Tour of Walla Walla

All of the other races leading up to the Tour of Walla Walla were just training races. During the winter we establish a goal for the first half of the season with my coach, Ed Ewing. The Tour of Walla Walla has been a goal to do well at or have my performance peak for the last couple years. It generally is always warm over there and provides the first real sweat of the year. This year it felt like we got in the car, drove around western Washington for 4.5 hours and arrived back in Seattle where it was raining and cold. Gabe and I rode over together and got to Walla Walla early so we decided to drive the new road course. The course was switched from Friday’s race to Sunday’s race. It’s a double edged sword seeing the pain you will have to endure 2 days before the race. Its good to know where you are going and any sketchy areas but then again knowing what you will have to go through is not enjoyable either.

Time Trial:

My parents also came over for the weekend. They both enjoy the area and my dad likes wine and as you know Walla Walla is known for its wines. Lindsay missed the trip waiting for her sister to give birth to baby Ronin Shack who arrived Tues night 4/19. I have ridden the TT bike 5 times so far this year and I haven’t ridden it in anger or on the road and only twice with the new aero bars I put on it. All signs leading up to my disastrous TT. What is the saying, “practice makes perfect.” This year has been a year for me to forget all the little things that really matter. Then I thought only warming up for 30 minutes was also ok. This is another case in point of forgetting the little things. The TT is only 9.3 miles so my warm up should have been closer to 1 hour if not a little more. You are full gas from the start to the finish of the Time Trial. I lined up at the gate and felt good.

I took off and sprinted until I got up to my desired speed of about 24 mph and then I settled into my position. I felt good for the first ¼ mile but then I wasn’t able to get my heart rate below 180 bpm. I was practically maxed out. This was going to be a hard 9 miles. I got to the climb which is 3 miles into the TT and stood up to sprint only to whack my knees on my bars. So I sat back down and continued to climb at a snail pace. The lactic acid in my legs was building up and it made it hard to get any power into the pedals. Then I got a case of I can’t breath, my skin suit is too tight (which it isn’t). I unzipped it and felt better and when I got to the top I couldn’t get it to zip back up. Err. I messed with it for a bit and finally got it to zip up before heading down the hill. Then I had to deal with the head wind and some cross winds. My TT was slower than it was the first year I showed up and raced on my road bike with no aero equipment.
60th place out of 80 racers. I was devastated mentally.

Criterium:

As I said I was pretty down after the TT. I couldn’t figure it out. None of the things I mentioned above entered my mind. Lindsay texted me and told me to put my big boy panties on and focus on the crit. I decided I needed to do get angry and take it out in the crit. This course really suites my style as it has 8 corners and all are fairly fast and flat. The pavement is a bit sketchy with several areas with potholes and it’s pretty bumpy. The weather was ok with no rain but the wind was pretty bad on the back side of the course with a heavy head wind. We lined up all 78 of us. I was in the 2nd row and the pop gun sounded we were off. The first few laps were pretty uneventful. As soon as we got to the back side of the course everyone fanned out and nobody wanted to do any work with the head wind. I stayed near the front the majority of the race. I felt really good and couldn’t believe how I felt considering how I was 5 hours ago in the TT. I came up with a new name for some crazies that were in the pack. They are called wave riders. They move from one side of the peloton to the other to catch the fastest line/wave with out even looking. Almost taking out multiple racers in there wake. We had several of those in our race. With 3 laps to go I made sure I was in the front 10. We came around for lap 2 and it was a prime lap worth some bonus seconds for the overall GC. I sat 2nd wheel and decided I wasn’t going to contest it and save my sprint for the finish. As we came around for our last lap I got pushed back a little and had to make some moves on the outside of the last couple corners in order to move up. Finding the best wheel to follow in criteriums for the final sprint is difficult. Especially racing with a bunch of guys you aren’t familiar with. Several guys went with 500 meters to go and I stayed seated and just turned it up a bit. I was on the outside of the course when I came around the wheel I had been following. I realized then I should have gone sooner. I closed the gap considerably to the front 3 but I was still gaining speed when we got to the line. Then I see a photographer standing 15 ft past the finish line directly in front of me. I yelled at him to move and had to duck and lean on the guy to my right so I wouldn’t hit him. That was close. I came in 5th. All is right in the world now. My TT was a bust and I should stick with criterium racing.

