Finally for that mountain bike race report...
It's been a few weeks now and I think I can safely say I'm more or less healed from the first mountain bike race of the collegiate season in Parkfield, CA. Parkfield's a strange place. It's an old school western cattle town with about 45 minutes east of Paso Robles. It has a shipping container for a library, a single tavern, a one room school house and a town sign that says population: 18. It also has some pretty cool fire roads that make for an interesting mountain bike race.
The approach to collegiate mountain biking is completely different to what I'm used to with road racing. Usually everything and everyone is super serious with hotel rooms and well-rounded nutrition at specific time, early bedtimes, etc. Not to say some people don't take collegiate mountain biking seriously, it's general;y a bit quirky. There's beer, hamburgers, load music, and everyone camps out (or in our case sleeps on a tarp on the desert floor under the stars, an on this occasion inordinately bright moon).
The CX course for the B category riders at Parkfield was a little over 10 miles long with some very steep hills (which meant some walking for some riders). The race got underway around a short single track circuit leading into an extremely steep hill that is completely unridable. I got pushed towards the back of the field of 30 right off the line. After all this is just a fun off season thing for me and I don't have much technical handling ability on a mountain bike so I was happy to take it easy. I moved up into the top 20 or so coming into the hill, dismounted with everyone else and ran up. The B category of collegiate MTB is a surprisingly unfit bunch. I passed a lot of people on the run up and was sitting about 7th or 8th when I remounted at the top. I worked hard to pass a few more riders over a series of short rollers and was sitting about 5th going into a steep dusty downhill singletrack section. One thing led to another and on a tight off-camber right hand bend on the side of a hill, my front tire slid out and I was on the ground. All in all a pretty harmless crash. Unfortunately it was a very inconvenient spot for a crash as everyone was coming down around the corner with some speed and I had to wait for a space to remount and jump back in. I had fallen out of the top 10. I fought to make up some ground and passed some riders but ended up behind an extremely unfit guy on a singletrack uphill section with no room to pass. I could see the leaders pulling away. This section wasn't even steep! I could have flown up it and I was getting frustrated with this guy. Near the top he had to dismount! There was still no room to pass so I had to get off too which led to more problems as I struggled to get back into a rhythm on the short descent and almost crashed again after a botched log hop. At this point I was riding directly behind my only teammate in the Bs. I was going to have to pass him if I wanted to move up and I was a riding little frantic. Crashing and almost crashing again had put me on edge and I was weary of the lead group pulling away. I wanted to win. There was another slightly downhill section and we picked up some speed. We were probably going about 13-15mph along some flat singletrack when all of a sudden the trail turned left and I didn't. We had been riding along the bank of a dry river and before I realized I was supposed to turn I was in the air over a 6 foot drop off. You can do the math, 15 mph forward, 6 foot down onto a bed of large boulders/rocks...answer: scary and painful. I remember I screamed then I was face down with my bike on top of me. I was an awful fall and I should have been more hurt. Initially I was more shaken by the drop than the actual pain. I did the customary broken bone check and everything seemed in order. But my knees were killing me, I was winded and I was generally sore all over. I resigned myself to the fact that winning this one was out of my reach at this point, took my helmet off and just laid there for a few minutes. When I finally decided to get up, I picked my way out of the ravine and back onto the trail. I finished the race albeit gingerly. I'd damaged my front disc brake, which rubbed the rest of the 6 or so miles and I felt like I'd just been hit by a bus. I didn't care about placing anymore. I just wanted to be done with the race (I ended up 25th). When I finished I went straight to the medics who tended to my deeper and larger cuts. My knees were bruises and it had hurt to pedal the whole way back but there really wasn't much they could do for me. I took a 3 hour nap that afternoon and got to bed early. It was a hard crash and it had taken a lot out of me. I woke up the nest morning to very sore ribs. I started the short track race but the jarring of my bike on the course really hurt my ribs. On top of that my saddle was irreparably tilted sideways.
The following week I did a little at home test that I saw on WebMD and figured I'd probably broken at least one of the ribs on my left side. It's even now it's not 100% but it's feeling a lot better. What's really been bothering me is my left wrist. I must have sprained it in the crash and it's still uncomfortable to keep my hand on the hood of my road bike for extended periods of time.
All in all I still had fun. Thankfully there weren't any races in the area for a while so I've had time to recuperate. as of now, the plan is to drive up to Stanford to race their next weekend. I'm going to focus on keeping a cool head this time.
For those of you that don't know me: I am a 19-year-old road racer (I do some CX mountain biking at the collegiate level). I was born in Northampton, England (and am an English citizen) but I have been raised in Las Vegas, Nevada (I currently live just off campus at USC in Los Angeles). I played soccer from a very young age and picked up cycling at 13 to improve my fitness. I began racing at 15, fell in love, and am now a CAT 2.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Running
The cross over between bike racing and distance running is pretty obvious. Both rely on the legs to propel the athlete forward and a strong aerobic system to fuel those legs with a constant supply of oxygen.
