Hill Climbing for the Non-emaciated Cyclist - Pawling Mountain Road Race 2012 Report

Against my better judgment, I did race Pawling on Sunday. Big shout out to the wife for letting me go in spite of the fact that I spent all last Sunday shooting that Samsung commercial (they’d better make me look good).

I registered for Pawling last Wednesday at like 10pm, about an hour before registration closed. I was on the fence all along. I had a long list of reasons not to race on Sunday, including the fact that I had spent all of last Sunday out on the bike doing that Samsung commercial, I have a 4 year old and a 2 week old terrorizing my apartment, a busy work schedule, having raced on Saturday in Prospect to a stellar 13th place (just blew that one) and last but not least, getting some kind of food poisoning which kept me in up all night before the race. On the other hand, I like to race my bike, so f**k it, I went.

I rolled out of bed about 6:15am, threw a few things in my Rudy Project backpack, grabbed my bike and pump and left. I didn’t feel especially horrible, even considering the previous night’s bout with food poisoning or whatever it was. It was probably for the best since it helped me shed some last minute weight. :-) My legs were a bit tired from Prospect, but if by now I wasn’t prepared to race on back to back days, then I should get another hobby.

The ride to Pawling was relatively smooth and I arrived in just over an hour. Once I got to race, I knew I made the right decision. The weather was great and the vibe was nice. Since I registered late, I couldn’t get into the NY State Championship Field unless I raced masters, which I was very tempted to do, but the field was pretty small, and I thought for this kind of race, it was better to race in a big field. It didn’t really matter because the race organizers didn’t seem interested in letting people switch fields on the day of the race.

Start time was at 9:10am, 10 minutes after the NYS Cat 4 field. There were about 65 people registered and it looked to be about 65 guys there, most of whom looked slim, fit and in or just out of college. I’m thinking great, I’m in the field with a bunch of 135lb college kids - this is going to be a long day. Then I thought, on the other hand, college kids aren’t that smart, so just stay focused and I’ll be fine.

We went off. For some reason, I was a bit nervous, which is not usually the case. This was my first non-local race all season so I wanted to do well. I haven’t really incorporated any climbing or prep for this kind of race, but I’ve been feeling good and racing well so I thought I’d be fine. After a slow first 5 miles, I started to feel fine and was able to move up to the front. We hit the first long climb and there were no surprises. No one attacked and even the seemingly strong climbers played it safe. FINE BY ME! I just dug in tried to stay in close contact with the first 5-7 guys. I did a good job until we hit the last switch back and then started to lose some ground. A good part of the climb was tree covered so it was manageable, but the last km or so was exposed, and it was hot, really hot. At that point, I felt I was close enough to chase back on the downhill, so I just started to climb at my own pace (translation, slow). I crested the first climb with a few other guys and I started to yell we need to work together to stay in contact. It always amazes me that there are guys that have no clue how to work in a pace line to make time. We had about 10 guys of varying abilities and we were able to get organized. By the time we completed the first long descent and hit the second climb (the false flat) we were within eye shot of the lead group (which was pretty spread out). I knew we had to catch them before the third climb or we wouldn’t see them again. By now, the heat and the long steady climb had claimed a few more riders in the group, so the rest of us eased up off the pace. I started telling guys that we’re still racing and we’re still in it, so let’s go. There were about three strong guys (one from Cosmic in Jersey, Once from Joyful Cycles and third guy from some team in Connecticut) and we all got together again to push the pace. We did catch a bunch of guys at the third climb and crested that climb with a bunch of new riders all together.

I won’t bore you with the details of the second lap. It was hot and hard. We had enough guys in our pace line that we could have made a legitimate charge at the 10 or so guys up the road but it was a pretty conservative group. No one wanted to get dropped on the next set of climbs (makes sense) so they kind of held back on the flats. In any event, we caught a couple of more, shuffled some riders and continued our pace line. One of the young college kids that we picked up and two other guys we picked up attacked on last climb. I was tempted to go with them, but I thought we’d catch them. I sat in the back of our pace line resting up for the sprint (and I knew there would be one). I was about 6 wheels back and went into a slow sprint at the 200 meter sign. I surprised the other guys and by the time they reacted, I was in full sprint and had already gapped the group. I almost managed to catch two of the three guys that attacked a couple of miles back. I finished 17th (a weekend of “teens,” – no more teens!). My goal was to finish anywhere from 8-10 on this race, but all things considered, a good day.

Keeping it Simple

What's more theraputic than a rainy autumn day in Union Square? Looking forward to closing the year out strong.

The Optimism of the Fall

The fall. Great weather, relaxed riding and running and the optimism of looking forward to next season. I thoroughly enjoy the rolling hills on River Road going from Fort Lee all the way to the nice long climb to the Ranger Station in Alpine. I'm always a little more focused on debris, rocks on the ground as I have crashed here before, but how can you not want to ride on a route a scenic as this?. It's also significantly less traveled than the main 9W route.

