It has been awhile since I last posted a race report.  I planned on going all the way back to write a report on the Cascade Classic but it’s too far gone.  Instead, I am going to put some thoughts into how this past weekend went at the River Gorge Omnium in Chattanooga, TN.  This race marked the second weekend in a row for racing bikes in Chattanooga.  This weekend was a US Military Endurance Sports focus event which meant I had some teammates at the race.  Sam Curlee flew in from the perfect weather of California to race in the CAT 2 Omnium.  Our hopes were high for this race and we were determined to represent USMES in a positive manner.
Day 1 was a double header with a 4 mile morning time trial followed by an evening criterium.  Coming from a triathlon background combined with how my recent training had gone I knew I had a shot at a podium.  I began by looking at last year’s time trial results and saw that 8:00 was the winning time with second and third place back 3 and 5 seconds respectively.  So I hopped on over to BestBikeSplit to check out what it would take to suffer to an 8 minute result.  Turns out that getting close to 8 minutes was doable.  I was going to need to average 426w over the 8 minute effort but in reality there was only 6 minutes of pedal time.  The other 2 minutes come from descending down a climb in the middle and near the end.  The profile is shown below and then I put in the time trial plan.

It turns out that my plan was a little too conservative on the flats and too aggressive on the climb.  The goal was to average 518w for 90 seconds on the climb.  I only averaged 475w for the climb and put me 10 seconds behind my plan at the crest of the hill.  Now, the Wahoo Elemnt Planned Workout actually had the interval switch out of the climbing interval as I crested.  In my mind I thought this meant I was on track for the 8:05 finish time.  While I did make up some time over the remainder of the course it wasn’t enough to get me a podium spot.  My trainingpeaks file shows a finish time of 8:08 but the official results show 8:24.  Officials stated that all of the times were off by 11 seconds which puts me closer to where I was planned.  I ended up 8th in the standings and walking away feeling pretty defeated.  I should have been a little more aggressive in the beginning of the TT and a little more conservative on the climb (in my planning).  It took me 30 or so minutes after the TT to reflect on the effort and move past it.  It took a lot of concentration and some venting to my teammate to accept it for what it was and change my mindset towards the crit.

The Village Volkswagen Criterium part of the River Gorge Omnium is an extremely fast non-technical four corner crit.  I am going to be honest, crits always make me nervous.  It is something I need to work on.  I don’t know if it is self sabatoge but I always find myself starting at the back of the pack.  This time I got to line up at the front of the race, and boy does it make a huge difference!  Instead of spending the first 10-15 minutes “tailgunning” and spending effort moving up through the pack I could just relax and enjoy the ride.  Sam Curlee, my teammate, also started with good position.  We rode side by side for the first 10 minutes.  At one point he could tell I was braking too much into the corner so he hollered at me to lay off the brakes.  Once he gave me that little reminder I was pretty much good for the rest of the race.  One corner always made me tense up which was turn 3.  I don’t really know what made this corner crash heavy but almost every race ended up having a crash in this corner.  It seemed that I held my breath and tensed up when I entered the corner.  It took some cognitive capacity to fight through the nerves.
The Criterium was a CAT 2 specific crit instead of the typical P12 (professional) race.  As a cat 2 there are not a lot of chances to race solely against your racing peers.  This lead to the race being extremely fast and attack heavy.  Even though we all knew that the chances of a breakaway succeeding in such a fast crit was slim to none we all attempted attacks.  I gave it a go at 10 minutes in and stayed out front for a lap and a half before pulling the plug.  I shuffled back into the group and pretty much just concentrated on staying in the top 15 riders the rest of the race.  There were a couple of times where I slipped back to the middle of the pack but quickly realized where I was and shuffled back front.  I ended up being in the top 8 riders going into 3 laps remaining.  A couple laps prior there was a crash in turn three that divided the field slightly and pushed my teammate out of the race.  With 2 laps to go I was still at the pointy end of the race and feeling confident.  We averaged 30.2 mph over the final 2 laps which meant all of our positions were locked in except for in the corners.  I anticipated riders taking risks in the corners but I knew I just needed to stay aggressive and defend my position.  We came into turn 3 with a ton of speed.  We smoothly went through turn 3 and 4 and popped out on to the wide road that held the finish.  The second I felt I wasn’t going to clip a pedal I hopped out of the saddle and gave it everything to the finish.  There was a junior racer ahead of me and I ended up passing him, mostly because he couldn’t sprint with his gear restrictions.  I ended up finishing 13th which gave me the best crit result of the season, excluding the Cat 3 races.  With my 8th in the TT and 13th in the crit I was just outside of the top 10 in the GC.  I knew the road race tomorrow suited my racing style because of the inclusion of two major climbs.

