an ode to winter training and new toys

well winter training is still... just winter training. I've been able to make my hours every week so far since the end of race season, but the weather has been pretty cooperative so it's not too difficult to make 20 hours. Since the time change, however, it has been harder to get rides in after work because the sun sets at around 4:30 and usually by then it's pretty cold anyways. Guess it's time to consider getting out the trainer and watching long epic movies that make me forget how much i'm sweating and hurting.

In other news, next year i'll be racing for the vitamin cottage 3's team (hopefully not for long as i move up into the 2's and onto their elite team), but it's been good so far. i've gone on 3 or 4 rides with the team and they all seem like real nice guys, i just have to get to know them a little more. riding for an actual team will be really nice, unlike just riding with steve and i last year with evergreen (more of a club team than a racing team).

In even more news, winter training means bike toys. winter seems like a good time to buy stuff because with all of the long miles and no racing means i'll have time to get used to new stuff without the stress of racing. with the money i got from selling my moped, i bought shifters, derailleurs, and brakes from the sram rival group. so far i'm liking it way more than the ultegra i've used for a long time, with the wider hoods and longer, flatter tops, it's a lot more comfortable and less frustrating than ultegra was. The sram rival also looks a lot nicer, with the hidden cables run underneath the bar tape, and the black anodised aluminum parts, it all matches my bike much nicer and just looks a lot faster overall.

the much cleaner front end of my bike

carbon wrapped brake lever and white hood

hed stinger 90's (before debadging)

cyclocross and winter training

well winter training is going well so far. I've made it through my first 4 weeks of training (10, 12, 15, and 12 hours respectively), and i've loved it so far. A few days up on peak to peak highway during the time when the aspen leaves were changing (which was beautiful), a few flat days, and a few days on the cross bike.
Cyclocross racing has been so much fun. Even though i've only done one race so far (the 2nd in the Boulder cyclocross series), I loved it and I've loved the training. My mounts and dismounts could use some work, but my riding is really good. The bike i'm riding is a Kona Jake (which i've renamed the Jimmy because it's way more cool) with a 39-48 double instead of the heavy and useless triple it came with. It performed just as well as i was hoping during the race. No missed shifts or any problems at all with the drivetrain even in all of the mud.
i finished 42nd out of around 65 starters, which isn't bad for my first race considering all i was goinig for was a good time and to see if i liked it or not. The only improvements i'd go for on my bike would be a different fork (mine is a super stiff steel, straight blade fork that doesn't soak up ANY hard hits at all) and maybe different pedals for some better mud-shedding pedals, although muddy races in Colorado are few and far between. Below are a few more photos from the race:

End of a season, Beginning of a career

Well this road season is over. Was over a few weeks ago actually. I just finished up my 2 week hiatus from riding and am getting back into training, which is pretty tough. I'm starting my first ramp up to some 20 hour weeks in November (which are gonna be tough), but I have to do it. This winter is going to make my next season what it is, and if i'm going to be basing my decision to either go on as a cyclist or become an engineer on next season, i have to give it all that i've got for 6 months to see just how fast i can possibly get next season.

This season was a good one. I had a bunch of great finishes in the collegiate season, then upgraded to the 3's towards the end of the collegiate season. During the middle of the summer i had a few bad injuries and illnesses that kept me off the bike for a couple of weeks, so my late summer wasn't that great. What i did gain this season that is more valuable than any upgrade points was experience, and there's no replacement for race experience. I had a few fun races with some pro guys (A few garmin chipotle guys). Even though racing next season is 6 months away, i'm already so pumped to enter my first race of next season.

