Toby Doesn't Work

Ahhhh yes. The ironic title of this blog has not escaped me.

And it's arisen to my conscious that perhaps I should have named it tobywerks. To give it an Anglo-German twist that might properly reflect my desire to describe the fact that I'd like to showcase the product of the "Tobyworks" process.

Perhaps the title should be: "Toby's Blog. Where he'll post about something mildly interesting from time to time."

Nice.

Done.

Video Update

Hey. As an addition to my complaint about Chandler's dumb ass race tactics. Here's video proof of his encounter with a brightly painted stump.

NBX Cat 3 Bar Cam Bonus Footage from colin reuter on Vimeo.

nice

Back 'er up

Hey here's a couple of round ups from races.

Lowell way back: Front row start next to stars and stripes. (Thanks sandbaging/being fast!) I was holding my own with the front group, whom I arguably had no business being with, for the first lap. And was working too hard. But I felt like I could hang for a while. But then I decided to take an alternate line coming onto the track around the ball field. And it was a horrible line, I hit a post went way or course, had to dodge the tape to get back on track, and lost the lead group. So I was in the chase.
On the next lap a couple of juniors hit it way too hard for a sixty minute race.
My race settled into a battle between Matt Myette, Chris Hamlin and me.
I had raced against Chris last weekend and Paradise cross and was hoping I could prevail again.

Sure enough Chris led for too long, and on the last lap when he decided to pull over and let someone else take a turn, it was all systems go, and Matt hung on to my wheel as we opened enough of a cushion. Through the last few turns I had no choice but to try and hit it hard and hope to toast Matt. It was enough and he let me hold on to a 9th place finish. Bummer I made such a bone head move in the beginning. But we had a good race and you have to take chances some wheres.


Day two at NBX was pretty vanilla. The highlights were that: the first lap wasn't as hard as it was on Saturday; Chandler didn't crash in front of me; I mached any attacks; I followed Nate Morse for a while, but once Adam St. Germain started catching up I took off for the win. Yeah, great, a win...man I need to upgrade.


Ice weasels.
Not only did I get heckled for racing the 3's the past two weekends, I got heckled for warming up period, warming up on a trainer. and not drinking beer before the race.
I broke my seatpost on lap three or so, by not finding my pedals as I rode down the fly over. The next two laps were ridding sans saddle. Which is way trickier than you may think. For sitting and for balance, plus remounting is really hard.
Thank you thank you goes out to Matt for rustling me up a bike with egg beaters on it. So awesome man, thanks! I don't think I could have done eight more laps without a saddle.

Since I rode for three laps without a saddle and rode the rest of the race on a new/random bike and still ended up 4th, I think it's safe to say I didn't take enough beer feeds...or carrot or cabbage feeds. sigh...

NBX Cross Race Report, day 1

Man it was cold this weekend. And really windy down there in Warwick(really East Gloucester). Nice and sunny on Saturday and lets start there.

I took my place next to the juniors as usual. Yeah, yeah and Ryan, and Chandler. Word around the heated bath-house was how flat the course was. "It's a grass crit!" "Hope you brought your road bike!" "You good at road racing?" "Total power course!" True, it definitely was not a very interesting course. But there was no riding the beach, so that made it interesting.

I think the most interesting part was the way the start worked out. We started on the pavement and had ages of room before we entered grass, tape and a couple of turns. But still it was so wide that the group/mass didn't break up, and there was lots of looking around to see what was going on and scoping moves.
I was up in the front and had to play some defense as we came into the first hairpin, where things got a little sticky. I rode around second into the back stretch before the sand and fricken Nate Morse had a date with the ground as he tried to make the sketchiest passes in the loose gravel. Seriously, just settled down! There's a huge train of people wheel to wheel. No one's going any where here.

The juniors led us around wicked hard, and I thought to me self, "This is hard. There's no way any of these guys can keep this up, if I'm having to work this hard..." But still as Curtis dangled out the front, I asked Chandler, "Can he really keep that up and stay out there?" The answer was decidedly NO.

So we made it around the course up the ride up, and almost to the carousel when Chandler got the boneheaded idea to pass Nate on the inside of an S turn. Seriously! Seriously...not only was that a retarded place to pass.(wait 'till we come out of a turn, or it's straight!) BUT THERE ARE STUMPS PAINTED BRIGHT ORANGE!!! Seriously Chandler? Seriously...