​Three River Rumble, hosted by Rockwood, TN played host to the 2017 Tennessee State Criterium Championships.  The day was set to be beautiful weather, with bright sunny skies and not overly hot.  My race didn’t start until late in the afternoon so I decided to volunteer as a corner marshal for a couple hours.  I always appreciate the work organizers put into the event and I figured it wouldn’t hurt me to help them out.  I parked myself on a corner and helped direct traffic.  I learned, yet again, how much some of these rural towns hate cycling and being healthy.  It truly was disappointing and saddening to experience the anger and hatred towards us.  I had quite a few people not care about the cyclist safety and ignore my instructions to stay off the course.  I do not understand how people immediately degrade/dehumanize cyclists once they clip in.  What makes this even worse is that the county and city approved the race, and has for a couple of years.  If the citizens don’t appreciate the business the race brings to the town then they should go to their town meeting and complain.  Do not put the riders’ safety at jeopardy because you are not involved in your local politics.  Alright, time to step off my soap box and on to the race.

The story of the day was breakaway.  Now, I spent most of the day on turn 5 being the corner marshal so I could not see when attacks happened.  None of the attacks happened coming into turn 5 or right after turn 5.  Actually, most of the time there was already a break established coming into my turn.  I took this as people were attacking on the long tail wind section after turn 6 or going into turn 3.  The stretch between turn 3 and 4 was a cross wind which was then immediately followed by a long tailwind.  A gap needed to be established before the final turn because it was a long wide open headwind section.
                My race had a smaller field, which was surprising for a Saturday crit and the state championship.  I felt that my chances were pretty good for a podium and overall win.  The whistle blew, and yet again I struggled to clip in.  This is something I clearly need to work on because it has caused me to have crappy starting position on every crit I have done this year.  Spending the first couple of laps moving up is a waste of energy.  The first two laps started out with a medium speed, 24.2 mph.  They ended up being below the average speed on the day, 25.6 mph.  I averaged 245 watts over the first two laps while the eventual winner, Jeremiah, averaged 215watts.  It wasn’t until the 4th lap that attacks really started happening frequently.  Looking back at my power data I can see 10-12 attacks over the remaining 30ish minutes of the race.

​The payoff for these attacks were minimal.  At most I put some fatigue into some of the guys hanging on but it didn’t do much in regards to the contenders.  This is one thing that I need to work on, patience.  I tend to be extremely impatient in a game that requires it.
                It wasn’t until 19 minutes in that the decisive move was made.  At this point, I put in a huge attack with the goal of not letting up in order to finally split the field.  This dig required an initial 486w 76 second effort which was part of a 5 minute @ 416w effort.  This broke the field down into 5 riders.  Only two of the riders were really willing to work, with the eventual winner kind of sitting in and doing weak pulls.  After this the race was really on.  There were an additional 5 attacks, most made by me, in order to reduce the field even more.  The digs were usually shorter efforts down the backstretch, with the tailwind.  One of the attacks did separate one rider from the breakaway.  It wasn’t until the final 3.5 minutes, though, that the real damage was done.  This is when Jeremiah’s patience paid off.  He went to work and made two significant attacks on the final 2 laps.  The first one was a leg ripper going into turn 6 but we all held on.  Jeremiah then attacked again into turn 1.  I was at the back of the group and the rider in front of me couldn’t handle the attack.  I had to slow down and move around him which created a gap between me and the two riders.  I knew I had to close that gap so I pushed the pedals so hard (601w for 45 seconds with a HR of 181 BPM.  I could feel my eyeballs wanting to pop out of my head.  I thought I had closed the gap coming out of turn 5 but at this point Jeremiah attacked again.  He opened up a small gap and I had to chase again.  This gap was one I couldn’t close.  We rounded the final corner, two riders only a bike length or two in front of me, but with a strong headwind it was too much.  I did not have enough protection and power to contend for the win.

STRAVA FILE: https://www.strava.com/activities/986304265/analysis

​Stage 3, Joe Martin Stage Race in Category 2/3, was a criterium located downtown Fayetteville, AR.  The course was somewhat technical with two long, straight downhill sections that bomb into 90 degree turns.  One of the downhill sections included brick crosswalks and ate up pavement.  There was one section, after the second downhill section that had a strong head wind.  After this head wind section there was a right hand turn into a short but steep climb.  The climb is a 20-30 second effort that crests at the finish line.  According to Strava my fastest time up the climb was 22s averaging 567w (7.5 w/kg).  Not surprisingly this was the final ascent of the climb.

​Our race started just before noon with gray skies but luckily no precipitation.  The length was set for 45 minutes which resulted in 14 laps around the course (average lap time 2:58).  The first lap was hard and fast as always.  Everybody was jockeying for position.  I was stuck in the middle of the group but moved up during the first downhill section.  The first downhill section was wide enough to make moves.  You just had to make sure to push back to the right as you got to the bottom so you could take the left hand turn without losing speed.  My game plan going into the crit was hold nothing back.  I had lost too much time on the road race to have a shot at GC so I figured I would just mess around and maybe see if I can get a breakaway to stick.  I made at least 3 attempts throughout the race for a breakaway.  The first time it was with a small group (total of 3 guys).  Once we hit the headwind section, just prior to the climb, we gave up.  Another time, towards the end of the crit I attempted to go solo.  There was an attack from a COGA rider and he had a gap to the field.  I chased for an entire lap but couldn’t bridge the gap.  I ended up getting caught at the top of the climb with 2 laps to go.  At this point I decided to recover for a lap and then try to move up on the final lap.  I made up some ground on the final lap but it wasn’t enough to make a difference.  The COGA rider soloed to victory and I ended up getting a pack finish.

