spent-drinking-haze from the day before at Dickie’s cabin in NY probably contributed to not feelin’ it.

Race day arrived and despite being physically well-rested, mentally I was in a bit of a fog. It was a 3 coffee morning; two hot cups at home and a large Cumberland Farms iced coffee was slugged down during my warm-up in Oxford. Due to some 11th hour heroics by Nate, I was able to get my bike in order to race. After putting on a new cassette and chain, turns out my chainrings were also fried. And of course, no shop in the greater Boston area stocks M960 XTR chainrings. Luckily Nate had a spare brand-new SLX crankset hanging around that he sold me for about what the cost of two new XTR rings would have been. Yeah, it's SLX not XTR and about 100 grams heavier, but who really cares.
I got somewhat of a warm-up in, but not much -- maybe about 10 min. I've learned that I really need at least 20-25 min of moderate pace riding before I start to feel good and can ride hard. Despite the lackluster warm up, at the start I took off really well. I knew from the first pedal stroke in my warm up that my legs were having a good day and I felt probably the freshest I had in a long time. I passed many riders on the dirt road leading up the hill about a half mile or so into the woods. I was second place going into the singletrack, and proceeded to hold this for another 1-2 minutes before redlining, and realizing, OH YEAH, THE LAST 5 MINUTES I'VE BEEN 75% ANAEROBIC!

It was at this point that I was quickly passed by a group of about 3-4 fast riders, including Jeff Langfried. I knew I had gone out too hard and was going to have to ease-up on the pace in order to get into a maintainable tempo, but at the same time I tried to say on the lead train of riders, but as fate would have it, I wound up getting a branch stuck in my rear wheel somehow and was forced to stop for about 5 seconds to get it out. At that point they had a gap that I was never able to close. I went from being psyched that I was riding on the front of the race to pissed-off/disheartened that I was in no-man's land so quickly and cut-back a bit on my pace to recover from what was a un-warmed-up and unmaintainable initial pace. Going into the second lap I could just barely see the lead guys about 30 seconds up going up the fireroad after the start/finish line, but knew with the pace they were riding, it would be unlikely I was going to be able to jump on.

From 2nd lap on out (4 laps total), I was able to settle into a nice groove, and finally started passing people. I guess I must've just had a bit more gas left in the tank than some of the other 19-29 Cat 1s because I passed about 3 guys in the final miles. This was the dustiest race I've ever done; by the end I'd felt like I had about 2 pounds of dirt in my lungs and kept coughing. Riding ride behind someone was blinding at times because of how dry the dirt was. Still, I'd rather these problems than all the issues that come with a mudfest. End result: 4th out of 12, and since 3rd place (Matt Mooradian) isn't from MA, I was 3rd place for the 19-29 Cat 1 MA MTB Championship. (picture of my tiny little USAC medal forthcoming). Jeff Langfried got 1st, a solid 5 min faster than me. Next race is the Root66 Norcross Scurry, which is tomorrow - this'll be my first time doing it, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm a big fan of Saturday races. TODO for next race: get in a good warm-up.

I'd Like to Thank the Arlington Fire Department

...for use of their hose. As I mentioned before, this summer I've gotten in the habit of doing the weekly NEBC Wednesday night hillclimb ride out of Cycle Loft. It's a great training ride, and some really fast guys (and girls) often show up. I consistently underestimate how much water I'm going to go through for what is usually only a 20 mile or so ride. At the top of the third main climb of the ride in Arlington Heights, there is a small little fire station with a hose out front, which I almost always have to stop at to refill my bottle, while the rest of the group spins around recovering from the climb. There is simply nothing better than cool water on a 90 degree humid July evening, after riding up hills at 180 bpm. (And yes, I did ask a firefighter the first time I made use of their water if it was cool.) So thank you Arlington FD, for the superbly-placed drinking water.

I've been hitting the hillclimb ride most Wednesdays this year, and loving the torture -- it's definitely made me stronger. Yesterday, probably due to a scary-looking radar, it was only myself and Tom (the tandem guy) and Don (from IF), but we still had a great ride. The weather ended up clearing up and it never even rained a drop. After setting some new 2 and 3 minute power records on me second and third time doing the ride back in May and early June, my power numbers have plateaued. In fact, other than beating my previous 30 second PB last week, even after taking a few rest days here and there, I haven't set any PBs since June, which is kinda discouraging - I still think the hillclimb ride is A+ training, though. I don't think there's any ride or race in which I get as out of breath as I do powering-up those Arlington and Winchester climbs at full gas.

