Training Camp = Boot Camp??

Soo I've been procrastinating like usual by wasting my tie on cyclinenews.com loo9king at all the latest and I have since decided that a true training camp doesn't involve the bike at all. I would post the link but fear from being subjected to copyright issues I will jsut provide the link, Millar  and Garmin/Chipotle company have been out playing team paintball while the schleck brothers are training to be navy seals and becoming adept at firing off handguns and swiming in from an swift zodiac. I gotta say I'm pretty jealous, I wish that my team camp involved base jumping or small arms training but I think Spain will suffice! Anything is a welcome change after training here for weeks in the cold. 

Oh yea hey look its Dec 1st! Goody Goody, that much closer to the 09 season and very close to finishing up my edgumacation.

Thanksgiving Day Ride

So I finally saddled up after two weeks of being off the bike. I soon found out how much i was out of shape when i reached the top of my local hill climb. The cold air didn't help at all nor did an intense hc to warm up. Needless to say I felt like I had asthma but soon subsided. I did the same route I did when I was at home last since i know its about thirty miles with some good climbs and descents but not the best in the county. The first couple pedal strokes had that uneasy, awkward, feeling that happens from being off the bike fora while. This ride really cleared out the cobwebs for me to ride with the team on sunday, otherwise I wouldn't be able to last 60 miles and some mild attacks. But I surprised my self and rode just fine without too much pain. Of course some one attacked and I followed to counter....etc...etc..etc. It's amazing how much better you feel after a ride from being off for so long. Just makes you want to ride more! Who Knows, I may even ride here on the eastern shore......cain't......wait.  Now I get to job hunt after I graduate, for a PART TIME job that is.

Heres to You Shivering Cyclist

Its all too often that we read about all the warm, nice places pro cyclists visit to train. "The weather is 75 degrees and sunny here in Arizona," or "I checked the weather back at home and it just doesn't compare to the balmy forecast for today!" Unfortunately not all of us are lucky enough to have to luxury to ride in summer kits all season long, and it would be a dream come true without a doubt. SO I dedicate this one to those of us who slug it out in the cold, day in and day out. Here in Annapolis there are many of us who can only squeeze out a ride after hours-- after the last ray of sunshine has been cast.  With head lights beaming and the fleece lycra reflecting we ride until our hands and toes go numb. At the time, I would have never thought I would say that I miss training in the cold-- which I don't! But I think I have begun to appreciate it. Suffering in the cold makes you appreciate the warm weather so much more and adds that sugary coating to the upcoming race season that is now underway.  And besides, what nut is going to ride a bike when the temperature is enough to make a slushy out of your hammer drink mix? So what if I have to put toe warmers in my shoes before I go out to ride and find the warmest pair of Pearl Izumi fleece tights that's not already frozen from yesterday, It won't stop me from riding. So while you decide which spf sunscreen to apply and get a jump start on your tan, we'll be out here, wiping the fog from our glasses as our rapid breath trails give evidence to our intervals. See you in the spring!!

p.s.- could frostbite be the new battle scar???  

Thesis thesis thesis

Thesis, thesis thesis...rightfully titled and I beg the question of will it ever end? The last push is always the hardest cause you just want to be done with it! I keep telling myself "just one more day of solid work and then its all editing" Well one more day quickly becomes three more solid days. I guess I'll just shut up and get it done...

Update for a long over due.....update

So its been a while since July, or my last post. I have since left beautiful Colorado and moved back to the east coast to finish up my degree in Env studies here at the wonderful school of Washington College in the ever so interestingly flat lands of the eastern shore. I've been uber busy with work from writing a thesis in one semester along with all my other class work. I don't think I have touched my bike in about two weeks and its beginning to kill me of being so inactive after such a long season.