Day 1 of the festivities began with a cool morning uphill time trial.  My roommate and I awoke dark and early overcome with eagerness of the day to come.  The alarm was set for 0530 but neither of us actually needed it.  The coffee was brewing 10 minutes later and Nationsnumber1beast was on the TV getting us motivated.  Coffee of choice was Roasters Choice from Bell Lap Coffee.  We all know that the best way to wake up is not having hotel knock off Folgers in your cup.  While enjoying the coffee I decide to take a step outside for some fresh air.  I was startled by the brisk air.  It was in the high 40s but luckily projected to be around 60 when I went off for the TT. 
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I left the hotel room at 0700 because I wanted to make a quick detour to the local car wash.  I was planning on washing my bike the night prior but ended up putting it off.  After a quick $1 wash I was off to Devil’s Den State Park.  My start time was 09:27 and I planned on getting there around 0800.  The drive was on twisty rural roads that took you up and over a couple of mountains.  It was definitely a great drive to the base of the TT.  I did end up arriving around 0800 and quickly came to the conclusion that I was there too early.  So I went to the bathroom and sat in the car for 20 minutes listening to some podcasts.  At 0820ish I did a 2 minute power pose to get the testosterone up and get in the zone.  So the parking area was in a little valley with no real flat area to warmup.  Not really a problem since the event is an uphill TT.  Might as well use the climbs to warmup the climbing muscles.  Just needed to keep it in the little gear.  My warmup plan was 40-50 minutes with a couple 1 minute power testers.

​So being an engineer and a former triathlete I really wanted to nail down a TT power plan.  What is the best way to do this?  The team over at Best Bike Split have done a phenomenal job with their race prediction tool.  The website is very easy to use, even the free version.  All you have to do is plug in some numbers, like weight and FTP, as well as selecting what kind of gear you are using, like deep wheels or aero road bike.  Best Bike Split has some general CD values depending on your gear selection that they use in their algorithm.  I did use the wrong course to predict my time but the power plan for the first part stayed relatively the same.  I used the longer professional course (.7 miles longer) compared to the amateur course.  The amateur course is 1.8 miles long at an average gradient of 6.4% which includes 7 switchbacks.  Best Bike Split uses all of the data and gives you a power plan graph and split chart, like seen below.

​How well did I execute?  I would say I executed the plan perfectly and even adjusted my power output slightly to account for the shorter distance.  I was definitely nervous pulling up to the start line, but not as nervous as I thought I would be.  So I am sitting in the gate, clipped in, watching the clock click up.  “10 seconds” says the USAC official.  I take a couple deep breaths to relax. “5, 4, 3, 2,” and what feels like a minute the beep finally rings out.  I shoot out of the tent in the perfect gear.  My legs feel powerful as I currean through the initial technical section.  It takes me a minute to get to the climb proper in which I averaged 537w (7.16w/kg) to reach.  At this point I remember the odd thought cross my mind, “I am working so hard but I am going so slowly.”  Obviously this is the case because it is a freaking uphill time trial.  But for that split second my mind couldn’t grasp this simple fact and expected to be going 30mph.  Up the road is the athlete that went off 30 seconds prior to me.  I set my sights on him and lay down the power.  For the next 6 minutes I chase him up the climb averaging 426w (5.68w/kg).  With each pedal stroke I get closer and closer to him.  I knew that making up 30 seconds on the climb would be pretty big.  As soon as it started though, it was over.  I crest the top of the climb right on his rear wheel.  His teammate, who is starting to come down the mountain, points to the finish line up the road.  I honestly wasn’t expecting the finish to be right there.  I popped out of my saddle and increased my power to average 500w for the final minute.  I finished in 8:14 seconds which essentially created a three way tie for second.

​I wanted to provide another insight into what goes on in my life.  This time we will look at a week of training.  I will pull from last week as it was a good solid typical week of training for me.  Last week marks 4 weeks out from my JMSR is my A race for the first half of 2017.  Joe Martin Stage Race (JMSR) is a 2 day - 3 race - stage race.  A stage race is a cycling event in which the overall winner on day two is determined by cumulative time of the races.  You must finish every stage in order to win the overall.  Note, this is different from your typical omnium because you do not have to finish every race in an omnium in order to race the next stage. 

Joe Martin Stage Race, located in Fayettville, AR is one of America's oldest stage races; celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2017.  Surviving 40 years in American stage racing is quite a feat!  America has a tumultuous history with races popping up and disappearing in a year or two.  The race's history and growth to become one of the most popular stage races in America is a direct result of the amazing leadership organizing the event.  So, when it comes to training the most important question to ask is, “what aspects of fitness will I need to obtain my goal at the event?”  One of the easiest ways to get a grasp of what I need to train for is by looking at the parcours.
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Stage 1: A challenging 2.4 mile uphill time trail.  This is all about power to weight ratio for 10 minute power.  The average gradient is 5% with an elevation gain of 725 feet.  All of the climbing is done in the first 80% which includes 7 switchbacks and averages 6.6%!  Looking at some historical data of riders with similar weight I will need to average around 420-430w in order to win or guarantee a podium. 