Yeah. So. Needless to say Chandler stacked it up on the bright orange stump and I had no choice but to pin his leg into his frame and fall down. The good news was that Ryan White fell with us, and that seemed to break his spirits for the day. A few people avoided our melee and got by. Namely Adam St Germain.

My stem was tweaked, and I had to stop at the barriers to (kind of) correct it. At that point I was feeling pretty dejected, and thought the race was riding away. But anything can happen, so I gave it a go. I passed by Chandler and give him a consolatory pat on the back, and then put my head down. I was surprised and pleased to see Kris Dobie rocking the Putney kit right in front of me. Plus the target Donny Green was not too far down the road.

On the last lap I saw Donny slip out on the turn going into the barriers and that was all I needed to put on the gas and pull him in. But to tell you the truth it's almost scary being behind that kid. For someone who rides his bike all day as a messenger, his lack of handling skills is staggering. On the pavement before the bathhouse, I watched as he went off the pavement (on a wide open two lane road) and nearly flipped over the guard rail. I did not want to be the caboose on his train...wait is that dirty?

So I passed him, and almost caught St Germain, ARg so close! 2nd!

BayState Cyclcross Days 1&2 Race Report

Here's how not to do well at a Cross race: Eat and drink lots for three days leading up to the race; do a hard stair and plyo workout on Thrusday; Get 5.5 hours of sleep the night before the race; wake up early and drive 3.5 hours to said race.
I just felt crappy on Saturday. In that "can't chase the pit from my stomache" kind of way.

But I lined up any way, and was sad to see Austin Pferd(Horse) pull up to the line. (Despite having already seen and chatted with him) And of course, once the gun(whistle) went off he was gone as if there was a $100 first lap preem. The sad thing was that there wasn't, but that Austin stayed out front for the rest of the day. I yelled at the juniors to not let him go, and then tried to bridge up to his wheel. Which I did for a half lap until it was clear that I didn't have the legs to crank out the watts to stay with him for five more laps. So I tosseled around aimlessly by myself until the juniors caught back up to me/I felt sorry for myself for starting to hard.

Oh then Donny Green came blasting through us like a bat out of hell. He was putting down some serious power output and took the juniors with him. So I dangled in no man's land keeping an eye over my should and settling into a rhythm(finally). And like Buser says,"Any thing can happen."

Sure enough on the last lap I blasted by Nate Morse who had seen Land Aho! Plus I almost made it up to Synjen, if only there was another lap! Gods you toy with me! Footnote: Don't give Synjen a push to get him back in the race after he falls no mater how ill/gentelmanly you feel.
A surprising fourth for feeling so damn crappy.


Okay Day 2
I was feeling MUCH! better after some sleep and some awesome Nu Thanksgiving that Sarah, Bear and I put together. AKA a roast chicken (who likes Turkey any way) plus all the fixens for less than thirty bucks and 90 minutes of cooking! Boo yah. Oh yeah, we had gravy....and really dry stuffing, but isn't that de rigeuer?

Again, the morning races were not on time which allowed only a lap or two of pre-riding on a very slippery and technical course. Am I the only one who has a hard time on day two figuring out where the course goes/making a mental map of it? Even on the last lap I wasn't completely sure where I was going next.

Oh hey, Ryan White...sweet, oh hey, Matt Mitchell...sweet, oh hey Chandler Delinks...sweet, plus the juniors, and Austin Pferd again. (even though yesterday Austin said he was gonna take it easier after winning and not go crazy at the start) Looks like Day 2 is gonna be a little more stacked.

Burning through the muddy start I worked to the outside to the chagrin of an Embro rider. But hey, rubbing is racing. And as promised Austin didn't play cannonball from the get go. Now with the hairpin/stairs at the end of the track it was crucial to avoid the bottleneck. After that things settled in quickly into a decent train out front. The juniors and a couple of suspects from yesterday were in the mix.

Nate Morse was feeling like a champ again and decided to pull for a while. I tried to get in front and take a turn as I thought the chase group was closing in on us. But he wouldn't let me through.

After that here are the highlights:
I saw Mitchell and Pferd(Horse) standing outside the tape on the hairpin after the slippery tech back section. I guess they crashed out. Giving me a mixed feeling of relief and regret that two good competitors dropped out.

