September race reports

So far, September has been a pretty hectic month race wise. The Friday following the Hotter 'n hell, there was a criterium in Enid. Kind of weird that this was the first time this season that we finally had the core of our cat 1/2 team racing together. The course was a pretty short figure 8 style. The payout was pretty good, but due to the Gateway cup races going on at the same time, the overall turnout was pretty low.



A quick team meeting before the race

The race started pretty well with Jeremy and Rob getting in a good 2 man break, but it eventually died out. We're trying to get back into some kind of groove racing together as a team. Overall the race went ok. We had 4 guys in the money, but I think things definitely could have gone better. 


Enid Friday night race action - Photo by Biff Stephens

The following Wednesday, it was finally time for something I've been thinking about and looking forward to for a while now....Cyclocross practice night!!!



Hammering the hills in the big ring! - Photo by Marty Buchanan

This is the 2nd year that Chris Duroy has been hosting these cross practice events...and they're awesome!!!
Basically Chris maps out a different challenging course each week, and we do a practice race starting at 30 minutes and gradually getting longer as the races go week to week.

The following weekend we went to Arkansas for a couple of crits, and returned to do a circuit race at Lake Draper on Sunday. Jeremy, Brian and I did the 35+ masters race 1st on Saturday. The race went well for us with Jeremy getting 2nd, and I got 3rd. Brian is getting his speed back after being out all year recovering from his broken femur back in February. I think he finished 9th.

We had us 3 plus Rob and Judson for the pro 123 race later in the day. The thing with this race is it features a hyped up crowd pleaser pass the hat prime lap 40 minutes into the race. Last year it was $430.00. This year it was a little more. So basically, this race was 2 races in 1. Rob had his camera on. This is the first 43or so minutes of the race. The big prime lap starts around the 39:55 mark.

We had a little mis-communication, but it all worked out and I got the big prime. I was pretty blown afterwards. Rob almost stayed off till the end, but got caught in the end and got 6th. Judson took 2nd in the cat 3/4 race. All in all a good day for the team.

The weather all week was nice as it finally cooled off a little, and it continued into Sunday. The field for the pro 1/2 race wasn't huge, but there were quite a few fast guys there.



Trying to stay with Chad Cagle on the north side climb - Photo by Biff Stephens

It was just Rob and I in this race. The race itself was pretty animated with lots of attacks from the start. Rob and I were a little tired from the previous days race, but I think we were holding our own pretty well. About 35 miles in of the 69 miles total, I got another flat. The wheel truck wouldn't motor pace me back up, so I just tempo rode the rest of the race solo. Rob stayed in the mix and got 7th.

I believe all the racing is really helping to get the legs ready for the quickly approaching cyclocross season. The state championship road race is on the 24th, and then the cross season officially starts on October 1st. There is a pretty sweet race series going on this year. Lots of fun racing coming up.

Hotter 'N Hell race weekend

After many years of riding and racing bikes, one event I've never done was the infamous Hotter 'N Hell 100. That is until this year. The Hotter 'nHell 100 (HHH) is the biggest bike rally around this region with this year being the 30th anniversary. There are also several USA Cycling sanctioned events all weekend as well. Our race (pro 1-2) was actually shortened to 90 miles. Maybe due to the excessive heat this year?  I'm not sure, but in doing 100+ miles every Saturday morning in July and part of August, a quick 90 didn't seem like it would be a big deal. Another thing I always wanted to do was the Friday night criterium. It's a pro 1-2 race only and I had heard talk for many years about how big the crowds watching the race and so on.

Brandon and I took off work early on Friday so I could do the big crit. On our drive down to Wichita Falls, we started to get a little sleepy, so we stopped at a Luv's and chugged a couple of caffeinated energy drinks. It definitely helped, but it really started kicking in just as we arrived at the convention center where the race venue and expo-registration-packet pick up-and anything HHH was located. I thought I was going to freak out for a minute with my heavy caffeine buzz and the thousands of people packed into the convention center. The weather was hot. REALLY hot like in 107 or so when we arrived. I had about 45 minutes to get my number pinned and warm up. I drank a couple big bottles riding around, and put 2 frozen bottles on my bike just before we started.

Once we got going on the crit, in some ways it was exactly how I thought it would be, but in a few other ways, there were things I didn't expect. What I expected was the race to be fast, flat, and hot with a lot of spectators. What I didn't expect was how inconsistent the strength levels of the other riders seemed to be. I guess it could have been more of a heat issue than a fitness issue, but a lot of guys started popping after only about 20 minutes. My initial strategy was, since the streets were wide and pretty flat, and the fact that there were around 100 riders in the field, I would sit in and survive the heat and have something in the end as the race was 75 minutes long. The first 30%of the race seemed pretty easy. It was really fast, but sitting in and just riding along seemed pretty easy.

