Philadelphia International Airport

I rode down to the airport for a nice lunch time ride. After yesterday's hard sprint workout, I wasn't sure what my legs would be up for. I was initially thinking to ride two hours medium tempo; a couple laps of the airport plus a lap in the Heinz Wildlife Refuge. Once I got down the airport though my legs were feeling good and medium tempo turned into a solid 20 minutes at hard tempo, just under threshold. 10 minutes recovery took me perfectly back to the beginning of the loop so I figured 3 x 20's were in order. The second 20 was very hard right at threshold while the third 20 was difficult, and not quite as hard power wise. Now that I'm home and have had a great post ride recovery smoothie, my legs are really unhappy I made them do that. Unfortunately, I might not get out at all tomorrow, so this was too good an opportunity to miss.

Bear MTN

I've had great experiences at this race, as well as some of the worst. I was beginning to think that it was the cold and rain of the past few years ruining my ability to do well, and that this years good weather was going to bode well for me. Unfortunately, good weather or no, lack of climbing legs is the first thing that took me out of contention. Wow, this was a hard and fast race. I felt great the first two laps, easily staying with the field up the main climb and the subsequent rollers. However, gravity and time took their toll and I lost them at the beginning of lap three's long climb. I stuck it out and completed two more laps mostly solo before pulling the plug when my body just shut down. Too much sugar and no good solid food was not making me happy! I have an idea again of what I'm training for and have motivation and high expectations for the coming race at Bear MTN in September.

Good top ten list

Here is a list of things to think about as you are preparing your race season, setting goals, and developing as a racer. Click through for the article at saris.com

Memorial Hall Criterium

Go Full Gas athletes had a successful weekend of racing, with stellar results to show for it. Craig Lebair doubled up, racing the cat 3/4 and the 1/2/3, navigating the rain and riders crashing, with a field sprint win for third place in the 3/4 and holding tight in the 1/2/3 for a 21st place, totaling some 2.5 hours of racing! Mike Csuy raced both the 45+ and the cat 3/4. Even though he has a great sprint, he isn't afraid to work in a breakaway, and was endlessly attacking or bridging up to potential moves. However, most of the races resulted in field sprints and Mike took 5th in the 45+ and worked hard in the 3/4 to help set up Craig for the sprint.
In the Woman's 1/2/3 Kelley Bethoney belied her sprinters legs with multiple moves off the front, ending up with a 10th place sprint in the field, for 13th overall after three women broke off the front early on.
Yours truly survived after a week without training and worked to set up Craig for the sprint, chasing down breaks and keeping the tempo high. Unfortunately, I didn't have legs for the last two laps to chase down the two riders who broke away at the end.

Drives Ride

I did the drives ride this week, not really meeting up with anyone in particular, but I ran in to Woody and Dan, Ashley D., and a handful of others. Woody and I discussed ways we could save the Philly International Pro Race. Fortunately, they didn't need our help.
I realized that, while it is a good workout, the benefits (hard effort, race pace, ?) don't outweigh the negatives (too big a group, lack of competitiveness, sketchiness, guaranteed crash, etc) for me on that ride. The AM sprint workout is harder, more race like, and even more competitive, for a more all around effort. And the smaller groups means there's no hiding.

Lower Providence Race Report

Craig Matt H and I lined up with one goal, deliver Craig to the line for the field sprint. We weren’t terribly concerned with breakaways, but we weren’t going to let something silly get away, like a group of 10 or something. The race was mostly status quo, save for the bakers dozen QCW riders at the line. Literally, thirteen of them. They raced smart and repeatedly counter attacked until they finally got two riders up the road, Sean and Tyler I believe. They only had 5-10 seconds for a few laps, and I wasn’t too worried about it. I asked Craig if he preferred I work to chase them down or save it for the lead out, as I only would have juice for one or the other.
Since he chose the lead out I just decided to forget about them. I was still surprised that the other larger teams couldn’t put a chase together. Everyone seemed to think they could bridge solo, instead of working together. With the windy course, that wasn’t going to happen. Due to the wind though, drafting was very key to staying safe, as there was a head or crosswind on three sides of the course. I think this was a factor in lots of people getting dropped.
What finally gave the break the last little push it needed to succeed was a terribly disgusting sounding crash, that I could hear echoing off of the buildings before I could hear the sound directly. I was in second wheel with Craig dutifully right behind me and all of a sudden there was the tell tale metal crunching, tire popping, brake squeeking nastiness of a multi-rider pile up. Matt H crushed some guy after sending his own bike (and Craigs wheels) sailing through the air. He was able to walk away thankfully. This happened in the right shoulder cross wind section and resulted from over lapped wheels.
So we’re down to the last three laps. Craig knows to hang onto my wheel like he owns it. We are doing a great job staying at the front and playing it smart and safe. We’re coming into the last lap and Craig starts telling me “all the way around, keep it up”. As a couple guys had tried attacking already on this lap, I was thinking “Okay this is it, grit your teeth and go”. I dial it up, not sure if it was actually fast, or just painful. I take it around two damn corners into the finishing straight. I’m thinking with Craig in second wheel I’m gonna drop him off too early. But I dig deep and start sprinting. I’m dying, digging so deep I can’t think. I shift it two gears harder. Out of the saddle not even looking ahead.
I can’t believe Craig hasn’t come around. In fact, no one has. Is Craig letting me take third?
RING RING RING RING RING goes the bell signaling last lap. FUCK!
I pull off, apologize to Craig for being a total idiot and leave him to fend for himself. I swallow the puke in my mouth, cool down for two laps, and go straight to the car and drink six beers while watching the ladies race.

Early Riding

Got up early to meet Mike C. to ride for a couple hours. Here's the sun rising behind the city and my big head. We headed out W. River and did six of the eight hills on the usual ride out to Conshohocken and back. Keeping a steady tempo, we were back at the Art Museum bu 8:15, a solid 1h45 of riding and a total of 2h15 for me, after a super hard 2 hours the day previous. I've had a nice two easy days since and I'm ready to tear up the wet roads tomorrow. I'm going to head over to NJ for the UNO ride, I hope there's someone else with the same idea!