Road Race:

We started at 8 am Sunday morning. It was cold but the sun was out so I was hopeful that it would warm up. Once again we lined up with I believe about 75 of us racing. This was a new course for us and the course Gabe and I drove on Friday. We were doing 2 laps with a total 64 miles with 4,000 ft of climbing. You were either climbing or going down hill. The course didn’t provide much for flat areas.

Long story short, I got dropped on the 3rd climb right after the tight downhill left hand turn. This is where the majority of the pack got separated. The climber group consisted of guys who weigh 135 lbs or so and love climbing. The 2nd group included a good mix of the same. Then I see Jason on our team who flatted in the first mile come speeding past me. What? This guy is probably 6ft tall and around 185-195 lbs. I tried to jump on his wheel only to be dropped off of his wheel. Oh well, I wished him well in my head and tried going up the climbs at my own pace. We formed a group of 20 or so. Then as we continued to climb and descend the group dwindled down to 6 of us. I came around the feed and water zone area to see my dad standing there with my bottle. I told him on the next lap I would be ready for it. I got dropped on the next climb and was riding all by myself into the wind. It was the most un-enjoyable thing I have ever done on the bike. I rode by myself for the next 10 miles and couldn't wait to see my dad at the feed zone with my new bottle of water.

He mentioned I was about 10 minutes behind the leaders. I didn't really care and just wanted to be done with this. I could hear my mom telling me to get up there. Thanks mom. It was really cold and the wind was gusting around 15 to 20 mph. With about 10 miles to go I turned around on one of the climbs to see a group of guys coming up. I sat up and waiting for them and saw some of the guys that were originally in our group. I happily jumped in out of the wind. We all rode together until the finish and I believe I came in 4th or 5th in the bunch sprint.
This was the hardest race I have ever done. I came in 41st out of 52 finishers. We had almost 30 guys who didn’t finish the race. It was really nice to have the folks there with me and helping out during the weekend. Everyone on the team mentioned how nice it was that they were there so that was cool. The funny thing is I moved all the way up to 45th in GC standings. That is one place higher than last year. Ha-ha.

Racing, Eating & Glycogen Depletion

The order of the title is really how it all works. If you race your bike you must eat to refuel. If you don't eat to refuel you get Glycogen Depletion and could very well black out. Which I have now experienced multiple times this year in races minus the black out part. Which I am happy about and I am sure my competitors are as well. Basically means a complete stoppage of work from the legs. I had a small taste of it at Independence Valley Road Race at the end of March. I hit the first climb on the last lap and my legs really stopped working. I ate and recovered and felt much better after I had been dropped by the leading group. I have also been racing with the big boys 1, 2, 3's at Pacific Raceways. The last time I raced at Pacific Raceways 2 weeks ago I had the same thing happen. My legs basically seized up and wouldn't work. Its a strange feeling when it happens and very frustrating at the same time. I got dropped that night 3 separate times and the 3rd time I just rode straight to my car and went home. Still not sure what was happening.

Then a good week of training and Volunteer Park criterium on Saturday and Olympic View Road Race on Sunday where I placed 6th last year. I arrived Saturday morning at the criterium with Shawn and did our warm up. As I was pulling up to the line for the start of the race I saw Gabe who just finished the Category 5 race. I pulled over to the side to see how his race was. As I unclipped my foot from my pedal the whole thing came off. So my left crank arm came off with my pedal. Gabe and I looked at each other and Gabe said, "Oh that's not good." So that was my Saturday race. I came home and got the bike to the West Seattle Cycle U and David and Catherine were there to assist and get it fixed. Its great having a shop that sponsors the team. You guys are the best!

