Weekly Riding Stats

Ravensdale Road Race 2011

Today was my 20th bicycle race since March 6th and sadly this is my 1st blog entry. Come to think of it I'm behind at least 2 ironman races, 2 70.3 IM races, and a bunch of other crap. I'll get caught up on that soon I'm sure :-)

Anyway, today's race!

Last week at Vance Creek we enjoyed dry sunny conditions, the same could not be said for today. The Cat4 race didn't start until 11:09, it was great to be able to sleep in a bit and "enjoy" slightly warmer weather then the morning starters. Today we were racing 5 laps at about 9 miles per lap. Pretty standard stuff, nothing really significant about today's course, one little hill and a couple small rollers but that's about it. At either the end of the first or second lap there was a crash in a corner, I was a couple wheels back and managed to swing wide to avoid it. I had to chase a bit to catch back on to the pack but it wasn't too serious. The rain and wet roads were awful, today was a day to stay on your toes. On the third lap I was about 4-5 rows from the front when I saw my teammate Travis off the front with 2 other riders, Jed and Jason. Jason has won nearly every race he's entered this year, Jed is very strong, and Travis is a beast. I knew if the pack didn't close them down soon that this was a breakaway that would stick, they had some serious horsepower. At the beginning of the 4th lap I moved up to my teammate Chad who was near the front. He was sitting behind 4/5 Byrne (another team) riders who were working at the front to bring the break back. I respect that they were trying but either they didn't have the legs or the heart to really do much. The race official gave us a 1 minute to the break time check around this time, I knew the worst Cycle U (my team) would finish today was 3rd, the break was going to stick. One final note on the break. Bikesale is a team that had 11 riders in the field and they made absolutely no effort to pull the breakaway back. I was truly embarrassed for them, not to even try was pathetic.

Back to me, it is my blog after all, even if I only update it once a year! Since I had Travis up the road I was able to just sit in the pack and take up space till the end. At the start of the final lap I moved back up near the front with Chad. Chad is fantastic at moving through the pack, I stayed stuck to his wheel the rest of the lap. Inside the last mile Chad was in the lead up the final hill, he was setting a strong pace and I was sucking his wheel, thanks Chad! With a few hundred meters to go riders started coming up on both sides. I was able to jump behind Paul from Recycled Cycles and actually catch my breath a little. Somewhere inside 200M a couple guys launched hard up the side, I was slow to react but I slid left and hammered it. I was able to get by Paul and a couple others but I ran out of road before I could run down the two guys who broke early. I rolled in 3rd behind these guys finishing 6th overall. All things considered I'm pretty happy with 6th. Last week at Vance Creek I finished 4 seconds off the winner but rolled in 26th and was very disappointed.



Recap:
6th place out of 72 starters + Travis took 2nd place = great day for Cycle U in the 4's.

GPS data:
http://app.strava.com/rides/529110

Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonconnell/sets/72157626546701639/

Lewis and Clark Ultra race report.

May 29th 2010
Garmin File
Photo's from the race

Drove down to Battle Ground Friday night, between traffic and an accident it was a four hour drive. The race started at 6:30am, we arrived at the start about 10 after 6:00 just in time to catch the pre race briefing. My official start time was 6:37am. I had 20 minutes to get dressed and get my bike ready. At the last minute I decided to put on a windstopper jacket, I’m glad I did it stayed on for the next 9 hours. Racers started 30 seconds apart beginning at 6:30, at 6:37 I was off.

The first 3 miles are flat and being aero was nice, I passed a couple people that started ahead of me. Right at 3 miles you run into an 18% grade hill, oh hello nasty hill, I’ll see you again another 5 times on the short course. There were a couple 600’ climbs in the next 27 miles before we dropped down into the Columbia Gorge at mile 30. The rain was falling heavily for much of the first few hours. It was nice catching occasional glimpses of the river, Beacon Rock, and the Bonneville dam. At roughly 50 miles we headed north through the town of Carson. The next 15 miles was a gradual climb gaining a little over a thousand feet. The roads were quiet for the most part now that I was out of the gorge. Anessa and Hunter had stopped for breakfast earlier so I was on my own for about an hour and a half. One of the relay teams swapped riders around the 60 mile point and the fresh rider bombed past me, this was a low point. The gradual uphill that never seemed to end was weighing on me, getting rained on and working reasonably hard but only making 16 miles per hour.
In typical “Jason style” I briefly read the route description and knew there was a “big climb” around mile 70 but that was about it. Little did I know I was climbing a damn mountain pass, Old man pass to be exact. My biggest worry doing this race was cramps, prior to 2008 they had never been a problem but the last couple years they had struck at various running races. I am by no means a climber so I didn’t have to swallow much pride to take it easy on the climb. My 39/28 gearing worked well but I was still out of the saddle a fair bit. Time Station #2 was on top of the pass at over 3,100’. It was great to see Anessa and Hunter at the summit, I had a few orange slices at the time station and started the descent. The ride down Old Man pass was wet, wild, windy, and dangerous due to limited visibility at high speeds (49+mph).
(Picking this report back up on 10/2/10, I’m a total slacker)
The final check in station was in Cougar and went by w/o incident. At this point I had not seen another rider for probably an hour. I made my only big mistake around mile 120 in the town of Yacolt, I missed a right hand turn and ended up doing a 5 mile detour (check out the Garmin file). Once back on track I was feeling great and finished the 140 mile big loop strong. When I rolled into the high school check point the volunteers were chatting away and seemed a little surprised I was checking in. I used the rest room and chatted with Hunter and Anessa for a bit before starting the short loop(s). I had no idea where I was in relation to the other riders but I was enjoying be out there competing.

