Hermann CX Race

Summer is going by way too fast. The only good thing that comes with that is cyclocross season is right around the corner. If you've never raced cross, a good place to start is in Hermann, Missouri for the Hermann CX weekend September 15-16. It's an awesome race, well run, well attended, and a complete blast. Click on the banner at the top of the page if you want more details.

Snow Day!

The best part of having a snow day? Spending the day with my wife and son. Its funny watching him play right now because at this point he thinks everything needs to go in his mouth. Including my nose, his soccer ball, or anything else you put in front of him!

Supper....Again

As momma once said, "Come and get it!".

My culinary skills are improving. I bet I could make the sauce from memory and not screw a thing up! Looks and tastes good:-)

Supper!!!

Cooked a complete supper tonight. Of course, Jess gave me the recipe and bought all the ingredients. But still. Looks good, huh? Chicken-Biscuit Pot Pie. Thanks goes to
Betty Crocker for the recipe also! Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks and smells!

Time off the bike...

New Year's Eve was the last day I rode a bicycle. Yes, I'm been going crazy. By now though I'm just getting antsy about not doing any type of physical activity at all. Since I have been on a cycling hiatus I have had quite a bit of time on my hands. This is how I like to spend it...

1) with Ethan

2) with Jessie

3) working on my bicycles

4) working around the house

5) working

Alright, one of the above is not true. Can you guess the correct answer?

Bike Vacation

Day two of my bike vacation has now passed and I am feeling more and more comfortable with taking some extended time off the bike. With the extra time I have been able to get a few things around the house accomplished and more importantly spent a great deal of extra time with Ethan and Jess. I plan to go for a screening this week at Advance Physical Therapy and see if I need to go in for treatment. Fingers crossed that some time off the bike and stretching does the trick.

Turtle Slayer!!!

Soooo....it's been a while!

The last time I posted I probably mentioned that I would post more frequently. Well, just about 6 months later I am finally getting around to adding a new post.

Right now my wife is in the bathroom giving our son Ethan a bath. I am watching the Arsenal game (winning 1-0). It is cold outside. I should be grading papers. There is plenty of work to be done around the house. And yet, I remain firmly planted on the sofa. Things to be done today?

1) Watch soccer. Arsenal just scored and went ahead 2-0
2) Play with Ethan
3) Rake leaves
4) Exchange Chrismas presents at Kohls
5) Remove stuck seatpost from Cannondale frame

Short list, huh? No bicycle ride either. I'm taking a short break. My back's been killing me.

Anyway, bath time is about over so it's time to go play with Ethan.

Later

Summer Update #1

I have accomplished a few things from the original list for Summer of Fun 8. For starters, I have ridden my bike a lot. Not much of a surprise, huh? Our trip to Washington went well, although we did have a few complications along the way. Great River Soccer Camp was a huge success once again! We had over 100 campers in our Quincy/Keokuk locations... a record number for us I believe. We've done the camp 5 years now and it continues to get better and better. I have attempted to spoil my very pregnant wife as much as possible, but unfortunately for her it seems that I am not very good at it. I swear I will give her a proper foot massage soon though!

With our son due in 6 weeks I have taken it upon myself to tackle a few summer projects. Jessie helped me compile a "to do" list around the house and with the help of my wonderful Mother have accomplished most of them already. You know what that means, right? Yep...more time to ride my bicycle.

Speaking of bicycle riding, my form is coming along nicely I believe. I've had a couple of rough races the last month, but altogether am pleased with the way things have gone. I took a couple of DNF's (did not finish) in road races this year due to excessive cramping, but have done fine in the shorter higher paced crit races. My teammate David and I travelled to a couple of races together and we (and him especially) have had good success. David won the Fox River Grove crit and took second at the Champaign Crit. He followed that up by taking second at the Illinois State Crit Championship, while I finished 7th. Although not entirely pleased with my finish, I was at least satisfied with the result. I'm still training hard and expect to do well in the last two months of road season. After that? CYCLOCROSS STARTS! I can't wait.

Summer of Fun 8

Here are the top 8 events for SUMMER OF FUN 8 listed in no particular order:

1) The birth of my son (this does take priority and certainly deserves top spot haha)
2) Ride my bicycle, a lot
3) Celebrate our first anniversary! (suggestions anyone?)
4) Return to Washington, D.C. with 89 QJHS students..CAN'T WAIT TO GO TO THE CAPITOL!
5) Coach at Great River Soccer Academy (signup at greatriversoccer.com)
6) Visit my younger brother in Texas (and maybe bump into Lance...)
7) Race my bicycle, a lot
8) Attempt to spoil my very pregnant wife and help her stay comfortable during the hot summer months!

So I lied, the birth of son will certainly be the highlight of the summer. ETA 8/16/10. I'm trying to convince him to arrive a week or so early though, for purely selfish reasons of course. His actual due date is the first day of school so that would definitely complicate things in the beginning of the year...but who cares really. If he wants to stay in there a little longer then I would like I would be in no position to complain. I'm sure it wouldn't be the last time he goes against the wishes of his father! haha

Anyway, I celebrated the beginning of summer by going on a 60 mile bike ride and taking my wife to lunch. Two things I never get to do on a weekday during the school year. Tomorrow is graduation, which of course I will be attending as a chaperone. I'm excited about this, of course. Then Sunday and Monday I'll be racing in the Quad Cities area. I'm hoping to do well over the next couple of weeks as my legs feel great.

Off to do some yard work....which didn't even make the list this year!