I have since changed teams again, I wanted to go back to Colorado for the next season with Rocky Mtn Bicycles but this time I would have been paying for everything on my own which I would not be able to do well while living in Boulder, which is where my sights are set for my next move out. So for the next year I'm moving back home with the rents but the good thing is that I don;t have to pay rent. Even though I didn't get what i wanted, this may actually be the best option. I can definitely get my cat 1 upgrade while out here where the racing is easier, unlike the crits in Boulder where at least ten of the top us pros will show up and have you balls-to-the-wall-sucking-air-out-of-your-eyeballs, just tyring to hang on. Great for making you stronger but not so good for trying to upgrade fast. SO-- get my cat 1, save some money, maybe get an intern ship to get my foot in the door of the real world for when i decide to switch over (not anytime soon!!!!), and win some races. I signed up with my old team, ABRT/Latitude since they were putting together an elite team for this coming season. Were gonna have white kits (fingers crossed). Just thinking about it makes me wish I was lining up tomorrow. The hills of Middletown valley will provide some good training which Im really looking forward to as well. Ive ridden some at home but never for an extended period of time. There arn't any snow capped peaks but there are some grades that hit close to 18% to plenty of pain to go around!
Ok, back to slaving away with my nose to the grindstone. It's nice to know these are the last projects I will have to work on for academia for a while...

Time to Update

Ok so its been just over a month since my last post...time to update. The last two crits that ive done i haven't finished...aka...been dropped. That was the Glenwood Springs crit and more recently the Niwot crit. Niwot was especially difficult due to the tiny course- not to mention the stacked line up with Tom Danielson shelling the pack from the get go. Held on as long as I could and that was that. I think 30 or so finished out of about 90? Yup need to stay in the front, that's the key.
But in two days I am leaving for the last week of Super Week out in Chicago. I will be racing every day for 8 straight days with a big crit in the Downtown of Chicago for the last day. This one has 25,000 big ones just for the pro field that pays 25 deep. I'd be happy for 20th but I'm feeling that I can do even better, top 10? Yeah top ten. Last week was a huge rest week for me. I have been over due and I really took it seriously- all I did was ride to work and back with about 3 days off the bike entirely. While I was well rested ti didn't help to do the Niwot crit just afterwards with no real riding in between but thats ok. It took me a couple days of hard riding to get me feeling like my usual self again, and actually I'm feeling much stronger than before- like stupid strong. I've been working on my pedal stroke, concentrating on pulling the mud off my shoes when my leg comes back around. Its now to the point where I don't have to think ab out it anymore which is where it should have been all along. Ive been mashing the entirety of three years and missing out on a good chunk of power. So I climbed rist yesterday to compare my time to the time of my first day back from the long rest week. Last week I climbed Rist (starting from the last dirt road on the right just before the climb really starts) in ab out 52 min + change. It hurt a lot too. Its been awhile since I have suffered that hard up rist. Yesterday I did it in 48:30. Before I leave for school I want to get under 45min. There was a bit of a head wind yesterday as well so that could give me a min or two under ideal conditions. But overall I was putting out lots more power than before, even more so on the reservoir hills coming back into town. I'm usually not one to focus all my efforts around numbers but I was pushing out a constant 420-470 watts climbing. Now I cain't sustain that effort for long periods of time, like there is no way I can sustain that all the way up rist, least now yet anyway, but up these shorter climbs I was amazed at the power I was putting out all while staying under the red. Which is making me really excited for the group ride tonight. They better damn well do the hills tonight than the freakin flats. Who rides the flats around here anyway??? Geese!!!
This will be the first real group ride with my newly found power, more to come tonight...