Oh, I guess I raced this weekend, too -- might as well talk a bit about that. I've raced Harding Hill every year since '07. In '07, I was just plain ol' out of shape; riding probably about 1/10 as much as I do now, and had just gotten my Trek Fuel and wasn't used to it. I finished towards the back of the back in SPORT(!). In '08 I was riding much faster and Harding Hill was actually my first race as an Expert. I got my ass handed to me; I believe I was last for Senior I Experts. Last year, '09, I had a new bike (my Giant), and was in good shape, but the course was super muddy from the incredibly rainy summer we had, and I'm not the best rider through mud bogs. I was towards the back of the back Expert; 9 min off of first place.


In the video below, Nate Ross talks about how Harding Hill went for him; it just happened to be his first EFTA race as an Expert.



And Nathaniel Williams talks about his first race in the EFTA Elite category:



This year I got 8th out of 12 Senior IIs, which doesn't sound that great, but I was, overall, pleased with my race. I felt great, and had fun (as opposed to the last race); and I beat Brian McInnis by a minute! Finally! Last year at Harding Hill he beat me by four minutes. He was obviously having a bad day this year, so I don't take too much delight in it, but it was nice to finally beat him, after having so many races where he beat my by a minute or two. On the last lap, my chain started skipping, so it's definitely time for a new drivetrain. I was still able to ride fairly hard, but I wasn't able to stand out of the saddle and hammer, so it likely cost me a min or two. My plan was to start slow, since there was no hole-shot; quite the opposite, in fact: about 2-3 miles of double track before any single track at all. I focused on racing smart, riding someones wheel whenever I could, and riding at a pace which would let me finish strong. I think if anything, I may have paced myself too easily, thinking that the climb at the half way point in the lap was worse than it was (I remember it being hellish in '07 & '08); but it really didn't seem that bad this time around, so I may have actually saved a bit too much in the tank. For whatever reason, I find that I always ride hard and pass people on the climbs, then tend to go too easy on the flats, thinking that I can't make up as much time, which, in a MTB race, really isn't the case. Anyway, though my finish was so-so, I had a lot of fun, and was faster than last year, and that's what really matters, right?

I'm up to 6th place in the overall standing for the NECS EFTA points. We'll see if I can get into top 3. Next race is the Maine Sport Runoff on August 1st.

Domnarski Farm, The Pinnacle, and Putney

Again, my tendency to procrastinate has caught-up with me. There's been three races with no race reports! Let's get right into it.

Domnarski Farm:

My first year doing this race, and I didn't know quite what to expect. I almost did the EFTA Big Ring Rumpus over it, but did this instead because, A, my big ring is destroyed, and B, I missed the pre-reg cutoff. I'm glad fate had me wind up doing Domnarski Farm, as this race is the real deal. Around 1500' of climbing per lap; two 10 mile laps. The race is put-on by Matt Domnarski, an awesome dude who lets people show up and park and race on a lot of what is his property. I almost didn't do the race; the weather the day of the race was very 'iffy' - overcast and sprinkly. I was 100% glad I did it. As it turned out, it didn't rain once the whole race, though the course was quite slick from the rain the day before, but I'd definitely seen muddier.

The gun goes off and exactly what I knew was going to happen, happened: pile up as soon as we hit the climb (about 100 yards from the start line); so I get off and run, pass a decent amount of riders, then hop back on and begin the 15 or so minute climb, wildly in oxygen debt, totally out of breath the whole way. After about 5 minutes a lot of the guys I passed running passed me - I was already at the limit and there was nothing I could do to try to grab their wheel. Turns out I paced myself pretty well, because I caught and passed just about all of those guys half way through the first lap, on the brutal powerline climb. This was a huge morale boost, as I thought I was destined to dangle off the back for the rest of the race; instead I was moving up and in 3rd place! I actually caught up to Matt Mooradian at the highest point on the course: the top of $10 pass)the hardest, steepest uphill of the entire course (which I cleared on the first lap). Matt asked me if I was in his group, which I was, and he quickly took off down the descent, narrowly missing the 'tree of death (I almost found out the hard way why they named it that). Matt proved to be a better descender than me, and I lost sight of him halfway down, and never saw him again.