Greensfelder XC Race Report

Here are just a few things I have learned about mountain bike racing.
1) Mountain bike racing is hard.
2) I don't like mountain bike racing.
3) I am not that good at mountain bike racing.
4) In the Midwest we don't race on mountains.
5) There are few smooth sections on most mountain bike courses.
6) I really like to ride on smooth sections when I am racing my mountain bike.
7) I don't think I will be racing my mountain bike anymore unless the whole course consists of one LONG smooth section.

Ok, now for the race report.

I finished 6th out of 20 or so riders.

I don't like mountain bike racing.

Belleville Pro-Am Crit

After the last couple road races I started to feel that my fitness level was pretty good. Sooo, when I arrived in Belleville I thought good things might happen that day. Only 35 riders lined up that day, but among them were some pretty good riders. The race started quickly on a 6 turn course that turned out to be a really nice time. Coming up the back side of the course was a 3 block long climb, and it's here where I knew the race would be decided. After talking to Darrell before the race and pre-riding the course a few times I knew it would be necessary to be first or second coming out of the last corner. From there the finish was only 200 meters away. There were few fireworks during the race, and as it drug on I knew an attack up the hill on the last lap might win the race.

I positioned myself well the entire race, and turning onto the hill I was positioned well for the attack. I only sat about 5 or 6 riders from the front, and when the pace slightly slowed part way up the hill I attacked up the outside. Immediately I had a sizeable gap. Then I heard the awful sound from behind that is very distinctive in bicycle racing. A crash.

I forced my head down and put all my effort into the pedals. I went into the second to last corner with my gap over the field intact. 100 meters to the last turn.

As I swung wide and took a glance over my right shoulder going into the final corner, I saw that my gap over the field still remained. 200 meters to the finish.

I knew at this point that the race was mine. I hammered on the pedals a few final times and was able to roll comfortably across the finish line with a fist clinched in celebration. Victory.

It has been a while since my last road win, so I felt very satisfied with what I accomplished on the day. I think you can sense my satisfaction from looking at the photos taken by Eville Mike that day. Winner.

2010 Belleville Crit, Cat 3 - 4

Iowa City Road Race

David and I decided to head to Iowa City to take on the corn fed crowd in the short Iowa City Road Race. Short by road race standards that is, we still had to race/ride our bicycles 52 miles. The drive to the race venue was quite interesting and was probably my favorite part of the day. I chose to get off the beaten path and stray from my google directions. Bad idea. While traversing through Amish country I about took out an old man driving too fast down the gravel road we were on. He thought it would be a good idea to drive down the middle of the road, then upon seeing me heading straight at him he swerved to his right. This threw his truck into a fishtail that he barely was able to bring himself out of it. It was a close call. And while I say the roads were gravel, most of the gravel had been washed away and the Honda was forced to play the part of an ATV while it squiggled its way through the mud. It was a blast!

I did finally race that day, and it was pretty uneventful. Small field... 30 riders or so. David and I attacked quite a bit but nothing stuck. Field sprint seemed inevitable. The finish was a bit unusual as we didn't have both lanes to sprint, and things got a little sketchy as speeds ramped up. After positioning myself poorly for the finish I was able to cross the line in a tie for 6th. Not a great result, but my legs felt great. I'm starting to think road races are not my forte. Maybe I should just stick to crits...

Tour of Hermann Race Report

Let me begin by saying the Tour of Hermann is by far the hardest road race of the season. The course has CRAZY hills and they seem non-stop from start to finish. My main goal for the day was to make sure I got into the winning breakaway, and fortunately I was able to do it...unfortunately the break contained about 40 riders! Seriously, who would have thought the race wouldn't have broken up more!

Anyway, 75 riders rolled out of Hermann for the start of the 60 mile road race. Things went well for most of the race and I thought I would end up with a good finish. I usually have problems cramping in long races, so early on I made sure I was drinking plenty of water. On the start of the second lap the field shattered as I set a difficult pace up the Hermann Hill. At that point the main field was down to about 40 riders. A couple of breaks tried to get away for the next 20 miles but nothing serious ever materialized. Finally with 10 to go the field realized the last major hill would be where the race was decided and the leaders would make a mad dash into town for a field sprint.

With this in mind I made sure I positioned myself on the front line for the hill. From the summit we would have less than two miles to the finish, so I knew that I needed to be up front to have any chance at winning. My legs were feeling fine as we began the climb, but about half way up my legs began to cramp. It was a helpless feeling. I suddenly felt like I was riding in reverse after riders began passing me on both sides. All I could do to stay upright was soft pedal and hope to get to the summit without having to hop off my bike to stretch my seized up hamstrings. Fortunately I made it to the top, but I soon found myself behind almost everyone remaining in the main field.

Over the top of the climb, and with some relief to my legs, I began to let it rip on the downhill. I quickly caught up to the field but now found it difficult to squirm my way through the remaining riders to get my way to the front of the field. I gave it a shot, and inside that last mile gave myself an opportunity to sprint to a finish inside the top 20.

Officially... 18th. A disappointment for sure, but a result I will definitely learn from. Most importantly my fitness right now is the best it's ever been. Now all I have to do is learn to race a little more intelligently and I think the results will follow. As for the cramping issue, it still remains a mystery. Hydration wasn't the issue, but I think now I will have to begin drinking electrolyte replacement drinks in any race over an hour. I'll find out soon if this will work, as Saturday I go to the Hawkeye state to compete in the Iowa City Road Race, another 60 miler. Wish me luck ;)