Morse made a bobble/fall and I passed him never to see him again.
Synjen stayed on my butt and I was worried he was going to hang there and then put down major watts on the flats.

A guy in black and red (Glen Gollrad?)seemed to be gaining and made me nervous.

But what happened was that Synjen couldn't hang with my unprecedented show of power out of the corners and Gollrad was flummoxed by my speed.
No...but seriously. I just put my head down and tried to keep it coming and I ended up out front with a comfortable lead.

Thanks go out to Pip, Buser, Baker <--Double time in the corner! Matt, and Nick for cheering me on. Thanks guys!
Cary and Colin you don't get props for the cheer/heckle combo.

Paradise Cross Frenzy Race Report

I did not feel super sharp when I woke up on Saturday. I nearly made the decision to stay home and not risk getting more sick. But then I decided to man up and get my race on.

Absolutely awesome day with sunny skies, no real wind (for a change), and temps warming to the upper 50's. My pops came with me for the short ride up to Windsor from West West.

The field in front of both the Bike Shop and Brewery was jam packed with caution tape. It was hard to figure out where the hell the course went, even while watching riders, even after racing a zillion laps, "Wait, which right hand hair-pin is this!"

As we milled around the start I reintroduced my self to Alec Donahue. I refreshed his memory by saying that we battled at Ice Weasels last year. And he incorrectly responded by saying, "Oh yeah cool. Then it'll be a battle today too!" Yum, yeah for like the first lap.

And lo and behold after hald a lap I ended up behind him after the junior in second place slid out and nearly took me with him. I rode the next lap and a half behind him, but it because apparent pretty quickly that I needed to settle down and race my own race. After racing MMRC and Canton I realized that I can't go anaerobic for 60 min. Perhaps close to 35, maybe 40, but not 60.

So I eased off (or I should say, just rode, and didn't sprint every time the course unkinked) and let a few people pass me. Notably, Shawn Milne was the first to fly. Ahem, pro bike racer, ahem. I guess you do get a Wiki page when you win UCI races and the GC at Fitchburg.

Then two UVM kits and an NCC kit passed me. I noted that Chris Hamlin in the second UVM speedsuit was breathing wicked hard, and I hoped he was diving into his red zone early. "Stick to your plan and you'll catch him Tob."

Right, so I settled down into 7th, and was happy to see I was still in the money. I was running with Sheldon Miller untill he stacked it wicked hard in the upper fast barriers. I thought he would be back up and on the chase quickly, but he lost a chunk of time due to a bent derailleur hanger.

So I was flying solo for a couple of laps until I pulled up to Makunda and Chris. I pulled up so quickly it seemed like these two were dropping anchor. So I cruised through and thought I'd start pulling away. But they didn't seem to be so quickly deterred and after a lap of leading and not going any where I let someone else have a turn. Bah, boring part where we were all together for a bunch of laps. Actually it was pretty fun to be in a good race. I kept riding too close in the tight turns and would hit the wheel in front of me, stopping me and opening a gap which I had to shut back down. But I was noticing that Makunda hadn't been doing any of the pulling, perhaps saving legs for the last lap?;

I tried to pass on the hairpin before the barriers, but Makunda had the same idea, and I stayed in third. But I had good speed through the barriers and managed to move up a spot there. I followed Chris down to the end of the field and around the slow/tight left hand 180 and juiced it as we came into the last good open stretch. From there I tried to sprint everything and not eat it as I was pushing the limits on each curve. I prayed for my chain not to drop again on the barriers (did I mention that happened a couple of laps previous) and held off Chris and Makunda in a good sprint for fourth. We were closing in on 3rd too, only if we had another lap.

Turned out to be a great race. I was happy with my pacing. Happy I didn't fall, and happy to have a solid race for fourth. Race within a race right? Just got to get that front derailleur fixed.

CSI Northampton, Days 1 and 2

Hey bout time I mentioned these races.

In a nut shell it went down like this:
Day 1: Started on the 5th row (thank you CrossResults points from the last two years) and got to staging just as they called my name... Phew, almost missed it. Some junior next to me on the line, kept babbling on and told me it was a bad time to adjust my tire pressure...dude seriously shut it and take out your notebook.