It's also obvious then why a lot of bike racers chose running as part their off season training. It helps maintain a strong endurance base and keeps the legs working while not riding the bike (at least not on a daily basis)...albeit not working exactly the same legs muscles. Even more important than those benefits though, is the longing it instills for the season to come back around so we can stop all this silly walking and running nonsense and get back in the saddle full time. Running is an awful activity. Whoever envisioned it as an enjoyable way to spend an hour or two while doing your body a service was clearly out of their mind. The feeling of running hard is a jarring of your body. You're out of breath because of the effort but you also can't catch a proper breath because you lungs are being shaken up and down so violently. On top of that the leg pain is nothing like the burn of turning over pedals on a bike at a high wattage. Rather it's a joint pounding discomfort. Muscles and ligaments feel tighter than they do fatigued. It's not a pleasant pain but one that feels like you are doing your body more harm than good.
So like I said...try running for a few weeks then see how excited you are about the off season. You'll be begging to get off your feet and on a bike!
Having said all of that, I'll be (bandit) running my first half marathon on Sunday at the Long Beach International Marathon. I'm confident that I could easily complete the full distance but I decided that I would rather put in a fast half marathon than just focus on finishing. I'm shooting for a time under 1 hour and 30 minutes which should be achievable. I did some testing on a track for the first time in a long time last night and I can consistently do sub-5:30 minute miles (not sure I can hold that pace for a whole 13.1 miles though). 6-minute mile pace should put me a hair ovewr 1 hour 20 minutes.
Wish me luck!
It's also obvious then why a lot of bike racers chose running as part their off season training. It helps maintain a strong endurance base and keeps the legs working while not riding the bike (at least not on a daily basis)...albeit not working exactly the same legs muscles. Even more important than those benefits though, is the longing it instills for the season to come back around so we can stop all this silly walking and running nonsense and get back in the saddle full time. Running is an awful activity. Whoever envisioned it as an enjoyable way to spend an hour or two while doing your body a service was clearly out of their mind. The feeling of running hard is a jarring of your body. You're out of breath because of the effort but you also can't catch a proper breath because you lungs are being shaken up and down so violently. On top of that the leg pain is nothing like the burn of turning over pedals on a bike at a high wattage. Rather it's a joint pounding discomfort. Muscles and ligaments feel tighter than they do fatigued. It's not a pleasant pain but one that feels like you are doing your body more harm than good.
So like I said...try running for a few weeks then see how excited you are about the off season. You'll be begging to get off your feet and on a bike!
Having said all of that, I'll be (bandit) running my first half marathon on Sunday at the Long Beach International Marathon. I'm confident that I could easily complete the full distance but I decided that I would rather put in a fast half marathon than just focus on finishing. I'm shooting for a time under 1 hour and 30 minutes which should be achievable. I did some testing on a track for the first time in a long time last night and I can consistently do sub-5:30 minute miles (not sure I can hold that pace for a whole 13.1 miles though). 6-minute mile pace should put me a hair ovewr 1 hour 20 minutes.
Wish me luck!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
...
Just got back from the first collegiate mountain bike race of the season...and nursing some very sore ribs! I'll write a full race report soon, for now I have some studying to do.
...notice the new color scheme? Navy and green...more info to come
...notice the new color scheme? Navy and green...more info to come
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Testing Out the New MapMyRide
I've been playing around with the beta-mapmyride.com planning out some routes for later this week (my training partner from home, Greg Christian is coming to hang out and ride Thursday-Saturday...just bases miles). Here's Thursday's route:
Monday, August 9, 2010
Winding Down
For the first time ever in my short cycling career, I'm still working hard in the middle of August. In the past I've burned out by this point...a phenomenon that was probably more mental than physical. After a short down period after finish the Cascade Classic, my last big goal of 2010, I got right back into training similar to what I was doing before the race with some gym work and mountain bike riding thrown in to ease the transition into the off season and keep me excited about going out to ride every day. According to my coach, I'll probably continue this pattern well into September before taking a couple of easy weeks towards the end of the month and the beginning of October. The logic behind this is twofold: First and foremost this is how the pros operate. Riders in Southern California tend to be out of touch with our racing calendar more or less wrapped up by July. But the ProTour doesn't finish until October. Those guys only get a handful of weeks of downtime before they are on the bike again tuning up for the next season. Because of this they are able to build on their fitness year after year, which is why older Pros tend to have the upper hand on younger guys in their early 20s. In the past, although I have stayed active throughout my off-season, I've had too long of a gap between my last race in August and the beginning of base training at the end of October/beginning of November. This caused me to lose most of the fitness from the season before. The thought behind staying in racing shape for longer is to lose less in the off-season and thus be able to build to a higher level throughout December, January and into the new season. The second reason is more personal. When given long periods of time without structured training, I tend to go a little crazy. This leads me to push myself too much too soon and reach my peak sometime in February rather than April/May. For example, about halfway through November of 2009, after training since the end of October, I put in a couple 4-day blocks of 5-7 hour days (basically shooting for an average of 6 hours a day over 4 days...24 hours...1 whole day on the bike out of 4!). So hopefully, come October I'll be mentally ready for a good rest and willing to take it easy.