Well I never made it to Tulsa. Team Legacy was all full up so I stayed in town that weekend. I did some local races instead, one was Hugo and a crit the following sunday in City Park in denver. I got 23rd in both of them actually but the crit was much more difficult. The road race scene out here kinda sux, nothing compared to back east or in California so I hear. Hugo broke eup fast into two groups. We were all stuck in the second group and no one wanted to work to bridge the gap so it never happened. BMC rider John Garcia and a Jelly Belly rider were with us as well trying to get people to work but no one wanted to pull through. It was really windy and guttered the entire day...not fun. The crit was much more exciting though. That was by far the most difficult crit, and only my second pro crit, ever. I was red lined for half of the race as I tried to get in a break away to no avail and covering attacks from others. Tough but I finished in the back of the front group. I was red lined for the sprint so I couldn't throw down for a sprint.
The western slope omnium is coming up this weekend and its gonna require an over night stay which I can't afford. I might end up sleeping in my car if I can't find anyone to split a hotel room with. I'm gonna send out some emails and see what happens. Theres a road race and a crit with not a lot of people signed up so maybe that's a good thing. I might be able to get some points this weekend.

Quietly Freaking Out

So since i have returned from Tour of Arkansas I have been recovering to go back to Tulsa, OK this weekend for the Tulsa Tough crit series. There's a lot of money in each race that pays 25 deep. The pros have been separated from the cat 1/2's so that means I have a chance of placing top 10 or better. Definitely in the money and not to mention points for a cat 1 upgrade. The only problem is my teammate has bailed on me and I am now by myself with no one to travel with and split costs. So Courtney told me that some local guys from Team Legacy were going down so I have contacted the team directors hoping that they can forward the message to the rest of the team but I also stalked one of the team members on facebook and sent him a message. I figured that woudl be the quickest way to get one of their attention and just prey that they want to carpool down. I ran some numbers and the maximum amount of money I have for this trip is about 575 bucks, 650 by re-maxing out my credit card, and 1,050 if I cut into my rent money which is absolutely a last resort. If I go by myself it will cost about 565 which will be really pushing it. I have not been able to work lately since I have been taking off so much for these big races and its really pinching my wallet. I got screwed earlier in the month when my teammate bailed on my for Tour of Gila since I had already asked off I couldn't work. And now the time I haven't been working is catching up to me. While if I have to go by myself I could prolly squeeze my accounts dry and just barely make it. Although I know when I come back I would be super screwed financially. I Would definitely be eating lots of pasta and commuting rain or tornado. There is still a race this weekend that I can do with the team and save money in the end which would be Hugo and I hear that its a lot of fun.
So by this point if I don't have anyone to travel with I'm not going and I'll stay here. If the legacy guys get back to me it might be another story. We'll see....

Heres a post from my old team's list serve. One teammate that I had gone to spain with earlier this year for a training camp was spectating along side the climb of Mt. Nebo at the end of day 2 for the tour of Arkansas.

"While the results are still being reviewed I can tell you that Nat finished
the tour of Arkansas probably somewhere around 50th (57 I think) place in the GC. While
this might not sound like much it is actually quite remarkable under the
circumstances. The race had over 100 starters many of whom abandoned at
some point, or missed the time cut. In addition this was an NRC event so
all of the heavy hitters were there including Health Net, Jelly Belly, Type
1, and Rite Aid. All of these squads had a full compliment of riders with
full support. Nat had one teammate to help him, and no team car, etc.
Also to my knowledge this was Nat's first pro stage race. Why he picked an
NRC race only he can tell us. Nat was in there as a cat 2 against a field
that was mostly pro, and cat 1.

If you throw out Nat's time gap from the first stage he'd easily be top 30
if not higher. Of course that is all part of the learning experience. Now
if we could only keep Nat out of Hooter's between stages....

Seriously though this type of performance will hopefully get Nat some
exposure, and a possible pro contract in the future. While I never did get
a chance to catch up with Nat over the weekend the one time I did see him
on the climb to the top of Mt Nebo (which was insanely steep!) he looked
fairly comfortable given how hard the course was.

Last I heard Nat was planning on coming back to the area this Fall. If
that is still the case, and you think the Tuesday night rides are bad now....!"