​Stage 2: This is a 68 mile hilly road race later in the afternoon on day 1.  There is a minor climb, which should be handled pretty calmly within the first three miles.  After that, there is a 9 mile flat trip to the 23 mile loop, which we will do twice.  The loop begins with a 1.2 mile Category 4 climb (according to Strava).  There is a slight descent after the categorized climb and then back into a more gradual climb to a plateau.  After completing the loop twice we head back to downtown on the same route we came out.  

Stage 3: The final race of the weekend is a 40 minute technical crit with a hill top finish.  The course has 8 turns and a long (for a crit) 110ft climb to the finish. This will be a crit where it is important to stay at the front and punish legs on the climb.  It is a course designed for the breakaway. Here is a link to a video file from last year's CAT 3 criterium:  ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi78GzPCbW0

Now it is time to break down how the race was won last year.  The overall GC winner came in second overall in the TT, pack finish in the RR, and 3rd overall for the Crit (part of a breakaway).  The road race stayed together for the entire race and it finished in a group sprint.  With this knowledge, what kind of fitness will I need to be successful at JMSR?

Important workouts going into this will be:

1. 1 minute intervals w/ minimal rest
2. 5 minute intervals w/ 50% recovery
3. Long rides w/ sweet spot intervals late
4. V02 intervals (Tabata)

Timing of these workouts is extremely important.  Certain aspects of fitness will have a slower decay rate (like base training and sweet spot work) and can be focused on farther out from the race.  This allows focus closer to the race being placed on threshold and above threshold intervals.  Throwing in the occasional longer tough ride will maintain any fitness in endurance.  Alan Couzens wrote a great article about periodization and training specificity.  He also created a great illustration for decay rates.  His article can be found here (https://www.alancouzens.com/blog/periodization.html) which is where I grabbed the following graph.

Tomorrow I will post a look into what training looks like 4 weeks out from the race.  

2016 Results Cat 3:

1. Overall GC: https://www.road-results.com/race/7314#cat80027
2. Stage 1 (TT): https://www.road-results.com/race/7311#cat80006
3. Stage 2 (RR): https://www.road-results.com/race/7312#cat80013
4. Stage 3 (Crit): https://www.road-results.com/race/7313#cat80020

​Oh boy, the excitement for this weekend has been building over the past 4 months.  Every workout I saw that attack, that sprint, that breakaway.  The race season has finally arrived and boy am I ready to race.  The past couple of years Hincapie Sportswear has put on a spring racing series.  It is held in the final three weekends of February.  One of the benefits of living in the south is the early Spring temperatures.  The first weekend of the 2017 series was on 11-12 February in which I had Army National Guard duty.  I committed to racing the final two weekends, and possibly do well enough to be in contention for the series yellow jersey.  It is going to be tough at this point which will be explained later.  So last Friday, I took off from work early, recorded a podcast with Mike Tarnapoll at InsideTracker, packed up the dogs and bike and headed to Asheville. 

Weather: Sunny, partly cloudy, and upper 60s.  Rain predicted for afternoon. Tailwind into the finish
Race Start: 1100
Field Size: 30-40 riders
Teams Represented: Fuzion Cycling, Lees-McRae, RTO

The first race of the weekend was at the Fork Shoals course.  This is a 15 mile loop consisting of minor rolling terrain.  The front quarter and the back 3rd quarter of the course have some climbs.  While there are a lot of crashes, the course has good quality roads and roads are wide enough.  There were two or three crashes with one resulting in an emergency hospital visit. 
​
How did the race playout?  For me, it didn’t really play out.  I started out the race riding the caboose and chit chatting with the other cyclists.  After 11 miles I heard some laughter behind me which was followed by notification of a flat tire.  4 miles left to the start/finish line and my car made for a desperate situation.  The tire was holding some air up until 2 miles to start line.  I didn’t really have an option and wasn’t ready to quit so I hung on the back until the final corner.  The pack made the turn faster than I could and they got a small gap.  I reached the parking lot, sped over to my car, changed my wheel, and rocketed out on a mission to chase the pack down.

I had about 2 minutes to make up which I thought was possible at the time.  There were only two thoughts going through my head.  Should I go all out and see if I can catch them within a lap or take it a little easier and hope I can catch them on one of the final laps?  I chose to ride FTP and catch them on one of the final laps.  About halfway through my first chase lap I could see the group up the road.  I roughly calculated my gap at 1 minute.  My moral got a quick bump and I chased harder.  A couple of minutes later I started to catch riders that were pooped out the back.  This was about 20-30 minutes of chasing and I still felt strong.  My heart rate was in the 160s and legs weren’t feeling too fatigued.  I began to ask myself if I should go harder.  I decided that I should keep it controlled and revaluate my effort once I got another gap update.
​
About 40 minutes into my chase I got another gap update and it was not as moral boosting.  I was told that my gap was remaining the same/growing.  Now, the field was probably racing and breakaways were being established.  I probably should have stopped chasing at this point.  I decided to see how hard I could actually go for an hour.  So I went for another 20 minutes at the same intensity.  It ended up being a normalized power of 364w at 168 BPM.  After an hour I met two more racers that were spit out the back of the pack.  I decided to ride with them to the finish line.  I am glad that I did because they had some great stories.  One of the guys I was riding with ended up being Jeremy Powers’ personal mechanic.  He was in the area with some of his friends doing a mini training camp.  The other rider I met rode for Lees-McRae College on a scholarship.  For those who don’t know, Lees-McRae consistently produces the top American cycling talent.  Andrew Talansky and Brent Bookwalter are just two names that graduated from this prestigious college.