I was really looking forward to Sunday's race. I felt good and really thought I could do well as it is fairly flat with a couple climbs and a very fast and technical last mile. We had a very strong team going. Chad, TravisB, Eric and myself in Category 4. That is a lot of horsepower...and then there I am. The smallest out of the 3. The weather was horrible. Low 40's and rain. Our goal was to try and split the field on the first lap on the 180 degree down hill corner 1 mile prior to the finish line. We were doing 4 laps totaling 54 miles. We tried really hard to get it split but we only had 6 or 7 guys that were willing to work and the others in the front group weren't really interested. The whole race felt like someone had taken a sprinkler and stuck it in your face. There was so much water on the road and it didn't stop raining the whole race. It was miserable. Then the last 2 laps my arms and hands started going numb. Great. I am cold, I can barely shift gears with out looking down at the gear lever to make sure my hands are actually working and little did I know I am about to implode on the last lap 2 miles from the finish. I was always in the front 15 of a field that started with 70 racers only to finish with 27. Chad was doing much of the work as most teams didn't seem to bother with doing any work. I felt ok coming into the last climb where we were about 2 miles to the finish. The goal was to get me to 200 meters and let me go for the Win. I stayed on Chad's wheel as we came to the climb and he told me to hang on. Sounds good I thought. I was getting excited as we were pretty close to turning it up a notch. As we started to climb I was dumbfounded by the fact i couldn't get my legs to continue to turn. Oh no not again, not now. I went from the front of the race to off the back. I tried standing up to go faster up the hill but felt like I would fall over so I sat back down. I dangled about 100ft off the back of the lead group totally gutted along with being very confused still unable to transfer any power from my legs to my pedals. I couldn't believe it. Why was this happening. I am training more this year than last year and my results are not close to where I was last year. So as I strolled in and weaved past a crash about 100 meters from the finish I rode up to Chad and Travis to see how they did. To my surprise TravisB WON and Chad got 2nd. Total change from being depressed to asking how it happened. Tell me. Cycle U got its first Win! This was great news and I immediately was relieved and happy. Chad is on a roll now with a podium in every race he has entered so far this year and TravisB showed he is a serious contendar.

I spent the entire ride home trying to figure out what was going on with my body and specifically my legs. Monday I emailed Custom Smoothie owners Kathy and Kris to find out if they knew what I was going through. Immediately they responded with "You are experiencing total Glycogen Depletion. You need more fuel, before the race and during the race." Then we started to analize what I ate before and during the race. Then the light bulbs start going off. I am not eating enough. They continued, "You need breakfast, then another 300 calories (wafffle and 2 gels?) right before the race, then another 200-300 calories (bloks or gels) mid race (30 mins in) to finish strong.
Hope this helps...remember that eating the night before really doesn't help the glycogen stores-it has to be pre race and replacing as your are depleting during high intensity. Fueling and eating are two different things-lesson learned the hard way. Bummer."
I went to Pacific Raceways last night to race with the 1, 2, 3's again. This time though instead of it being the flat course we were doing the escape route that included a little climb/hill. I was pretty worried that I would get dropped on the first lap since my confidence had taken a pretty big dent over the last couple weeks. I ate 2 gel shots and a bananna before the race and took 2 more gel shots with me for during the race. I felt great and during the race there was 1 lap I started to feel a little fatigued. I took out my gel shot and ate it and took down some water and that was it. I felt great again. This is amazing. The last lap I was up near the front and actually was able to follow a break to the bottom of the hill before the finish. At that point I sat up and cruised into the finish. Who would have ever thought eating could be so hard to do and how you could forget to do it. I was so happy after the race. I really have to say thanks to my wife, Lindsay, who I didn't listen to. You were right I need to eat more. Big thanks to Custom Smoothie for explaining how the body and muscles work and getting me to listen. Bring on Walla Walla.