Second lap I was riding by myself 70% of the time, and started to get tired about half way through; I had my only 'crash' of the race, which was just a stupid slide-out in a corner because I was getting tired. I was able to hold onto my position, though, and only got passed by one 35+ rider, and passed one rider in my group on the final descent (apparently because he had lost his middle ring! Did I mention this was a brutal course!?). I sprinted over the line and felt absolutely shelled; destroyed, but psyched. At the time I thought I had gotten 2nd, but after washing up a bit and waiting what seemed like for forever for the results, I saw I had gotten 3rd, which is still my best result this year and I was pleased with. $25 in prize money was a nice surprise. I think my first lap may have been right around the magic one-hour mark, as Matt mentioned his first lap was :59 flat, and I was, I'd estimate, about a minute or so behind him. I thought the race officials were recording lap times..oh well. Next time I'll be sure to time my laps to get the extra $10 any sub-one hour laps got you!

The Pinnacle

One of my favorite MTB races, and a true New England classic, is The Pinnacle, held every June in Newport, NH, right outside of Lake Sunapee. The weather and the trails were almost exactly the same as last year; overcast, cool, and muddy. They changed the course this year to add a bit more climbing and added about 2 miles per lap; I really liked it. Unfortunately slick root-laden downhills freak me out, and I tend to not take as many chances as some others. I definitely lost time on the downhill; at least two times I was able to ride the wheels of guys on the way up, only to completely lose them on the way down. Note to self: work on descending. I got 6th out of 12; overall mid-pack expert. Only 3 minutes or so behind first, though, which was definitely closer than last year. Considering how gingerly I went downhill, I was OK with my result.

Putney

I went, and I sucked. Any other questions?

If Domnarnski Farm was the toughest MTB race I've done, this had to have been the second. It was the first race this year where I seriously considered quitting and was really hoping for a flat (which is what unfortunately happened to my friend Nathaniel Williams, who rode up with me) or mechanical. I felt like crap; out of breath the whole time and making no power.

The course itself was really tough because of all the climbing, but some really fast downhill sections kept it interesting. I almost killed myself on the first lap in this once place where I had been warned before the race by Jeff Langfried that it was super hairy, and yet, even with this forewarning, I still almost superman-ed straight into a tree. It's hard to describe, but there was basically a really fast downhill, with a few rollers, then a very abrupt off-camber left turn with a tree front and center if you missed the turn. I carried way too much speed into the corner and came within an inch of my life, but somehow hung on and didn't get to get up-close and personal with the big oak tree. I think multiple expletives were uttered right after, mostly due to the sheer shock that I was somehow still on my bike. Subsequent laps I rode like a small child (as Adam Craig would say) around this section.

Oh, did I mention that Tom Sampson had a mechanical involving his cassette after the first lap and had to spend 5-10 minutes getting it fixed and still managed to pass me half a lap later like I was standing still? Yeah. Me: huffing and puffing, about to die, on the long mid-lap climb; Tom: Sunday ride in the park, passing me at about 150% my speed, not out of breath at all. Humbling, to say the least.

The only real positive I took away from this race was that I finished it, and that I was able to ride on a train comprised of of Jacob Harris and Tom Boobar for about 70% of lap 2. They finally dropped me in the single track when I made a small error due to fatigue. They seemingly instantly put 20 seconds into me, then they were gone, but it was encouraging because I know if I had been having a more fresh day, I could've hung with them. They finished 8 minutes faster than me. I lost tons of time on lap 4, as I was just totally and utterly out of gas. Mike Broderick passed me like I wasn't moving. He was riding a hardtail and I couldn't even begin to hang with him on the high speed downhill. Again, humbling.

Training has been going well; I took a few days off after Putney, as I was absolutely mentally and physically shelled. I've been trying to do the NEBC Hill ride every Wednesday night; it's short, but brutal. I consistently hit my highest heart rates of any rides on it, so it's just a top-end work out, but it's great because there's always serious competition to get to the top of the hills first. I really feel like it's helped my VO2 Max type power; the 3-5 minute stuff.

Well hopefully the next update won't be 2 months away. The next race is Harding Hill this weekend, a race that I have never done well at, and I don't particularly enjoy, but I keep coming back to do. I may be insane.

Glocester Grind

Now I may not be the most experienced bike racer out there, but one thing I have learned is that typically you don't want to drink margaritas and stay out 'til 3 AM the night before a race. However, knowing something and acting accordingly are two different things.

On the plus side, this immature behavior does add some great excuses to the already stellar cache I had this week. The pre-existing to the night-before-the-race-shenanigans excuses were: I had a cold this week which just started to clear up Saturday; I only rode 3 days; I decided the morning of that I was racing; my bike’s front brake decided it didn’t want to work; and I had a slow leak with left me with just enough air to get across the finish line. Whew, I think that’s everything. Oh, and, does, ‘I didn’t have a 29er’ count as a valid excuse?