Our little group rode to the finish line to watch the CAT 3 finish as well as the Pro 1/2 finish.  The CAT 3 finish was a sprint out of a small select group.  A Lees-McRae rider won the sprint.  The Pro 1/2 finish was a similar situation but was won by a rider from the Palmetto State Medical Elite Cycling Team (stunning kits BTW).

That was a lot longer of a report than I was expecting.  The second race report from the weekend will definitely be a behemoth.  I will have that released in the next couple of days so stay tuned.

​One might think that fitness is the most important part in bike racing.  It does have its place, but this past weekend really showed me the importance of having team support.  It all began with the decision to race for the General Classification in the 10th Annual Tour de Millersburg.  This is a two day, three race stage race located in Millersburg, PA.  This was going to be a long and stressful drive for me (10 hours from Knoxville).  Reason I say stressful is because 90% of the drive takes place on US-81 which is notoriously packed with semi-trucks and similar large and slow vehicles.
I left Knoxville before the sun came out, hoping to beat any traffic that would be around Knoxville.  I got out of Knoxville without any problems.  The drive was gray and boring for the first 3-4 hours.  I started to encounter some heavier traffic around Harrisonburg (James Madison University) which is where I stopped for lunch, at Panera.  Now, one thing I don’t understand is how Panera always seems to place their locations in corners or areas with little to no parking.  I would say that 75% of the Panera locations I go to have very limited parking around the building.  This forces people to park farther away and walk to the restaurant, sometimes crossing busy suburban mall streets.  This particular location was the same story, where I had to park across a busy mall street.  A somewhat dangerous walk but always still worth it in the end.  After a quick lunch it was back on the traffic-laden road.
My final destination for the drive up was my sister’s house, MillersVILLE.  This was another 4 hours of driving, and the congestion was starting to grow.  The final 4 hours were filled with flashing highbeams, honking horns, and headaches caused by drivers who don’t understand the two-lane system.  America, the left lane is for passing!  Do not get into the left lane and just chill there at or below the speed limit.  Once you complete a pass get back into the right lane so other people can go around you.  Biggest pet peeve, second to lazy people not using turn signals.  America needs to learn how to drive again.
Ok, on to the more exciting stuff.  My sister was gracious enough to lend me her bed for the night.  I ended up getting an alright night of sleep.  It was enough to make me feel ready to race and fresh.  I got up around 05:20 to make the 90 minute drive to Millersville.  I arrived to a cloudy and wet Millersburg.  It had been raining on and off in the early morning.  I was not too concerned about this since it was just a TT.  I also had 2 hours before my start time of 09:16.  My warmup was 30 minutes with a couple 2 minute efforts.  I used the 2 minute efforts to gauge what kind of power I could sustain for the 18 minute TT.  I decided that 370w would be a good place to start.  I would adjust at the turn-around, which is 4.5 miles in to the 8.7 mile event.  On to the TT…

​The organizers had secured a ramp for us to start on.  This was a new experience for me and made me feel a little nervous.  It was also only the second time I started from a held position.  It takes a lot of trust to let someone hold your seatpost and hope you don’t fall.  The organizer starts to count down. I take a deep breath.  Three….two…one… GO!  I immediately realize I was in too tough of a gear.  I barely get my feet to crank one revolution.  All I am thinking at this point is do not fall off the ramp!  I luckily get enough of a revolution to begin rolling down the ramp.  I get up to speed and tuck down as soon as possible.  The course is a rolling one with two longer very gradual rollers.  After that it is a flat, straight road out to the turn around.  I started 30 seconds behind the guy in front of me.  So catching him was the first goal.  The rider in front of me did not have a TT bike so I expected to catch him relatively quickly.  This ended up being the case and within the first 2 miles I was passing him and moving on to the next target.  I ended up catching one more athlete before the turn around, with the third athlete in sight.  It took me maybe another half mile after the turnaround to catch the third man, a USMES teammate.  I passed him feeling strong and with the fourth athlete in sight.  If I could catch him then I would be 2-minutes ahead which would give me some security in my placing.  I ended up raising my power output and caught the athlete meters before the finish.  I felt very confident about my performance and felt that I had paced it as perfectly.  I ended up getting third in the TT, putting me in good position for the criterium in the evening.