Because the gun went off and I took my left side line and barely missed a huge pile-up. I broke through the tape and smashed a white pole while avoiding the carnage. I ducked back under the tape and found lots of room before the first chicane again down the left line. And then more room on the left after the chicane on the pavement. Already towards the top 15 through the run-up, and I tried to keep passing through the technical upper-deck. It blows my mind that during the first half lap people won't use the whole course to move up and pass, but just stay in a line through the corners.
As we started making our way around the fast lower deck I somehow managed to make it up to the lead group. I hung at the back there for a while but then managed to move up after a few people, ahem, stacked it in the sand and the group got smaller. Then it got down to four. I found myself at the front, which was were I wanted to be coming in to two more. Then it would be time for someone else to take the lead until I threw down on the last lap.....but sadly that plan went to shit when I dropped my chain right before the ride-up. Could there have been a worse place? This ment I had to stop, put my chain on, run the ride-up and then play chase. I made a solid effort, but couldn't come back from the hole I dug. Fourth was still good, albeit frustrating, and I managed to hold Ryan White at bay.

Sunday was a little more simple.

Third row start, using Saturday's points. Lined up on the left, and moved up to third wheel coming off the pavement past the finish line. Synjen was in front of me and when Austin Pferd/Horse broke away he made no effort to attack, and by the time I tried to cover Austin's move it was too late to catch up. But never the less I spent the next 45 minutes trying. Granted later in the race I was more concerned with Ryan White not catching me again. Pretty much a big TT out there. Yeah, thanks for that Austin. 2nd place: I'll take it...cash money!

Canton Cup Race Report aka It's Slower to BunnyHop Barriers

Hey I'm just gonna stretch over here before we get staged. Oh what's that...there is no staging...it's classic, "First to the line gets front row."? Awesome... Good news was, there was plenty of pavement so there were only two rows of racers. Bad news was, some fool decided to salmon down to the start with about a minute before the whistle and literally pull in right in front of me. Dude. Seriously? Butttt.....To his credit he did scootch over a bit...a bit.

Any way.

Whistle blows and I try and grab a line on the outside right and move up some places, only to get squeezed in on the second turn.

I quickly settled into a group with some guys I recognized from the MRCC race and felt good about hanging in the middle of this pack.
Now, the saving grace of the Canton course is the three barriers, run-up and bunny-hop log. There's a couple other very short interesting technical sections, but it's mostly an open course. AKA 'Toby's gonna get spanked' course.
So of course I was gonna try and take advantage of the technical sections and do things like bunny-hop the low barriers, and pass people who dismounted to get over the 'log' (branch).
But, the tricky thing about the low barriers was that you could carry plenty of speed into them, but had to make a hard right hand turn directly after them.

Any way. What ever it was, I decided that on the second lap, in the middle of a pack of 10, I would clear the second barrier while landing with my wheel sideways and proceed to eat it into a bush while going ass over teakettle (read endo).

Sooooo that was the end of riding with that group. I kept going...kind of. And it turned out that Matt Mitchell fell on a loose corner and also lost the group. So we rode 'together' for the rest of the race. Him dusting me on the power/open sections, and me feebly regaining ground on the tech stuff...just like last time! And of course the first time I did actually make it up to him, he generously pulled over to let me take a long pull around the running track, only to pass and dust me once we got over the high/fast barriers. Awesome. Glad I agreed to that.

From there I time trialed it in for a 17th/29.

And the morale of the story is that it's only faster to bunnyhop barriers if you don't end up on your ass while doing so. GTK

MRC Race Report

Hey, we'll it's been a week since the Minuteman Race Club Cross race out in Lancaster. So it might still be a little early for me to put up a race report, but here's a brief summery:

Since I registered day of, I got lucky number 47 and lined up in the back. But there was room to grab a line going up the outside on the right. I put a big move down and ended up near the top ten or so heading into the first turn...yippie! Good start!

It all went by pretty quickly, but I got in with a good line of guys and tried to close down gaps in the technical stuff and suck a wheel during those long open stretches that anhaliate me. I was bumping on the wheel of Matt Mitchell and got a pass in the back tech before the 'litter box'. From there I was feeling solid (aside from the quad twinges) and was pulling away from Mr. Mitchell and realing in Mr. Smith, whom I had a hankering to catch. But then we got about half way in to three to go and things went south. I had no response on the straights and found it harder to accelerate out of the turns.