I'm hoping to put in lost of quality miles, both riding and running this fall. It'll be a great 2011 season.

Man, It's Cold

The winter is young, but it has not been kind. Snow, rain, more snow and brutually cold temperatures have kept even the faithful, the undeterred from venturing outdoors. While I'm no Eskimo, I'm not afraid of the cold and in fact have had a couple of great 4+ hour rides in sub 30 degree temperatures over the past couple of weeks. But when the thermometer drops into the mid to low twenties and the weather man starts talking that nasty four letter word, W-I-N-D, well, then, for me it's a wrap. I'm going back to bed, and I mean that literally.

That brings me to my topic of discussion. How much intestinal fortitude does it take to ride the trainer for 2+ hours? The answer, a lot. No matter who you are, how fast you ride, your race category, your weight, age, sex, who you know or what kind of ice cream you eat, bike trainer workouts suck, period.

I've come to the realization that for the next couple of months, unless I pack up and leave town for warmer climates (which I am considering) if I am going to have any shot having a fun and enjoyable season, I am going to have to face the music and ride the trainer. Granted, for certain kinds of workouts, a trainer can be a really efficient way of meeting specific objectives and it does give you any opportunity to get caught up on a movie or two that you've missed. All that being said, I still consider it to be a mind numbing inhumane way to exercise.

On another note, the ING Miami Half-Marathon is on the calendar for January 31st. I haven't done much running, and it seems as though every time I do run outside, I come home with some weird minor injury which prevents me from running again for a few days. I wonder if they'd let me do the entire race on a treadmill. Probably not. Anyway, short run tomorrow followed by nice long run on Sunday. I may take a page from my friend Andrew's book and run the Manhattan half marathon as a "bandit." Registration is overrated.

The bike racing season is officially over. I'm taking some time off the bike to get back into the gym, do some running, compete in a few duathlons and watch football. Giants are killing it! Jets still have some work to do, but they are getting there. Who knows, I might make a cameo on the basketball court. In spite of what I write about on this blog, basketball is still "my" first sport and I do have a rich and storied history around these parts. Just think David, but no slingshot - more like a jumpshot. In any event, the cycling season went well for the most part. The team, CRCA/FGX Racing, was very successful and I would like to think I played a small part in our overall success. I have high expectations for myself and the team next year.

I managed a few individual results in the local crits and Prospect Park but by and large I was consistently 11th and 12th, with many top 15 finishes in Prospect and Central Park. That tells me two things. First, I need to focus on positioning in races, and second, I need to get right to it and sprint my ass off during the off season. I do have a plan.

When I look back, I didn't race nearly as much as I wanted and the first half of the season was a blur. Lots of family obligations and little time for training. Not complaining, I'm happy and thankful for my family and I'm happy that I still had an opportunity to get out there and be in the sun (and the rain).

A few parting thoughts. First, I'm going to move this blog to another platform as soon as I get the time. As easy as it is to post on Blogger, there isn't much flexibility in terms of adding photos and other content. I think moving it will actually get me to increase the frequency of my posts.

Second, while it was more or less a pain in the butt to coordinate, ending the season at Bear and then the Tour of Catskills was highly enjoyable. My fitness has increased exponentially in the weeks leading up to Bear. Roger of Finkraft Coaching really turned the screws on me and I finally found the time and space to really focus on training. Bear went great, but again positioning and mistiming the sprint cost me a top 10 (17th). The Tour of Catskills really comes down to a couple of really serious climbs. On day one, the climb comes early and on day two, it comes at the very end. While my fitness was there, I couldn't quite stick with the 135 pounders on big climb on the first day. On the second day, I stayed close, but still couldn't quite get the job done.

That said, I would still consider the weekend a success. I improved and I think the experience will help me win some races next season. I plan on focusing more on out of town crits and circuit races and, dare I say it, triathlons. I did one biathlon just before Bear and finished 5th in my age group, without using a TT bike. With my running coming along nicely, I have the potential to do pretty darn well in some of the short distance events.

So that segues into the "third" thing, no pun intended; I'm going to get back to triathlon next season. In general, bike racing can be an adrenaline rush, but it can also be a miserable obsessive grind. It'll be nice to do an event where I can just go out and compete hard against myself and hopefully some other like minded folks without having to deal with the bike racing BS. It'll also give me a chance to take advantage of my "ground attack." Not looking to "go long" again anytime soon, but I will have an Olympic or half IM distance event on the docket.

Stay tuned.

No Sleep till Brooklyn...