Seriously though, I had a lot of fun in this race. The weather was perfect for a change, and after a week of half-ass wussy riding, I was more than ready to go deep into the pain zone. Glocester is a bike-handlers’ course, make no mistake about it. While I consider myself a proficient bike handler, I’ll be the first to say there’s some guys way more talented than I at riding in the really rough stuff. That, coupled with the fact that there’s basically no climbing, makes this race not really one I’ll probably ever get a really good result at. I’ve never been especially good at rock gardens, and man-alive does Glocester have rock gardens -- huge, dangerous, muddy, long sections of rock gardens. After attempting to ride some of the more outrageous ones on the first lap, I realized that it was faster or just as fast to just jump off the bike and run. Due to not really having any warm-up, the first lap I was huffing and puffing and had no chance of jumping on the leaders. I don’t know for sure, but I’m fairly confident my second lap was my fastest; I was able to follow the wheel of a couple good riders which on this course made a huge difference; plus after having one go-around I knew what was coming better. Third lap I started to run a bit low on gas and sure enough, and I noticed my rear tire was getting soft. Perfect. I just hoped and prayed it held together enough to make it the next few miles to the finish, and focused on keeping as much weight off of it as possible. Luckily I was able to finish on it. Oh, the finish – yeah, that’s another thing….because I was so smoked by the end, I forgot the sharp LEFT up the hill to go to the finish line. So I stopped, and casually rode for a few seconds before I realized this and then nailed it up the hill to the line. Definitely lost probably close to a minute because of that – oh well. I was good enough for a time of 1:34:56 and 7th out of I believe 10 Senior II riders - overall mid-pack for the Experts.

I also did the Sterling Road Race last weekend in the rain, which was a really fun course – rolling hills, and one steep short hill right at the finish/start line. I was at the front most of the race, but of course I wasn’t there at the deciding time, right at the start of the final lap after the hill, 3 riders attacked when everyone was recovering and got a gap. I missed this happening because I wasn’t on the front, and when I went back to the front had no idea there was a break. No one seemed to be in the mood to really chase them, so by the time we came to the finish they had put a minute into the peloton. I was third in the group sprint up the hill for the finish, passing a lot of guys, so I’m OK with 7th out of 30.

Massasoit Lung Opener - man, it’s been too long since I updated this! This race in a word: awesome. Seriously, this was like, the best race ever - a total blast. Probably my favorite race course ever, and perfect weather to boot. I had a crash on the first lap on a downhill because there was a sharp turn with a tree right there, and of course, my front brake decided it didn’t want to work. I was at the lead group until the crash, then it was just a matter of trying to get my mojo back – which I gradually did. Believe it or not, I think one of the things I need to work on most is going down the hills...some guys just blow past me on technical downhills – the same guys I drop going up.

But anyway, lots of great riding lately; including the Fells opening day/Trek demo day event with Gary Fisher - had a blast with Thom Parsons and his hammer ride. He took us on a bunch of trails I never even knew existed – pretty exciting stuff. Next week is EFTA NECS# 2 – the Weeping Willow at Willowdale Park in Ipswich. I'll start getting the excuses ready!

What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been

Springtime and the livin's easy. Hard to believe we made it through winter, but here we are. Getting some great riding in lately: did the loop up through Gloucester last weekend with Nate and Matt. I felt surprisingly good and was able to finish strong; this a first for me this early in the season to hammer for 60 miles and not bonk. Matt felt a bit sick by the time we got back, but nothing some off-brand Mylanta couldn't cure. I continue to love the Powertap. Before I had to just kinda guess if my fitness was improving, and by how much - now I can know exactly where I stand. As long as my numbers continue to go up, it keeps my motivated to keep training.