I can think of a handful of excuses but the short of it is that I had a solid 45 minutes in my legs and then I dropped three places. It was a bit frustrating, but it's still the first cross race I jumped into and we've got more to figure it out in. Still 9th is okay! Yippee.

The End Of Tri Season

Hey. Tri season's over.

I wrapped things up at Syracuse a week and a half ago, and it was a pretty good cap to the season. Here's a quick recap of that race:

Cold(ish) swim. 62 degrees. I tried to push it hard the whole way but still came out of the water in 33 minutes. Sigh.

The first 11 miles or so of the bike were up hill. Like 1500 feet of climbing to the highest point on of the race. I tried to keep the pace higher than I would normally, knowing that the rest of the course was an elevation loss. I kept the juice on for the rest of the foggy, rainy bike and pulled out a 2:18. Decent for so much early climbing.

I've been fighting some (more) running related injuries, and knew it was gonna hurt on the run. Hence, pushing it an extra notch on the bike. First few miles were downhill and I was going faster than I wanted to. But hey, it was downhill right? Things got tough down about the Applebees, and that part that looked flat when I drove it seemed pitched when I ran it. I suffered through the last few miles, willing myself to run smoothly. I crossed the line in 4:21:30 and hit the med-tent for some saline. Nice.


Despite more injuries perseason than ever. I've had my strongest season of results yet. Three wins, a jug of syrup, a wetsuit, a bike pump, $50 to Wheelworks, a plaque, a trophy, a handful of medals.

Time to lube my rusty Cross chain and get more racing done, yah? Yah.

W Is My New Favorite Letter

Yes yes, we're a little late here in posting this.
But that doesn't negate my wins baby!

Way back in June I raced the Holliston Lions Triathlon.
The swim was one of the roughest I can remember. For a short little sprint, it was mayham. The pond was shallow with a bunch of reeds and the RD decided to make the swim into an out and back instead of the planned triangle. Standing on the shore it looked like a pretty short 1/4 mile out to the last buoy. The swim times seem to concur. The crazy thing about the out and back was the inevitable head-on with someone crossing the line. Ah the joys and fun.

The bike actually had a bit of elevation change...well you know...for a sprint. Traffic and passing on the three laps of the bike and I worked my way into the lead. That was a cool feeling, looking over the transition area and seeing all the racks empty.

The run started with a steep pitch out of transition and the first four minutes or so were pretty much all up. I guess in hindsight that makes the 6:15 first mile unerstandable, but it still took a couple of miles to smooth into a groove. I looked back during the second mile and could see Mr. McCall not far enough back. I turned it over for the third mile and felt super smooth. Then brought it home and was happy to grab a top podium spot. Yee haa!

The following weekend we were up in VT for the 4th. I ended up awake with the sun and decided to jump into the Saxtons River 5k. The last minute decision helped to negate any prerace jitters and I went out to have some fun. I was gonna try and take it easy for the first half mile or so, but got a little nervous when I saw a couple of guys going out strong from the gun. So I changed course and chased them down. I ran with the leader for a few paces and then decided to see how I could do on the day. Meh, 17:48. Sub six's...I'll take it!


ummm... I so need to finish this, I sooo started it like two weeks ago.

The Falmouth Sprint was on the 18th and it's a great course. Richie Havens' swims are always fun, but kind of funky on distance, and there's usually a current and waves and that made for a fun swim. I actually started to pull away from other swimmers in the second half of the swim, that's a change. The bike has a great sections along the coast with some technical sections that are were a blast to ride. I got the word from a couple of specators that there was one rider ahead of me, but was somewhat disconcerted when I couldn't see him.
Coming out of T2 a volenteer at the transition exit told me I was 45 down. So when I could finally see Mr. Bothelo I was super pleased to have a split of only 25 seconds. I caught him and tried to have a chat, but he wasn't up for it. So asta lasagna I kept on cruising. Results post a run time of 18:12, but my mile parle 5:30, and that makes me happy. I grabbed Bear at the finish at we got in the Falmouth paper and the Cape Cod Times. Nice.

Okay that's if for those three.

Pedal Stroke

The other day I had a little moment of brilliance while doing some sets on the trainer. I was starting to feel the fatigue and my watts started slipping. As things got tough I thought about a smooth pedal stroke. Instead of thinking about driving my foot straight down like a powerful piston I focused on pulling through the bottom of the stroke. And low and behold my watts started to climb again.