All photos in this post are provided courtesy of Gina of Teamorganicnyc.com http://teamorganicnyc.org/gallery.htm (Thanks Gina!)

It’s been awhile since I’ve raced the Tuesday night series in Brooklyn. Earlier in the season I thought FBF would be regular training race for me, but between work and the frequent bad weather, partaking in the Brooklyn ritual was just not in the cards. I tried to substitute FBF for Thursday nights at the Rockleigh Criterium series. And while there’s no question that Rockleigh is a nice set up – riding up 9W, racing and riding home will get you 60+ miles on a weeknight – there’s nothing like the “Brooklyn Classic.” I mean, 9W is 9W, but how many times do you have a reason to ride down Flatbush Avenue in rush hour traffic, past Prospect Park, across Empire Boulevard dodging dollar vans, livery cabs and the Brooklyn locals walking across the street at their own pace almost daring you to hit them? Never mind the race, you already feel like you deserve a spot on the podium just for getting to King’s Plaza.

The stars aligned for me on this Tuesday. I was able to finish my last conference call at about 4pm, and while I still had plenty of work to do, I accomplished enough to warrant me sneaking out early and making a mad dash home to grab my gear and head down to Brooklyn. I generally ride to the race, taking 2nd Avenue to the Manhattan Bridge and then making a bee-line down Flatbush Avenue. From my apartment, it’s more or less 10 miles and it’s a good warm up. FBF is hard from the gun, so it’s really not the place to go in cold. Today, I took the car. It looked like it might rain and I surely didn’t want to have ride home from FBF in the dark and rain. First piece of advice, from all points in Manhattan, it’s better to just leave early and ride your bike. If you drive and take the highway, no telling what kind of traffic you’ll encounter and taking Flatbush can indeed be challenging during rush hour.

I got there at about 6:40pm, plenty of time to get ready and do a few warm up laps. I got dressed and pumped my tires and realized I didn’t have the plastic bag containing my money and racing license. I wondered, damn, did I drop it? I’m certain I packed it in my bag before I left. In fact, I packed my bag the night before so there’s no way I forgot it. Second piece of advice, if you have a small child in the house, be sure that he or she does not go into your bag. My 13 month old son, Ryder, being the ever curious little guy that he is, went into my open bag and removed the baggy containing my ID and money and kindly dropped it on the living room floor. Nice. Luckily, the FBF race director was cool about it and let me race anyway, so special thanks to those guys. In spite of Floyd’s reputation of late, the race organizers work hard to put on a well organized week night training race. I owe them next week. Needless to say, with me spending time searching for the “missing baggy,” I had absolutely no time to warm up, not even a spin around the parking lot. Well, I wasn’t too worried. I consumed a serving of my trusty First Endurance Pre Race mix, so I by the time the race started was hopped up on caffeine and about 10 herbs and vitamins that I can’t even pronounce. I don’t know if the stuff works, but it sure makes me feel fast.

On to the race itself – we lined up, a decent sized field and lots of strong riders. Littlefield, one of my teammates was there and lined up toward the front. I settled in somewhere in the middle of the pack. Since I didn’t have a warm up, I knew I was going to have to be smart and conservative the first few laps. I anticipated that my heart would be in my throat the first lap or two, but then once I got warmed up, I’d be ok. I would not be disappointed.

The gun went off and the pace started off fairly high, but nothing extraordinary. I was relieved that a bunch of guys didn’t attack from the gun. One guy went off, but no one bridged and that was cool with me. The key to hanging in at FBF is making sure you stay out of the wind. The wind was particularly strong so I made a conscious effort to tuck in. On the back stretch I could move to the front fairly easily by just going to the outside of the peloton and hiding from the crosswind. As we came around the turn for the second lap, all bets were off. The pace quickly picked up and all of a sudden, I’m saying “damn, this is hard!” I just started saying to myself, just stay tucked and keep making up spots on the back stretch and I’ll be fine until the pace backs off a little. It did, a little, just enough for me to reset and start thinking strategy – stay near the front and out of the wind. The next couple of laps were fine and I began to execute and gradually move up toward the front and find a rhythm. By now, guys were getting pulled off the back and the field was getting strung out. As we approached the line for the first sprint points, the guys fighting for points started to line up and the pace really accelerated. I had no designs on sprinting. I wanted to be just behind the sprint so that if a break attempt went, I could go with it. Well, the sprint happened at lap 4 (I think), and a group of guys tried to get off the front. It happened quickly and it was less like a break attempt and more like the field split into 3, the guys off the front, the group just behind (I was toward the front of this group) and a group of guys that got pulled off the back. Each group was about the same size. My group, the group just behind the lead group was not about to let anyone get away and guys started fighting hard to close the gap, which by now was about 50 meters. At first, guys were trying to bridge individually and burning themselves out. Then one Kissena guy yelled at us to get organized and work together. I don’t know if anyone listened to him, but we did start to close the gap fairly quickly on the back stretch. Littlefield was on the front and putting in some serious work to pull back the field. We closed the gap to about 25 meters, going into the turn toward the start line and I would say once we turned into the wind, the front guys slowed considerably and we were well within 25 meters and probably would have pulled back the guys off the front by the next turn where the wind really picks up. The operative phrase is “would have.”

