Summary

Monday August 11th through Sunday August 17th, 2008. After a horrible showing at the track and at San Rafael I need an easy week and some time off the bike. Starting to feel very burnt out.

Monday

Run, did about 4.5 miles. Felt good, headed down to Stow Lake, hiked around the top and ran back home. Running you see a lot of things you miss on the bike. Hopefully training on the cross bike during the winter will give me a chance to hike around and explore more, such as Hill 88 in the Headlands.

Tuesday

Off.

Wednesday

Planned some kind of workout, ended up not feeling well, took it off.

Thursday

My one hard workout of the week: M2.

Friday

Easy spin.

Saturday

Skipping Winters, longer road ride.

Sunday

Gone.

Wanted to do well (ie: podium), felt great going into it, if a bit hesitant about the course that appeared harder the longer I looked at it. Started off well, sat in the top 10 for many laps as was my goal/strategy, but struggled to stay there for very long and about 15 minutes in lost 10-15 spots per lap just trying to recover on the backside until I got gapped and the field was a long way off. Still I was surprised at the number of riders coming up from behind me after I sat up. Also surprised that the field basically held the vicious pace for the rest of the race. Sam and Jake did a hell of a job in one hell of a race.

In retrospect, worked way too hard during the past couple of weeks and underestimated the course/field. I’m not powerful enough at the moment and was not rested enough to do well on a course like this.

Summary

Monday, August 4th through Sunday, August 10th, 2008.

Monday

Off.

Tuesday

Track racing:

Poor night for me. I tried to work on being patient, sitting out the first two sprints entirely and work on winning later sprints. Didn’t work out at all. I still seem to be only good for 18 laps or so at a time, regardless of whether I take the early points or not. Sat out a lap in the first race, but otherwise just ended up watching the action from the mid or back of the pack taking a few pulls and launching one attack off the front with Tim after the 2nd sprint.

My head wasn’t in the 2nd race at all, felt kind of out of it, not safe, so I pulled out completely after dangling around the back again after the 3rd sprint.

Wednesday

Track racing:

The Bs also brought some speed tonight. I’d been hoping to make a comeback after a horrible showing Tuesday. I was aiming to place in the first points race, win the scratch, and place in the miss and out. I didn’t even come close to my mark, didn’t have the legs, save for a moderately well raced miss and out (5th, despite a heroic save when a doofus from Synergy came underneath me on the apron in the sprint and gave my front wheel and left leg a hefty lovetap with his cranks and rear wheel – it threw off my mojo and put me out of position for the 4th place sprint, boxed in though I had the speed).

Thursday

Second M2 class. I hit my numbers dead on and felt good. Put in a hard workout despite two consecutive days of intensity.

Friday

Day off.

Saturday

Carrera de San Rafael.

Sunday

Day off.

Points (6×6)

Goal: Place.

Stuck to my usual impatient strategy hoping to work on recovery after the sprints and won the first sprint easily from 150m. Stuck it out for the next sprint and grabbed another point without working too hard. Shin got away immediately after the second sprint, only Tim chased after he scooped up the third sprint. A group of four held a gap for the next two sprints and I just hung on with the remaining 5 for the rest of the race. We caught up for the last sprint but I had nothing left.

My early points got me 4th since the points were fairly concentrated, goal accomplished. I definitely have some work to do in order to stay competitive for the later sprints. Next week I need to stay away from the first sprints entirely and win the last few outright.

Points (7×6)

Goal/purpose: win a sprint or two, try a two lap breakaway to gauge my solo strength off the front.

Resolved to sit in and start sprinting after a few racers in our small field had worked themselves in the early sprints. Couldn’t help myself from grabbing a point in the first sprint, but didn’t work very hard for it. Found myself 4th wheel for the second sprint when the two leaders went at turn two. I didn’t feel like working to either bridge the gap or drag the other riders up, so I didn’t chase immediately. I followed a wheel from over the top at 200m, easily passing him at 150m, finding myself back at the two leaders coming toward the line. Got the hole shot to win the sprint. Rode it through the next lap and slotted back. Feeling rested enough at 32 laps to go, I kicked hard in turn 1 after Allen from Webcor pulled up.