I really expected the race to stay together for the most part, but around half way through, it got really fast. Every time I glanced down at my speedometer, we were consistently doing between 27 and 31 MPH. The field got pretty strung out, and when I knew it was time to move up, it was a little too late. A gap opened up about 15 riders ahead of me, and that was pretty much all it took. I made it to 40 minutes and I was off the back. Just before I got dropped, I thought we must be really flying because it felt like I was still spinning a high cadence in my hardest gear, but my shifter was actually stuck in the 15. I didn't really notice it until I stopped going hard and my shifter wouldn't do anything. I pulled into the Sram pit and they were actually going to let me use one of the spare bikes and get a free lap, but I declined because I didn't think it would be right. I think I got dropped more from being out of position and fitness than mechanical problems.

Anyhow, Jose (the Sram mechanic) gave me a brand new shifter. We decided to call it a night and go hit up some Johnny Carino's. We've been lucky in that most towns have a Carino's as they sponsor our team and have really good food! One of our team mates Wayne lives in Wichita Falls and was nice enough to let us stay at his house. Getting a hotel in this town is pretty much impossible when the HHH circus comes to town.

The field for the road race on Saturday was bigger than Friday. We rolled out at 6:35 AM just as the sun was coming up. I sat in for the first 10 or 15 miles and tried to drift towards the front when I could, but I was still a little mad from Friday night's mistake in addition to I was getting a little board just sitting in. I also had a headache. It didn't really bother me when I had to focus on something or go moderately hard, but it was bad when I was just rolling along. I decided to go to the front and try to get into one of the moves that seemed to constantly be going off. Sure enough, there were constant waves of 4 to 8 riders at a time that would attack. For a while I was jumping on every other wave that took off.

It actually didn't seem much harder than sitting in and definitely took my mind off the headache. I got into 2 separate moves that were away for a little while. One I knew wasn't going to survive unless some key team guys bridged up and another that maybe could have made it...or probably not, but being in the mix is a lot more fun then just sitting in all day. Anyway, around 35 miles to go it started to get a lot hotter so I decided to be a little more conservative and stay towards the front, but conserve energy. There was a pretty good surge at the second feed zone and it seemed like after that, only 40-50% of the riders that started were left.

At 25 miles to go, disaster struck again as I got a flat tire. I looked back, but the wheel vehicle was nowhere in sight. I lost a lot of ground and after a few minutes I saw the Sram car. I pulled my wheel off and got a quick wheel change. I guess another guy flatted as well because he came by just as I was getting back on my bike.  The Sram guy did a good job motor pacing us back up, but as we got to about 100 yards, he suddenly took off to help someone else. I basically just rode the rest of the way in solo. I was pretty bummed because I was feeling pretty good and it would have been my fastest 90 miles for sure. We were averaging between 27 and 28 MPH up until the point where I got a flat.

There is a ton of races coming up. mainly crits and road races, then it's straight into CYCLOCROSS!

My favorite shop tools

A question I seem to get asked a lot at work is: "What's your favorite tool?"
Honestly, that's a tough question. I love tools. I like working with all my tools, and I really like getting new tools. If I had to narrow it down though, I guess this could be my top 6:

Phil Wood spoke machine

 The Phil Wood machine is probably my favorite tool in the shop. It cuts and threads a spoke to any size in 1 rotation of the crank. A pretty expensive tool, but saves a ton of time and money in not having to order special length spokes or stock a bunch of different sizes.

Enduro BB30 bearing press/remover

 The first few times I messed with BB30 systems I didn't really like them. I thought the ease if installation and general maintenance wasn't worth the weight savings or performance benefits over a standard external bearing system. That is until I used the Enduro BB30 tool. It makes bearing installation and removal super easy and smooth.

Park modified 5mm T-handle hex

 Nothing fancy here, but by far the tool I use the most every day. I bet you could dis-assemble a modern day bike about 75% with this tool alone. I've modified this one by cutting the ball end off the long end and cutting the plastic back about 1/4" on the short end to allow it to get into Shimano rear derailleurs, recessed front brake nuts, ETC.

Shaved down short end

 The modified Park 5 mill in action on a Shimano derailleur. I wish Park would make a version like this.

Grease gun

I've been using this thing forever. It's at least 15 years old and I've used it at 3 different shops I've worked at. I don't use it as much anymore because most bearings are the sealed type and usually get replaced as opposed to being overhauled. It still comes in handy for putting grease in tight spots so you don't have to get your hands greasy and speedplay pedals. Maybe I should fill it with that carbon paste stuff since that's what gets used the most nowadays.

Park 1" wrench with friends

Probably the second most used tool I use daily. I use it all the time for pulling/installing cassettes and it has great leverage for removing tight bottom brackets.

Park truing stand with finished custom wheel

It seems like in a lot of bike shops, wheel building has become a lost art. With so many pre-built wheel sets available today, not a lot of shops still do custom wheel builds. I'm fortunate to work in a shop that builds quite a few. That's good because I really enjoy the entire process. The good old standard park truing stand is another tool I love to use.