I've done lots of pedal stroke drills before and think I have an acceptably efficient stroke. But it was cool to see it happen right in front of me. Magic!

PSA

If you've got anything that needs doing the next day. Then I'd recommend staying away from the fried pickle/jalapeno platter at Redbones.

Rev3 Quassy Race Report

Well the rumors are true. Quassy is hard.

The swim is up hill, the bike is up hill and the run is uphill...oh and T1!

No but seriously.

I was having a good day up until I got out of the water and looked at my watch. I was feeling good and positive in the water. But I'm amazed that when, for some reason, I race a Half I can only seem to do 1:45 per hundred. How's that happen? I was not working that slow. Perhaps it's the sighting, or the people cutting across you?

Any way up the hill to the bike racks. I was pleased that there were still plenty of ponies keeping my steed company.

The advantage to being a crap swimmer and pretty good on the bike is that you're not lonely once you head out on the road. That's probably my favorite part right now; doing my thing, staying in my zone and passing people on the hills. Albeit some times it's a pretty slow overtake. Plus with such a hilly course you got to have little chats. Like when you hear someone say, "This is the last hill right?" on the first hill.

Then I don't know where this one guy came from but he rolled up to a bunch of us on this steep section about mile eight and was yelling at everyone for drafting. "You're drafting! You're drafting! That's so illegal!" Dude, it's the beginning of a race, we all just got slinkied into this hill, we're going 10 mph on an up hill and there's just not a lot of room or need to pass. Just ride your own race.

Eventually things did string out and I was playing a little leap frog with Ryan Whitehead, although truth be told, I was mostly 20 meters behind him unless it got technical. But then he dropped his chain/his bike wouldn't shift and I didn't see him for the rest of the bike.

Sometimes I fear a turn-around on a course because you see where the competition is. But this time it was nice to be able to count the AG's ahead of me and see that some Pros weren't too far up the road.

The long steady hills on a Tri course aren't really such a bother. Generally you're limited by your zone, be it RPE, watts, or BPM, and you know if you go too high you'll pay for it later. But the constant undulation is a harder game to play. Attack the little hills and while you're HR/RPE isn't high you're making watts and lactate. But then it's down the other side and your HR drops off again and your legs turn to bricks.

Very scenic bike course though. With some nice views, farming country and some ripper descents. I think I hit 48 mph coming back into town. YES!

Awesome coming into T2 and only seeing 5 AG bikes racked. But knowing that my run has been hampered this spring my thoughts went immediately to keeping people at bay.
The first couple of miles went as planned, if not better than planed, but they were also down hill. As usual it took a few for my legs to come around off the bike, but they never really matured into zippy fresh run legs.
I had to stop and pee after mile three. First time I've had to do that. I loosely tried to go while running, but it wasn't gonna happen. I'm sure I only lost like 15 seconds, and I got to take my mind of the run while I contemplated the dense shade of my urine. Akin to not hydrated.

From there it was shady and hilly and lonely. At the mile 5.5 turn around a couple of Pro women passed me and then I saw the hounds. This was one of the turn arounds I fear. But what was I to do? I just kept chugging along drenching myself with water at the aid stations and ticking one mile off after the next.

It took until the second turn around at 11.5 for Mr. Whitehead to pass me back and for Frank Sarosdy to over take me. The latter wasn't very friendly post race, the former was really nice, we had a chat.
To add insult to injury the last mile has just a brutal hill and I watched those guys slip away with nothing to respond with. But the good news is that some guy was gaining on me and I kept him at bay! Even though I think he started 3+ min behind me and would overtake me on the results board.

Such a hard day of racing, but good mental conditioning. And relative to the rest of the field and the course it was a good result.

Memphis In May Race Report

In May, Memphis is hot. Sunny, humid and 90 hot.
Sweating while setting up transition hot.
77.8 degree water hot. Making for an additionally hot swim because it's wetsuit legal.

I roughly calculated my 'wave' or AG to start about 50 minutes after the first AGer at 7:15. With the TT start one person entered the water every 3 seconds. So, lets see; That's 20 a minute. 200 every 10 minutes. My number was in the 1000's, which is 5 sets of 200 right? Or five sets of 10 minutes right?