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The starting field for the criterium was the largest I had ever been a part of.  There were 60 starters for the Crit which included 7 of my USMES teammates.  The organizers called up the top 10 in the GC so there was no worry about starting position.  I ended up struggling, per usual, to clip into my pedals.  This failure pushed me back to the middle of the pack.  Position early on in a crit can be important because of crashes, and the high intensity of the first couple of laps can cause gaps.  Usually, those gaps are closed and the race will calm down after 2-3 laps.
The crit course was a long rectangle with a fast downhill section between turns 2 and 3.  There is a slight uphill going into turn 3 which caused the peloton to slow down.  Coming out of turn three is a little kicker that can sear the legs off of even the most experienced punchy rider.  This slowing down going into the climb caused the climb to be even harder because you had to regain your momentum.  After two laps I was back in the top 5 of the race.  I noticed that the yellow jersey wearer was starting to struggle on the climb.  A small gap would appear between him and the rider in front of him.  His body language also screamed pain and fatigue.  I knew this was my time to make my first move.  At the top of the climb I pushed the pace high and stretched out the gap between the yellow jersey and my group.  My group consisted of 5-6 riders.  We grew our gap over the next couple of laps.  I did a couple small attacks to see how the group would react.  I noticed that they were not reacting fast enough and I could get a significant gap if I attacked hard enough.  So I waited for my marked rider to take his pull and then popped around him.  There were about 10 laps to go on the 1km course.  It was going to be a long move but I knew I could hold it.  So I got a small gap, it held for a lap or so and then the chase group began to stop working together.  My gap began to grow and I knew if I could hold out for the final couple of laps that I would win the crit.  I ended up having enough to hold out and crossed the line in first.  This was enough to give me the yellow jersey and enough points to guarantee a category upgrade.

There was a lot of excitement in the air the morning of the road race.  Our team had the yellow jersey, and we also just had a solid team showing.  8 riders on the same team for a cat 4/5 race is almost unheard of.  We began our morning hanging out around our cars talking about strategy for the race, cleaning up our steeds, and pinning our numbers.  Our strategy for the race was to control the group for the first lap, cover any moves from marked riders, and stay relaxed/have fun.  We rolled up to the start line two by two, looking as professional as Team BMC or any other World Tour Team.  USMES showed that we were not to mess with and we had the support to keep the top spot in GC.
The whistle blew, we clipped in, and began our three laps around the 18 mile rolling course.  Immediately one of the riders from King Kog takes control and begins to drive the group towards the first climb.  Billy Osterman, a USMES rider that would volunteer to protect me on the day, helps move me up to the front of the group.  We wanted to stay safe going into the hard climb of the course.  The hard climb was 2 miles after the start line and was a quarter mile climb.  The first time up the climb was rough mostly caused from lack of a warmup and everybody having fresh legs.
We get over the first climb, everybody gasping for air.  Billy and I take notice of where people begin to falter.  Other than the initial climb, the remainder of the first lap was fairly uneventful.  Some athletes attacked but were quickly brought in.  One interesting note on the first lap was the fact that a couple guys decided to increase the pace and speed through the neutral feed zone.  This tends to happen in the Cat 4/5 race.  I was not happy with the group and expressed my concern for the safety of the pack as well as the volunteers.  I explained that there was no need to hammer it through the feed zone when there was no breakaway.  So, next time through the feed zone Billy, me, and the previous yellow jersey wearer took up the road so nobody could increase the pace.  We went through the feed zone the second time much more civil.  At this point there was still nobody up the road.  The previous lap was controlled mostly by USMES with Billy Osterman, Chris Spurrier, and Tyler Moyer working at the front.
Final lap of the race started out with a shuffling of position going into the climb.  There were KOM points available for the first rider across the line.  I knew that some of the top athletes would push the pace to get those points.  I start the climb in 4th or 5th position.  I follow the first attack up the climb.  There is a slight flat section in middle of the climb which allows some minor recovery.  I was in second position at this point so I just decided to go for the points.  I was quickly passed and decided that I would conserve some energy in order to mount an attack at the crest of the climb.  We cross the KOM line, lungs burning, legs heavy, but still enough energy to push on.  Billy and I had discussed on the previous lap that we would attack at the top of the climb.  We jumped at the opportunity, got a gap, but the climb took too much out of Billy.  I tried to wait for Billy as much as I could but the group was starting to recover and mount the counter attack.  After a minute or so of hanging out in no-man’s land Billy decides he wasn’t going to survive the entire lap in a break.  He sits up and I yell back at him to try and block for me.  I continue on the attack solo.  I hang out for about 10 minutes but every time I turn around it seems that the group is getting closer.  I make the decision to sit up and try my luck with an attack later.