Tour of Arkansas

Travel Day 1
Courtney and I (Nat) left for Arkansas on Tuesday evening for the long haul into Kansas. With two boxes of food, loads power bars and gels, bike tools, and two bikes on top we were ready to rock the pants, er um overalls, off Arkansas. We arrived in Hayes with heavy eyelids for a cheap hotel room with internet after we got a tip from a local on the where abouts for a cheap hotel room. The next morning we had plenty of time so we went for a ride in lovely Hayes. As you can see on the map Hayes is not very big and its surrounded by nothing so we tried out best. Every side road that we turned on eventually turned into loose dirt forcing us to turn around but we eventually got about an hour or so in. This was important since stage 1 was tomorrow and it wasn't good to sit in a car all day before hand. After our breakfast at the local Village Inn we were back on the road and quickly headed south through Wichita and into Oklahoma. My Google directions were serving us well into Russellville until we had to locate the house of our hosts. We stopped by the local race hotel to get our race packets and then onto the host house. We were stationed about ten miles north out of town in a little town called Dover. My directions pointed us the wrong way and we ended up on a dead end gravel road in the middle of the night. After dodging the low lying limbs to prevent damage to our race machines we finally made it back on the right track and got directions after calling our hosts. We stayed with Diane and Marvin Morgan, the family dog Nugget, and Marble the cat. Diane and Marvin graciously accepted us into their home for the next two nights and even fed us.
After 1,000 miles of driving we were ready to ride and get the first stage of the Tour of Arkansas under way. Courtney was having some trouble with his front derailleur so being a bike mechanic I took a look at it and was able to fix it by adjusting its position on the braze on clamp. This really didn't go very far in getting it tip top since the next day his rear hanger somehow got bent before the first stage which was also eventually fixed. After tinkering we went to the local car wash we had spotted during our late night dirt road excursion to wash our bikes. I was a little skeptical at first of taking a high pressure hose to my bike but after some convincing Courtney showed my how. After all our bike shenanigans I tried not to think of how difficult tomorrow was going to be and just concentrate on getting some sleep. We said goodnight to our hosts to catch as much sleep as possible for the day ahead.

Ode to the Nice Motorists

Well if I'm gonna rant about the bad motorists have to give credit to the nice ones. Yes, they do exist but are few and far between it seems with all the aggression we cyclists face on a daily basis. You know it will only take maybe 20 seconds out of your day to just wait until you can pass us with a safe distance in between. Just slow down and take a deep breath, its gonna be ok lol. When ever I see that a motorists has gone out of their way to avoid hitting me I give them a wave and say thanks. Like the ones who wait for you to pass before they pull out even though they could have made it by flooring it, or those who wait until you pass through the intersection so they can turn right BEHIND you rather than speeding up in front of you just to cut you off. I have even had people stop their cars to ask if I was ok when fixing a flat. Heres to you nice motorists! May you fill the streets and teach all the others some patience.

Ventilation is Good

That last post was a lot of pent up ventilation from yesterday's ride up Rist Canyon. Like George Carlin said "I don't have pet peaves, I have major psychotic effin hatreds!" When it comes to stupid motorists and bikes that is. I had 4 cars, ahem trucks, buzz my friend and I. I was taking one of the directors from REI's headquarters out for a ride. Each truck was going at least 20 over the speed limit and one waved for us to get over, I waved back. It makes 'em so mad when they make an obscene gesture, displaying their ignorance and stupidity, and you just send a "friendly" wave back. I have never experienced so much aggression from motorists than here in CO, even in boulder, and I came from the cycling scene in eastern MD which is quite unaccepting but at least they will usually leave you in (one) peace* and give you some room when passing.
I was out on a group ride about a month ago when the unbelievable happened. This a bi-weekly lunch group ride out of the Hewlett Packard plant in the east side of town. Its a short, high intensity ride usually with a sprint at the end. So we're gearing up for the sprint when a passing cop flashes his lights, whips it around, and races to the front of the pack to cut us off. I would have never thought in a million years that a cop would pull over a group ride. So while the cop is explaining how he gets a dozen calls a day about motorists complaining about cyclists taking up their precious road an approaching mini van with a soccer mom behind the wheel slows down enough to give the cop a thumbs up and mouthed a thank you. You know,I don't get angry very often, it takes a whole hell of a lot for me to go off but I was almost at that point. Witnessing this just made my blood boil. I guess its a good thing that she sped off and there was a cop standing 2 feet in front of me.
So supposedly theres this law cop was explaining to us that had got to be the most retarded thing I have ever herd, in terms of laws that is. So when a car is approaching from behind a group of cyclists, when it gets to within 300 ft the group it supposed to all form into a single file. If not we can all get citations, which I would love to see hold up in court against assaulting pick up drivers who are drunk half the time. BUT, a cyclists can also get pulled over for being drunk just like a motorist- even though the only person he/she will hurt will be themselves. Back in Maryland the rule was groups of cyclists cannot be wider than two abreast into the lane. Not out here. I was on a group ride with the team last weekend in Boulder and I think we got beeped at and had motorists display single digit IQ's about 5 or 6 times.
So don't forget, they own the road and you have absolutely no right to ride your bike on any road except your driveway because they pay the taxes and of course we don't.