So with only a handful of minor races left, I've reached one of my favorite parts of the off-season, planning for the next year! I sat down today and mapped out every single race between now and September 2011. Obviously everything is very tentative as dates change and races get canceled. One of my new goals for 2011 is to race Collegiate Nationals in May, which of course means I have to race as many collegiate races as possible to build up the points to qualify for nationals (the USC Cycling team is weak and has no hope of qualifying as a team). What's ideal about nationals is they are located conveniently the weekend after the Tour of the Gila (at least that was the way the calendar was structured in 2010). The Gila will again be a major goal for me in 2011 and these two goals being so close to each other means I will be able to target this period to peak and carry over all my fitness from the Gila to race nationals. Living where I live there are 3 big stage races (not all NRC, although they should be) within reasonable traveling distance: Gila, Mt Hood and Cascade Classic. This year illness and injury scuttled my plans for the first two forcing me to focus on Cascade. However, in 2011 I'd like to race all 3 if possible. However, whereas in the past they each would have merited a major peak in form (and thus it would have been impossible to do all 3 in one year) I hope to use Mt Hood and Cascade as prep races for even bigger goals. Don't get me wrong, I still want to be in the best shape possible for these races but you always come out of a 5-day stage race with better fitness than what you went in with. On that note...Cascade is only 5 days/6 stages for the Pro/1 category...I'm shooting to get my upgrade at Gila. So...Mt Hood and Cascade are already extremely difficult and prestigious stage races; what could they be preparation for? After a mid-season break in May, Mt Hood will be a tune-up for U23 Nationals (British Nationals!) at the end of the month. And while I'm over in Europe I'd ideally like to race on the continent. Back in the US, Cascade, at the end of July will be a final tune-up for a big race or two in September that I won't name for fear of seeming pretentious. And then it's onto planning 2012...hopefully a plan that will include the words "Europe" and "espoir."
Obviously these plans are very tentative. As 2010 proved, shit happens and plans can be completely destroyed in a split second...especially when much of those plans rely heavily on the plans before them. For now, the most important this I can do towards making 2011 extremely successful is keeping pushing myself in 2010...at least for another month.
So with only a handful of minor races left, I've reached one of my favorite parts of the off-season, planning for the next year! I sat down today and mapped out every single race between now and September 2011. Obviously everything is very tentative as dates change and races get canceled. One of my new goals for 2011 is to race Collegiate Nationals in May, which of course means I have to race as many collegiate races as possible to build up the points to qualify for nationals (the USC Cycling team is weak and has no hope of qualifying as a team). What's ideal about nationals is they are located conveniently the weekend after the Tour of the Gila (at least that was the way the calendar was structured in 2010). The Gila will again be a major goal for me in 2011 and these two goals being so close to each other means I will be able to target this period to peak and carry over all my fitness from the Gila to race nationals. Living where I live there are 3 big stage races (not all NRC, although they should be) within reasonable traveling distance: Gila, Mt Hood and Cascade Classic. This year illness and injury scuttled my plans for the first two forcing me to focus on Cascade. However, in 2011 I'd like to race all 3 if possible. However, whereas in the past they each would have merited a major peak in form (and thus it would have been impossible to do all 3 in one year) I hope to use Mt Hood and Cascade as prep races for even bigger goals. Don't get me wrong, I still want to be in the best shape possible for these races but you always come out of a 5-day stage race with better fitness than what you went in with. On that note...Cascade is only 5 days/6 stages for the Pro/1 category...I'm shooting to get my upgrade at Gila. So...Mt Hood and Cascade are already extremely difficult and prestigious stage races; what could they be preparation for? After a mid-season break in May, Mt Hood will be a tune-up for U23 Nationals (British Nationals!) at the end of the month. And while I'm over in Europe I'd ideally like to race on the continent. Back in the US, Cascade, at the end of July will be a final tune-up for a big race or two in September that I won't name for fear of seeming pretentious. And then it's onto planning 2012...hopefully a plan that will include the words "Europe" and "espoir."
Obviously these plans are very tentative. As 2010 proved, shit happens and plans can be completely destroyed in a split second...especially when much of those plans rely heavily on the plans before them. For now, the most important this I can do towards making 2011 extremely successful is keeping pushing myself in 2010...at least for another month.
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