Just as we made the turn and we were headed back toward the start line, one guy on the Mexican team – fairly competitive Cat 4 rider (this that an oxymoron?) who races frequently – takes an inside line presumably to stay out of the wind – and inexplicably puts his head down and rides smack into the bushes. He’s going so fast that the weeds smack him dead in the face and he goes flying off the bike. Littlefield, who just finished taking a long pull to get us within striking distance, is right on the guy’s wheel and goes down hard, smacking his head, or so it appeared, on the concrete. I was about one bike length away and had two choices: (a) I could’ve tried to jump over the guy on the ground (low likelihood of success) or (b) clip out and step on him to slow my momentum, which certainly would have saved me from going down. Hmmm, easy one, I stepped on the guy. I felt terrible about it, but I really had no choice. If I would’ve fallen on him, it would’ve been far worse for both of us.


At this point a few other guys went down, but managed to get up and chase back on. Again, by now we were just behind the lead group and they had slowed considerably. I was ok but Littlefield and the other guy didn’t look too good, and I wasn't about to leave a teammate laying on the ground in Brooklyn (unless I'm about to cross the finish line first LOL). In any event, after a few minutes Littlefield seemed ok. The other guy was pretty shaken up and may have injured his shoulder or arm. He did eventually get back on his bike, but I think he had some trouble moving his right arm. Still not sure what happened. We were going pretty hard and I suspect he just lost his concentration for a second and the bushes took him off guard.


Of course, it’s not the way I would’ve wanted to cap off my return to FBF, but I was happy to have avoided a crash, that Littlefield, except for a few minor scrapes, seemed ok and that we’ll have the chance to do it again next week. God willing, there’s always next week.

Commitment

I can't believe it's been 9 months since I've been here. My, my, my, time flies. OK, this year, from here on out, I promise to faithfully discharge my duty to chronicle all that is sports related. If there's time, I might even get off topic and talk a little life; who knows, maybe some theater or film. We will definitely be talking some hoops this year. Nate Robinson of the Knicks is this year's big surprise. I have never been so wrong about a player. I'm not a fan of Stephon Marbury, but he's getting a raw deal. More on that in future posts.

So after such a long hiatus, where do I begin? Ah, maybe I should share the reasons for my sudden disappearance from the blog scene. Well, one minute I'm doing 48mph down the side of hill at Harriman State Park (on my bike that is), hanging on for dear life, and the next minute, the stork drops this little guy off at my LBS (my son) and I'm knee deep in pampers and cloaked in the aura of fatherhood. So much for blogging for awhile.

Which brings me to the topic "du jour," Commitment. Yes, the big "C" word, often bandied about on the http://www.nyvelocity.com/ website. Every year, it seems as though one of the discussion topics on the site is whether one can be committed, in this case to the sport of cycling, if one doesn't spend all of his or her waking hours perfecting his or her pedal stroke. In other words, can a person with a family and a demanding career every truly be committed to being a winning bike racer?

Now after having been a father for eight months, having a fairly demanding job and trying to maintain that ever elusive thing called "balance," I think I am now qualified to answer. And I would say the answer is "maybe, but probably not." I mean, look, I think one can make a pretty compelling argument that there are degrees of commitment and that you must take a person's personal circumstances into the consideration when deciding whether he or she is committed. But for bike racers, local bike racers in particular, where only one thing matters, the result, no one really cares that you had to work late, take your spouse to dinner or the kids to a soccer game. With every one of those decisions, you give up valuable hours of training! That's not to say that one can't be good or even win races without training, but we're talking about commitment here.

An athlete that is truly committed to his or her sport will do everything to be better, including sacrifice time with friends and family. I've been on the scene now for a couple of seasons and I come from a basketball background, and I have seen some folks really give of themselves to be better athletes, and I am truly impressed by that. I mean, all I could think about after downing my third slice of pizza on Saturday night was damn, in a few weeks, I'll be racing against some guy who hasn't had a slice of pizza in 5 years... and then I went back into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of wine. LOL

The moral to the story is that there is no moral. There's no right or wrong answer, you should do what suits you. Ride 9W seven days a week, 5 hours a day until you drop, or ride once a week at 11pm on a Wednesday night after you've cooked a 3 course meal for your spouse and read your kids their favorite bedtime story. But whatever you do, just keep riding.