Another Race Cancellation...

So yet another race had been canceled in the front range are of CO. This is beginning to become quite frustrating-- especially when the race was in your home town where all of your friends and family could come out for support. The Boulder crit series was totally nixed earlier in the season which was a huge bummer and multiple races have been re-scheduled for later in the season. A teammate forwarded this email around explaining that because of the National Collegiate Championships being just a month before this race that they town has canceled the following crit due to street closures and complaining residents. One of my coworkers at REI got her car towed because of the race. Supposedly there were no signs within the vicinity explaining the potential problems of getting your car towed. Wrong place wrong time but if there were no signs there definitely should have been. Still, this town needs to man up and all the "good 'ole boys" need to pack up they're Dubya bumper stickers on the back of they're gas guzzling dualie pick up trucks and go back to the conservative, narrow minded, racist shanties where they belong. Ft. Collins is neck and neck with Boulder in being a liberal cycling town and it needs to show it. In fact I like Ft. Collins much better since we leave behind all the smug people who think its trendy to shop at Whole Paycheck.
Anyway, I'm sad to see another race canceled and I know its not a perfect world where everyone is a cyclist and gives a thumbs up and an entire lane when passing on the far left shoulder- but I can dream cain't I?

Am I Cool Now??

So now that I have my very own blog I guess my level of coolness just went up a couple notches, 'brushes dirt off shoulder'. I figured that since no one is around the house to hear my rants and raves that the entire Internet community would be a good audience. So for those who don't know me yet my name is Nat and I am currently living in Ft. Collins, Co. I moved here to train for cycling since this area of Colorado is the mecca for cycling in the States. I have since upgraded to cat 2 after winning the Tokyo Joe Crit about a month ago. I didn't need the points but the director of a local Elite team in Boulder wanted me to get a win before I cat up and I now understand why. The racing out here is so much harder than anywhere I have experienced. Even the cat3 races out here are like the cat 2's back east. Its tough but if you can hang with the pros (and I'm talking the the real deal like Toyota United, Health Net, Jelly Belly, Slipstream, etc...) you get stronger in a very short period of time. I have yet to finish with the front pack in any of the 3 pro races I have done yet this year but that's ok. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I'll get there eventually. If I can just be there for the sprint I think I could do pretty well. At least later in the season.
In two days from now I am leaving for the Tour of Arkansas. A four day stage race in the Ozark mtns. Besides the final crit each stage is about 100 miles with lots of climbing. This is the first really big race for me but I'm hoping that the low altitude will really help. I got to see what the difference was like when i went to Spain for a training camp earlier in the season. It feel like you have a third lung and you can recover so much faster. I'm gonna need all the help I can get but my new teammate is coming with me and I got us free host housing for the entire trip, saweet!
Oh by the way my new team is Rocky Mountain Bikes/STOK