Well for whatever reason my math didn't pan out and I jumped in with the girls starting in the 1100 block. But not to fear! Since it was an individual, or TT start my time started when my chip hit the mat.

But starting so far back still meant swimming, biking and running past a lot of people.
I didn't find a real sweet rhythm in the water, but still made it out in pretty good order all things considered.

In and out of T1 without trying to sprint my way through.
Oh and as an interesting note. Since we had to start the race from the transition area, the transition area never closed. It was really weird to see people milling about and still tinkering with stuff as athletes were coming out of the water. Additionally when the Pros went off at 10:30, people were still finishing, others hanging about and others taking apart transition set-ups. Very odd.

Once on the bike I had to adjust to using HR and RPE instead of Watts and did my best to find a good mix of pushing the tempo, but not going overboard in the HR department. The course was mainly flat but did have a little undulation. The dozen or so 90 degree turns started to become annoying, especially while having to navigate traffic.

I should have stocked the bike better for the heat, but figured my solo bottle would be enough, and I could refuel at the water stops. But it turns out the RD decided one poorly staffed bottle stop would suffice. Plus, it just came out of the blue. Bam! Water! Bam! Nothing!
Let me just say that, yes I should have loaded up with more water, and yes I should have known where the water stop was. I did know there was only one, but when it came I was surprised that was it. When you have a constant stream of a thousand bikers for two plus hours going at least two abreast, having only one guy to grab a bottle from is not a sufficient water stop on sunny 90 degree day. (As an additional aside, the pros didn't even get a water stop, as Matt Gloekler describes here. Ouch)

So after I grabbed a bottle took a couple sips and poured the rest over me I was rest with the last few oz of drink on my down tube.

Shortly before the 'water stop' I was passed by a guy I pretty much started with by passed while he was fumbling to get his shoes on. He was pushing it on a decline, while I was happy to spin it out at 30 mph for a minute. It gave me something new to watch for a while, as he bobbed and weaved ahead of me doing the 'legal draft' around the slower folk. I did the weave here and there but man, this guy was trying to grab every draft off of everyone he passed.
I did catch back up to him and he was nice enough to give me a sip of his water before I over took him. John Hanna, you're a good guy. Also he saw me after the race and we had a nice chat for a minute.

Once I was out of T2 I was astonished to see a pair of guys wearing MickeyDees kits. Hey that's me behind the golden arches! Looks like that guy should maybe look to Bgood for next year's sponsorship....I'm just saying.

With recent ITB issues in my mind I just plopped along for the first couple miles trying to keep things consistent and hopefully throw down some negative splits. And I'll just tell you right now, that's what happened. It was hot and a 7 min/mile def felt like work. It did feel good to hit the turn around and kick things up. There was carnage all over the course and the med/'cooling' tent was pretty busy.

My 2:06 wasn't record breaking but it's a good way to kick off the season considering the conditions and the previous few weeks.

Rev3 ho!

Pricey Yogurt

When I first saw siggi's yogurt and it's accompanying $2.50 price tag, my first thought was, "Who would pay $2.50 for a thing of yogurt." Then my second thought was,"Man, I gotta try that yogurt."
But alas my frugality restricted me.

Nevertheless, like the true American that I am, (And Welldini, for that matter) I had a hard time passing by the siggi's on sale in the dairy isle. I think I saved a whole thirty cents but thought of it as research. And as a special treat. And as a reward, for what I'm not sure. But I'm pretty good at coming up with excuses to justify moments of dietary weakness.

But on to the yogurt, or skyr as the Icelandics like to call it.
I didn't realize 'til I got home that the nutrition facts are totally awesome. No fat. Very little sugar, 10 g's. And 16, yes, 16 grams of protein per 6oz cup. Compare that to a Stonyfield Peach with 22g sugar and only 6g protein.



I'm a big proponent of getting protein from natural sources instead of shakes and bars. And this stuff def fits the bill. Granted if you're gonna eat it on a regular basis your food bill has to not be a big concern. But the dollar to gram of protein ratio between Stonyfield and siggi's is about the same.
Also, on the inside of the label Siggi explains that skyr is yogurt with the water strained away, making if dense and equivalent to three cups of 'regular' yogurt.