Held the gap for the rest of the lap, but riders eventually bridged up and I died in the sprint. 5th in the sprint, no points for a taxing effort, but a valuable lesson learned. Had I got in turn 3 a lap out I could have won the sprint with a solo effort, but probably also could have won it by just sitting in. Kept things interesting.

Started to fizzle at this point, hung on the back for another dozen laps or so, eventually sat it out and lost points as the remnants of the filled drilled it in the last few laps. Finished 1 lap down.

Goals accomplished, came down to a trade off between trying the solo break and finishing the race with the lead group: glad I tried something new.

Summary

June 28th through August 3rd, 2008. Last week in terms of training was mediocre at best, but definitely an improvement over no training at all/recovering from post-crash funk.

Monday

Off.

Tuesday

Did a mid-afternoon 3-mile run, track racing.

Wednesday

1/2 Cyclo-core, got a major quad cramp :(

Thursday

First M2 Revolution class, hell of a workout without that thrashed feeling afterword. Feeling the effects the next morning. Late night/poor sleep.

Friday

Ran 4.5 miles to Transverse via Peacebrook Cross and back.

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Saturday

Tried to find Hill 88, required too much hiking, very mellow headlands.

Sunday

Timpani Criterium.

Summary

July 21st through July 27th, 2008.

Monday

Off, no commute, no nothing.

Tuesday

Realized I can’t put my brake setup on my drops when the fixed gear is in track mode, so no commute. Track racing at night, first Tuesday in months. Horrible stomach cramps kept me out of the last half of each race.

Wednesday

Stayed home from work, slept in, watched the Tour repeat. Intervals: alternating 5×1k power intervals,5×500m sprints with 1-2k recovery at the polo fields. Core/strength: 100 situps, 100 squats, 50 pushups, 10 pullups.

Thursday

Ran for the first time in months. Started easy, only 20 minutes around the panhandle, but running is not nearly as hard as I remember even on sore legs.

Friday

Another run, first timed mile. Ran the 1 mile to Kezar, did an epic 8:30 mile at the track, and then Ashley motor-paced (bike) me back home another mile.

Saturday & Sunday

Took it easy, visited family. Got my core workout on Saturday helping Ashley’s Dad move heavy furniture up and down flights of stairs.

Somewhat Disappointing

First crit I ever finished, mostly flat (though the backstretch pitches a little bit more than I remember). I wanted to do really well, but I wasn’t feeling the magic going in or coming out.

This was still a struggle. Started off fine, and rode in the top 5-10 for the first half of the race. Eased up for the mid-race lull but cornerswarm and some hard attacks on the backstretch kept the race hard throughout.

They ended us almost 10 minutes early which really threw off my timing, and 5 laps was not enough time for me to get far enough up front and recover for a sprint.

Narrowly avoided some bell lap carnage that split the top 10 from the rest of the group. I sat up and rolled in at 23rd after the main sprint. Only improved by one spot from last year, didn’t really have a lot of fun in this race though I expected to and wanted to do well: kind of disappointing.

Summary

July 14th through July 20th, 2008. Horrible training (or lack thereof) week. Lots of late nights at work.

Monday – Friday

Nothing

Saturday

Nice mellow Barber Shop loop with Ashley.

Sunday

Albany Criterium

Disappointment

This was my first race. I wanted to do well, but considering my time off for injury I had toned down my ambitions from podium to top-ten. I got a horrible start: junior in front of my couldn’t clip in and I bobbled over his rear wheel and had to unclip. By the time I got going I had to make up a quarter lap gap.

Got on and dangled on the back for another 6-7 laps when a rider spontaneously combusted in toward the end of the pack gapping me with another few riders. I worked with DBC junior Cody and we got back on briefly but I couldn’t handle the accordian on the hairpin after another couple laps. Worked together with a Metromint in the same spot until we got pulled with 9 laps to go.