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The group swallows me and I shuffle into the top 5 riders.  I want to stay here because attacks could come at any moment and I need to be ready.  Luckily, nobody really attacks.  We make the turn on to Route 25 where I know there are a couple more small climbs I can make a move on.  The first climb I make a hard move, sustain it for a minute or so and realize I gained little ground and hide back in the pack.  The next climb I attack and the move is covered.  I immediately attack again, off the front.  I do this once more in an attempt to gain some ground.  All I was doing was stringing out the pack.  This was good because there was a fast downhill into a right turn.  Going into the turn a rider gets in front of me and creates a small gap.  A second rider sprints in front of me and closes the gap down.  I am third wheel going into the final sprint, perfect place.  The lead guy has a small gap and opens up his sprint.  The guy in front of me opens his sprint.  Learning from previous races I remain patient and hold off on my sprint until absolutely necessary.  200m to go and I start to wind up.  I pass the rider in front of me and eyes on the rider in first.  I begin to gain ground on him.  I am only thinking of two things at this point.  First is all out effort and second is catch the guy in front of me.  50m to go and I am half a bike length behind him.  He crosses the line and lets out a scream of joy.  I immediately cross the line in second, securing the overall General Classification.  That was by far the best sprint I have ever executed.  I still need to get my max power up but still feel very proud of the sprint.
Overall, the race went very well.  I enjoyed racing with my teammates, learning more about stage racing, and testing my abilities.  This past weekend would not have been possible without my amazing sponsors Infinit Nutrition, Culprit Bicycles, Roots Hummus, and Trisports.com.  This weekend was a huge boost for my mood and should provide the motivation to get me to my next race, River Gorge Omnium.

Last week I entered a four weekend block of racing.  Every weekend brings a new challenge.  I knew recovery was going to be a crucial aspect of this block.  If I survive and come out the other side with no injuries then I know my fall season will be very successful.  Staying healthy is the hard part though...

Duathlons are always tough... it is guaranteed that the second run will hurt a ton.  Nobody really expects the first run to hurt the same amount though!  Darren Brown, of bteamrunning, toed the line as well as Patrick Parish and some other fast runners.  Darren went out in a blazing 25:35 for the 5 mile run.  The next competitor, Parish, was over a minute down coming in to T2!  I lost just over 2 minutes to Darren with a run split of 27:57.  I pushed to the limits on this first run to limit my losses.  I knew the bike was going to be tough because I needed to use it to catch up.

The bike was a 30 mile rolling course through the rural parts of Cary, NC.  The roads were still open to traffic which posed some problems at times but also provided some chances for recovery.  My game plan was to ride at around 330 watts which should give me the fastest bike split and catch me up to Parish.  Well, Parish had improved his biking skills since last time he was in Cary.  I managed to cut one minute off of my deficit of Parish but it wasn't enough to really catch him. 

I came off the bike as the first Age Grouper but there was a pack of 6 people directly behind me.  My feet were very tender, something I am working on, and transition was slow.  I lost most of my positioning coming out of T2.  After that it was just holding on to whatever I could.  I was in 6th place overall going into the turnaround on the second run.  Directly after the turnaround you begin a long 1 mile steep climb in which you can gauge your distance from competitors.  5th place was way up the road and I had no chance of catching him so the goal was just hold 6th.  Darren Brown was hot on my heels and looking strong.  He ended up passing me with 1 mile to go which gave me my final position of 7th overall at Long Course Nationals and 3rd in my age group.

Bike: 2:30
More problems plaguing me on the bike....  Seems to be a common theme with this season.  Yet again, this one is my fault.  My Garmin 810 was glued to my between the arms water bottle but after a couple miles the glue released and bye bye Garmin.  The rest of the ride I had to go off of RPE which isn't that difficult but usually means I will under perform.  There were three guys in front of me coming out of the swim.  I set my mind to catching them all before the end of the bike.  Just after mile 20 there is a short out and back section.  This was the perfect time to see how much time I have gained back on the bike.  The lead guy passed me on the way back and he looked strong.  I started to count in my head to get a gap.  I reached 120 seconds and just gave up with counting.  I think he was a good 5 or 6 minutes ahead of me at this point.  His followers, aka the two other people in front of me, were a little closer and I figured I might be able to catch those guys.  Around mile 40 is when I finally caught up to the third place athlete.  I made my move on a short climb and just didn't look back.  I learned my lesson from Cary that I need to make stronger moves so the athletes can't latch on to my draft.  It only took a couple more miles before I caught the second place athlete.  Yet again, I made a strong move past him and didn't look back.  I managed to get a minute or two on him before transition.  The first place guy was flying and put even more time into me.

Run: 1:31
My legs felt amazing coming off of the bike, which was expected because I under performed.  The first couple of miles on the run went very smooth.  I was feeling strong and clicking off low 6 minute miles and staying in low tempo HR zone.  The ab cramp started to creep in around mile three but I noticed that if I kept my HR below 172 then the ab cramp would go away.  Around mile 6 my left foot started to hurt a lot.  This caused me to slow down significantly even though legs and body felt pretty good.  At mile 10 it was more just about finishing than caring where I was going to place.  I need to find a solution for this 1st metatarsal joint pain.  It is definitely impact related so next race I am going to try a gel bunion sleeve and racing in the Altra One.  The Altra One provides a little more cushion compared to the racing flats I had been wearing.  I am hoping that this will limit or remove the pain and allow me to really run to my potential.

REV3 puts on an amazing event and really cares about every athlete.  I was impressed at every step of the race in how well everything was planned out and executed.  I will definitely be racing with REV3 again!