Plus with yogurt you get Live Cultures. And siggi's Blueberry only has 5 ingredients (plain has three). One of the ingredients being agave nectar and no cane sugar.


The yogurt itself eats more like a mousse than the watery slime we're used to. The down side of so few sugars: it's not sweet. Instead there's a subtle hint of blueberry flavor that's pleasantly lead out by a sharp tang.

It's good stuff and I'd recommend giving it a go. Especially if you've do something worthy of a reward.

Slippery When Wet...And Frozen

More than a couple of times this winter I've heard people tell me that they don't like to ride outside in the colder months because it's too cold, and the roads are dirty and icy.

I agree that the roads are dirty. And there's a lot of salt out there. But when the roads are dry it's not that bad.

And yes it is cold. No two ways about that. Except to gear up and put in two warmers.

But the icy thing I wasn't buying. We had a good deal of snow in December and January with a pretty eventful February. And sure, right after it snows the roads have snow on them. Even once they're plowed the sides/shoulders are ruddy. But I wouldn't really say icy. Of course there is the occasional spot where tons of snow run off congregates in the road and makes a big icy/snowy patch. But that's rare and so blatant it's easy to spot, to slow down for and to avoid unscathed.

However, as of yesterday I have a new perspective and icy road scenario.

Over the past week with a slew of storms passing over the northeast, outdoor riding has been a non-issue. If it was pouring the roads were soaked. And I can do cold, but not wet, and certainly not cold and wet.
We got a break from the rain on Saturday morning and roads were looking dry, which looked good for my 150 minute spin on Sunday. But alas, sure enough drizzle fell from the heavens and the roads once again turned from light gray to dark.

But ever the optimist, I awoke on Sunday hoping that the partly 30% chance of rain would mean a damp but not sopping tarmac and the possibility of further drying.
And I was in luck. At 7 there was no precipitation and I could see the pavement lightening in spots.

I checked the temp to dress accordingly and took note of the 30 degree temp. Humm, below freezing, I thought to myself. Humm, the roads are sill damp from that rain yesterday. Humm, the roads don't look frozen.
If had been my usually lacidasical self I would have gotten back in bed, snuggled with all the peoples, woken at 10, had some breakie and then gotten on the saddle. But I had a Boog to watch later in the day and wanted to beat any possible incoming rain clouds.

Once on the bike I did the tried and true "break test" (thanks dad!) to check the condition of the roads. All skid and no slide, the roads looked good.
I started out as I usually do on my favorite quite lead road, Cross Lane. I was still taking it easy a little easy on the corners as I was warming up. I crossed 128 and came into a little residential area that frequently has water on the road and felt my bike twitch a little as my tires hit the painted lines of a crosswalk. I should have made note of this and slowed up a bit. But instead, made note of it and kept on going.

Next up is the funky little triangle area where Groce meets Standley. And this is where the shaded corner was covered with ice. It's also the place were I slid onto my hip.
Fortunately I wasn't going very fast, there wasn't any traffic and my warm winter clothes added extra scuff protection. It's been awhile since I've fallen on the road and I was due. Hopefully It'll be awhile before I go down again.
Here's a shot one day after.

Bike's mostly okay. A couple of scrapes on the saddle and the bar tape. And my clothing is mostly okay, again a couple of scrapes. The mount for the powertap broke and short of holding it in my hand there was no way to read it while biking. I had to pop back home to switch chest straps to have some HR for the rest of my ride. Why can't polar and powertap get along?


Experience is the best education yah? Next time I'll have to avoid the side roads when it's wet and frozen.

Treadmills Should Have Spittons

I wouldn't call it an attractive habit. But it's a fact of life for running and biking. Not a problem when you're outside.
God I'm so used to spitting at will when I'm outside, when I come inside and do a hard treadmill workout I don't know what to do with myself.

What I did end up doing is grabbing some paper towels and dropping some saliva in there every once in a while. Once that got really nasty the bottle holder served as a free target. I was looking for a plastic cup, but there was nothing around.
Just to be clear I did make sure the treadmill got a serious wipe down once I was done. Gross right?

Left Overs

I think a good rule for leftovers is if you don't remember when you cooked it, you probably shouldn't eat it. Even if it doesn't smell bad.

It should be noted that I did not heed this advice with that chicken I just found in the fridge. Yum.

Train from Nong Khai

It's a long trip to Bangkok