Bottecchia project part 1

I've been looking for a cheep frame to build up into fixed gear bike to get some miles on this winter. I sold my last fixed gear bike a couple of years ago, and kind of wanted to build a new one for a while now.
Anyway, I've been looking at frames on Ebay and Craigslist and such, and I guess the whole fixie fashion fad is still going strong because old steel bike frames are pretty pricey these days.

I have an old late 60's model Bottecchia frame thats been hanging in my garage for years. It was a customers from a bike shop I used to work at. He brought it in to be repaired but the bike had a pretty good front end inpact as the frame was cracked and the forks were bent in. After we informed him of the damage, he said to just throw the bike away. I thought the bike was too cool, so I saved it from the dumpster and it's been hanging around ever since. The frame is way too big for me, so I always had an idea that I could somehow cut the broken part off and reuse the main frame.

 This is the frameset. Nothing too fancy. I think this frame is a mid-level quality bike at best, but it's still a cool old frame.

 Front end damage. The frame is designed around 27" wheels, and I'm going to use 700c wheels, so I'll have to re-engineer the BB height a little.

 New chrome moly head tube (for 1 1/8 steerer fork) and dropouts. So far this is the only stuff I've had to buy.

 The frame cut down. The chain and seat stays need some more trimming to match the dropouts, and the top and down tubes need to be notched to fit the head tube.

I cut out about 35mm to shorten the frame to a 56cm seat tube length. I'll get the frame welded up in part 2.

Record miles and record heat July

So the big miles goal for July went well. The goal was 1300 miles and I ended up with a hair over. So in addition to the highest mileage personally in one month, this summer gave us the hottest ever recorded month in Oklahoma City history!

HOT STUFF

The goal for August is to take advantage of this block of miles and try to raise my FTP to an all time high (or at least as high as possible) and start preparing for the upcoming cyclocross season!

Hopefully the weather will cool down.

Firehill practice crit videos and big miles July progress

If you haven't seen these videos yet, and have the time, here they are. They were filmed by my team mate Rob with a camera mounted on his bars. Each segment is about 15 minutes long. There's some pretty crazy looking clouds that were around, but we never got rained on.

This is the start. Just a lot of attacking. Evan runs over Biff on the left side aroung the 11:40 point.

Second part. Rob attacked and got away with Evan (DNA). I bridged up later with Andy (DNA) and Dave (OKC Velo).

The end didn't go quite like I wanted. I wasn't in a good position to jump when Evan took off at the end. I wasn't sure how the race was going to go because I hadn't done any high intensity for some time prior to the race, but I was good to be able to stay in and race.

The big miles July goal is going well. So far I've got 1100 miles in, and still have a week left.

My 2011 training plan progress and what I'm trying differently this year

I actually started this post a few months ago, and I think the 2011 plan has changed at least twice since then. Anyway, here's the rundown of what I've done and what I'm looking to do the rest of the year.

Since I wasn't planning on doing the Joe Martin stage race this year, I decided to try to cut back on the overall weekly time early in the season. I've been using the Training Peaks WKO software since 2008 and had a pretty good idea of what amount of training stress is required to ride say for example 18 hours or 300 miles in a week.
A lot of folks have been doing more of a "less volume - higher intensity" training model with good results, so I thought I would give it a try this season.
Another thing I wanted to try was more on the bike specific exercises and less crosstraining, lifting weights, etc. One thing I experimented with, and I'm definatley going to do again this winter, is riding an overgeared single speed mountain bike. The Bluff Creek trail is only about 4 miles from my house. Single track riding is way more fun than lifting weights.

So after getting through the main part of the road season, in a nutshell the results were good and not so good. I felt like I went really well Feburary through April and just so-so through June. My race results were ok, actually my best racing with the cat 2's, but my power numbers never really matched what they were the last 2 years. I think the more consistant results are due to just gaining race experience and getting better at using what I have in a more efficient manner.  In looking back at all the data I've accumulated, the one common denominator for the best fitness, for me anyway, is lots of miles.
 
I took a couple of weeks off after the Tulsa Tough, and decided it was time to make a serious deposit to the mileage bank in July. My co-worker/team mate/commuter buddy Brandon is doing the Leadville 100 in August, so we're both going for record miles in July. The goal is at least 1300 miles. So far it's going well. We're both ahead of scheadule. I've got almost 900 miles in so far, and still have 12 days left.
 
The last Wed night crit was last week. Pretty decent turnout. The weather cooled off a little that evening which was nice. I didn't think I would do very well because I haven't done any high intensity riding in a month and my legs were pretty tired from the big miles, but it went ok. I got 2nd. Maybe could have won if I would have been smarter on the last lap.
My team mate Rob Bell had a camera mounted on his bars and has the entire race on video. It's 45 minutes long broken up into 3 parts. I'll try to get a link up here in the next couple days.

The goal for August is to try and raise my FTP to as high as possible, and then start fine tuning for the cyclocross season in September. There's a few late season road races mixed in around the same time, hopefully I'll be going pretty good by then.