I am also extremely grateful that my amazing wife could come "watch" me race.  I use quotation marks around watch because long course triathlon can be very boring.  4-5 hours of racing but only really seeing me for about 2 minutes.  She was an amazing motivation for me to keep pushing.

My next race is going to be a little shorter.  This weekend I am racing the Category 4 Winston-Salem Cycling Classic Criterium.  No real goals here, but I always do race for 1st ;)

After Winston-Salem I head to Raleigh for another 70.3 race.  The loose goal is to qualify for the USAT elite card but really the goals are work harder during swim, no bike problems, and no foot pain/ab cramping.  I think the hard goals are easy to hit if I just concentrate and check my gear.

This past Wednesday I participated in a local track-like/criterium style bike race called Ring Of Fire.  The evening started out well with a win in the 'C' race which is made up of Cat 4/5 riders.  The 'C' race was fast right from the beginning with me setting the pace.  I wanted to test everybody's legs and also input some fatigue into their legs quickly.  I kept the pace high for the first 6 laps (points are scored on every 5th lap) and then let off the gas just slightly.  Some damage had been done to the group and the field size shrank.  Around lap 8 there was a prime, prize for the lap, up for grabs and the field went for it.  I was beat to the line on this occasion by a rider visiting from Florida.  Everybody looked exhausted at this point so I decided to make another strong surge to see who had anything left.  I ended up breaking away from the group and ended up lapping half of the field by the last lap.

Ring of Fire is held on an abandoned automotive race track that is 500m long.  There is a slight bank to the track and it is made out of pavement.  Starting in April and going until August there is a weekly Point based criterium race and is always filled with action and excitement.  This past Wednesday was the first race of the year which brought some big crowds and eager legs.  

After completing the 'C' race I had 20 minutes until my next race which was the Cat 3/4 race.  An even bigger field than the 'C' race pulled up to the line.  Sadly, after 5 laps I was involved in a bad crash.  The pack was finalizing their lead up coming out of the final corner when the rider in front of me began to slow down rapidly.  I attempted to move to his outside but could not get my front wheel around his rear wheel.  We crossed wheels and I lost control.  I went pin-balling into a rider (and friend) to my right but had too much momentum to stay upright.  I ended up flipping over the bars and slamming onto my back.  We were going close to 30 mph at this point so when I hit the ground I slid for a couple of feet towards the track wall.  When the dust settled I was laying face up and trying to catch my breath.  I could feel a throbbing pain in my right side closer to the back and figured it might be a broken rib.  I laid on the track for a minute or so while a local doctor checked me out.  After he cleared me of any spinal damage we shuffled off the track to be checked out by the first-responders.  I was in some serious shock and was having a lot of trouble talking because of the difficulty of breathing.  After about 30 minutes my wife arrived and took me to the local hospital for further evaluation.

I limped my way into the Emergency Room feeling like a person on a TV show.  I was in bad shape walking through the doors and caught the attention of the nurses at the front desk.  Mission Hospital put me on the fast tract line due to my injuries and breathing problems.  After about 3 hours of scans, imaging, and meeting with doctors I was diagnosed with a fractured rib and a small pneumothorax (collapsed lung).  I was required to stay overnight for observation and possible surgery to inflate the lung.  Little sleep and many hours later I was finally in the clear and released from the hospital.  I am writing this three days after the accident and already feeling a lot better.  Showers sting and deep breathing still sucks but is improving dramatically every day.  As of right now I still plan to race at New Orleans but will not do anything to risk further injury or significantly delay the recovery process.

Thanks for reading and leave comments if you have questions or any other thoughts.

As always,

Stay Strong

Last week I released the first half of my 2016 schedule.  For people that know me well, the big surprise was the number of triathlons scheduled.  Yep, I have been working hard in the pool to be able to actually swim.  The first time I attempted triathlon was in college. I remember going to the pool and pretending to swim; in reality it was just drowning.  I struggled so much that I swore I would never swim again.  I finally got motivated because of that foot injury and a decently successful 2015.  I ran faster then I ever had, biked stronger then I ever had, and ran faster again :).  So with that I officially release my first half of 2016 season and the goals.

23 JAN: Asheville Running Collective Cross Country Race
19 MAR: Grandover Parkway Duathlon
17 APR: IM New Orleans 70.3
24 APR: St. Luke's Half Marathon
14 MAY: Long Course Duathlon National Championship @ Cary, NC
22 MAY: REV3 Knoxville 70.3
25 JUN: US Duathlon National Championships (Tentative)
17 JUL: IM Racine 70.3
APR-AUG: Boyd Cycling Ring of Fire Criterium Series
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Swimming will definitely be my weakest discipline going into 2016.  I have accepted this and am trying to improve as much as I can until New Orleans.  Until my swim is truly put to the test we just have to assume I will be behind by a couple minutes coming into T1.  I am not too worried about this because my bike and run disciplines can be competitive with the pros.  Obviously, these are all predictions because I have yet to do a 70.3 event.  

Whatever happens in 2016 I know it will be exciting and will bring a lot of new challenges.

Stay Strong, Stay Determined