I'm officially a Cat 1 MTBer - it took over a week, but USA Cycling finally approved my upgrade so now I can race with the big boys. Because my upgrade was still pending, and I couldn't justify driving almost 3 hours to race 8 miles in the Cat 2 race, I skipped Hopbrook and made Winding trails yesterday my first race of the season. It was a blast! One of the most fun courses I've ever raced on (can you tell I'm becoming more of a roadie!?); really fast, NO rocks, a couple steep short hills but nothing too substantial, a few good downhills, and lots of tight twisty singletrack. I actually feel like my Anthem was designed for the course; the fast handling really helped. Because they kept us at the start line for about 10 minutes before actually starting, I (along with everyone else) pretty much lost whatever warm-up I had done, so the start was pretty tough. A few guys took off with an acceleration that I simply couldn't match and were not seen from a again. About 2 min in, a guy hit a log at an angle and went down right in front of me, but I was able to skirt around with no issues. Because the turnout was so big, the only time I was really riding by myself was the fourth lap, about the last half or so. This is also where I started to feel things in the 'engine room' shutting down...I think I didn't eat quite enough. My 3rd lap was probably my fastest, and I probably lost a couple minutes running out of gas and losing the train I was on...there were wide-open sections of fire-road with a decent headwind, so believe it or not, drafting actually came into play.

I got 5th, not bad overall, and a sign my fitness is pretty much where I thought it was. I definitely finished better than I did at Hopbrook last year, where I was 11 min behind the winning time; this race, only ~4 minutes.

Next race, next week: the Massasoit Lung Opener in Taunton. I'm Looking forward to it.

Shorts Weather

Finally the weather has broken, and all of a sudden it's not winter any more! Of course, after the one-two punch we just endured in this area, the trails are strewn with sticks and water-laden (and pretty much unridable until they dry), and the roads are riddled with potholes. On the plus side, it's been almost 70 degrees the last few days, and supposed to stay like that through the weekend. The transition from winter's deep freeze, and riding across frozen lakes, to riding in shorts happened so quickly it feels very surreal. Speaking of winter, it was actually a pretty not-bad one, as Massachusetts winters go. I stayed in shape, and did a solid amount of base miles.

I now am the proud owner of a SL+ PowerTap; I have ridden ~500 miles since January 3rd on my road bike; probably about 300 between my three mountain bikes -- that’s a solid base, and definitely the most winter riding I’ve done to date; and, as a corollary as having the PowerTap, I am now keeping a training journal, and able to see exactly how much – or how little – progress I'm making.


I love having a power meter – so far my feeling is that it’s been worth every penny. For instance, now I know that my average heart rate on the Boxford loop is 15 bpm lower than it was in January, while making about 10 watts more. That is progress! I also find having the it makes trainer riding a lot more bearable; breaking it down into intervals and blocks help the time to go by faster than just hopping on and spinning with no data for an hour or an hour and a half at a time.

Very solid 8 hour week last week, including two night road rides, a 3 hour endurance ride up to Ipswich on Saturday, and awesome ride – the first of the season -- through Breakheart. The recent storm had definitely left its mark on the trails; tons of down branches and even some massive trees blocking the way. Matt and I cleared what we could but there are two huge trees that are going to have to be left up to the DRC to take care of…I’m not holding my breath!

Some random blurbs:

-To do, as in, this week: apply for USAC license for ’10, and Cat 1 upgrade.
-I Still want to find a new road bike for this season. Keep searching for the right one to come along…right now the main contender is still a Cervelo R3-SL, but I’d also consider a Madone if the right deal came along.

I’ve also decided I’m going to go with a Raxter trailer hitch rack for the SI. As much as I cringe at the thought of adding ~50 lbs to my car, it’s far better than the alternative of a roof rack, and after considerable research, I definitely think Raxter has the best design as far as hitch racks go.


More to come as the season gets under way. First race on Mar 28th! Although, I guess technically the first race of the season was the tricycle race at the EFTA banquet last month, which I lost by a hair!

Ciao '09!

All of a sudden, I haven't ridden in over a week. What the hell? Oh, right - it's December. I had ideas for a grandiose super-update, but the words just aren't coming. It's surprisingly difficult to think of goals for riding, or anything riding-related when there's a foot of snow outside and I haven't even looked at a bicycle in a week. Suffice to say, since my last update in October, I've logged some decent miles, but nothing truly epic (hence the lack of update). My last ride was a week ago from Friday, in the the Fells. It was..cold. Very cold. About 15 degrees. The great thing about it being that cold is that no one else goes out; I had zero hiker run-ins on the ride, something which I can't say about my previous foray into holier-than-thou place known as Middlesex Fells.

Goals for 2010:
-Upgrade to Cat 1 for MTB
-Do more Root 66 races
-Do a (preferably many) road race.
-Do a (preferably many) cross race.
-Get a new road bike.
-Get a powermeter that actually works, and use it to do structured intervals.

That's it for now...I'm sure I'll think of more. Did I mention there's a foot of snow outside? Time to buy a (better) trainer.