track racing

So yesterday was my first day racing on the track! I went down to the 7-11 velodrome in Colorado Springs with Nate Schwartz and Steve H. and did their thursday night race series. The way they do it is they have different catagories (A, B, and C, and a women's category) although women could race in any category they wanted to. Katie Compton was there racing in the A category and i wasn't watching too closely, but i'm pretty sure she did pretty well. Since it was my first time at the track, i headed out with Nate after registering to do a few warm up laps and get used to riding on a track with 30 degree banked corners (!). They don't seem that steep in the above picture, but riding around the track slowly, i was seriously worried about sliding down or clipping my pedal. After that, my first race was an 11 lap points race (just over 1k) with points given every 4 laps. Needless to say, my first track race ever didn't go so well with me finishing 3rd out of 4. Next race came after all of the other categories raced that same race was a 1 mile (just over 4 laps) scratch race, which meant that the first person over the line won the race. I got 3rd out of 4 in this race as well, but had a little better feel for riding on the track. The third race was a 5 mile scratch race and they combined the B's and C's categories so there were about 25 guys on the track racing. I placed 6th in this race, which was awesome and i got a much better feel for track racing. We had a pretty good pace line going for most of the laps of the race, which was really fun working with some other guys and really whipping around the track. I figure we probably were doing almost 45-50km/h for this race, and it was really tiring. During the A's race, it started raining a little bit so they called it off and we went home.

All in all, it was a super fun time and i'm going to try to go back next week if i can trade my shift at work for a morning shift. I'll post some pictures as soon as i get them from steve.

sweet ride and sweeter training plan

today me, steven, and herron did the good ol' boulder-lyons-peak to peak-ward-lefthand-backside of lee hill route today (About 65 miles of climbing and descending) and it rocked. I was aiming for a "hard" day today and i definitely got it. I churned through about 2600 kJ (roughly 3200 kCal), and averaged 275-300 watts for the hardest parts of the climb while pulling Herron via my right shoulder because he was too tired or too out of shape or too fat or some other nonsense to keep up with me. Anyways, i ended up bonking right as we were getting to Ward, then had a painful descent down lefthand. there were so many bugs out it was like getting sand thrown in my face the whole time we were doing 40-50mph, and i even managed to squish a few on my legs, face, and helmet (gross!). All in all it was an awesome ride, and was exactly what i needed.

In other news, I've come up with the perfect training plan to have me be at my strongest right at the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix which is going to be such an awesome race, it makes my teeth hurt. I can't divulge on it because it's so effective, but basically i'm going to win on the 29th, so get ready to hear about it. That's all for now. I'm tired.

another missed race

so due to both me not having a car and my roommate's car not starting, i missed another race this evening. i was all excited to get the power data from a real race, but no luck. not sure why racing this season isn't working out at all, but it's getting really REALLY annoying being constantly disappointed by things that i have no control over that are affecting my racing. oh well.

graduation money = bike toys

well first of all, a little picture of the bike carnage from my crash a few weeks ago (the one in the race, not from the car wreck)
too bad. that was a good wheel. i've since bought and am racing on a set of ROL race SL's. ROL is a wheel company based in Denver and they sponsor Team Evergreen, the team i race for. They're a pretty seriously awesome wheelset, and i like them as much as the Ksyrium SL's that I destroyed.

In other news, i got a fair amount of money for graduation, and instead of doing the "wise" thing and putting into savings (BORING!!), i immediately started shopping for and comparing power meters. Some say that training with power is the most effective way to train, and i'd have to agree. Naysayers will try to point out that training with power "takes all of the fun out of riding a bike" but... all you have to do is put the computer in your pocket and forget about it and voila! you're not training with power anymore. I opted for the Powertap SL2.4 because of its light weight and wireless transmission. I was torn between going with a wired version for a little bit less money, but figured what the heck, i never buy nice things, so i might as well buy something nice for the first time in my life. Here it is on my bike:
you'll have to excuse the bazillion spokes behind my bike in the picture, i had it set up next to my townie and mtb. I also bought myself a nicer set of Northwave Aerlite 3 shoes. Compared to the Shimano R-099's i was riding on (which were made for "sport/fitness", and certainly not racing), these are waaaay stiffer, better fitting, and much better looking:
That's all for now.

Upcoming Races:
-Table Mt. Criterium (Tuesday)
-Record Racer TT (Wednesday)
-Glenwood Springs RR (Saturday, hopefully)
-Glenwood Springs Criterium (Sunday)