After 4 short loops I was ready to call it a day, there was less than 30 minutes left and I knew I couldn’t complete another full 10 mile lap. I was urged on by a volunteer to try to squeeze in a few last miles, and figured that was probably the thing to do. Anessa and Hunter were great when I asked them to follow me out on the course in about 20 minutes. I made it to mile 6 in 11:59 so I pulled over and waited for Anessa to pick me up. I reported my 6 miles back at the high school and then headed back to the hotel. Once the results were posted later I was shocked that I took 2nd place despite the extra 5 miles. I felt even better when I found out the guy who beat me is a pretty hardcore CAT3 racer who was intent on winning this race. His race report is here.
Not bad for a fat guy who bought his first road bike 10 months before this race.
Notes:
Food:
Breakfast consisted of a Starbucks sausage and egg breakfast sandwich, a chocolate old fashion doughnut, a small Super Food, and a Starbucks energy drink.
On the course I consumed:
• 3 King size and 1 regular snickers bar
• 8oz of Hammer gel
• 2 32oz red Powerade’s + 8 scoops of Carbo Pro
• 1 Almond Joy
• 2 Banana’s and ½ an Orange

What I will do different next year:
• No TT bike, road bike with semi aero wheels and clip-on bars.
• Don’t get lost!

2010 Vance Creek Road Race

3rd CAT5 road race! Expectations for this race were very low. Legs were a little weak from the TT the day before and a mile uphill finish does not suit a 205lb rider. Finishing with the main pack and maybe helping set up Travis and/or Rob for the final sprint would be considered a win for me. Rob got lost on the journey down to Elma and missed the start, he ended up racing in the afternoon with the Masters. Travis’s friend Nate that rode with us the weekend prior was also racing, it was cool to know a couple people in the field.

Start: I rolled out at the back of the 40 rider pack, after a few miles Travis and I moved up to the front 3rd of the pack. At the end of lap 1 of 3 (13 mile laps) I was situated near the middle of the pack. There is a 10%+ small hill in the final 200M that hurt and would hurt again twice more. Nothing crazy about lap two, Travis pushed off the front once and I followed. For a mile or two we were up front but never really clear of the field. About half way through lap 2 Travis flatted, I found out after the race that Nate had flatted on the first lap. At one point the only bikesale rider in the pack (Aaron) pulled up along side me. He let me know that all the other CAT5 riders on his team upgraded and this was “”my race”. I paused a bit deciding how big of an asshole I was going to be. I figure I must be the douche bag on the Orange Tarmac to the bikesale team. I decided to blow off the comment and let him know any race with a long uphill finish was never going to be “my race” I think he got dropped shortly after that and ended up finishing 2nd to last.

In the final 1km of lap 2 a Jr. racer who had been swerving all over to this point managed to go hard into the back wheel of the guy in front of him. The Jr. who was just left of me went down and managed to take 3-4 other riders with him. Thankfully I managed to avoid another CAT5 crash. I didn’t have much time to think about it because I was trying to haul my fat ass up this damn hill! I focused on the guys wheel in front of me and was determined not to lose it. When I popped up out of the saddle to get over the final kicker the main pack had split in two and I was stuck in the middle. For the next couple miles I worked hard to try to bridge up to the main pack but it wasn’t happening. I let off the gas a little and let the chase group that and formed pick me up. The chase group was totally unorganized but after about 8 miles we latched back on to the lead group. Inside the final 1km the front part of the group split apart, there was no way I was going to be able to match the speed of the guys pulling away. I did manage to hold my own though and actually pass a few guys in the final few hundred meters. I ended up 12th.

2010 Pedal Dynamics Time Trial

Let me get this out of the way upfront, I’m a total retard. Not that you need proof but here goes. Last Thursday 4/22 I met Rob on Mercer Island to get in a few miles on the TT bike and test out my new Giro Advantage 2 aero helmet. We were zipping around the Island when Rob threw his chain on the short steep hill on the SE side of the Island. I waited for him on top of the hill while he put the chain back on. He was in a tall gear so he said I need to go back downhill to downshift. I call down to him to lift the back tire and spin the crank while downshifting. I decided to demonstrate and promptly fell over. The lady getting her mail must have had a great laugh at the dumb ass on a TT bike outfitted with a disk wheel and rockin an aero helmet falling over. Ouch! I mainly tell this story to explain why when I woke up the morning of the TT I couldn’t turn my head. Damn my neck is sore! It’s not like riding 12 miles in the aero position really is hard on the neck though, right? Wrong! After taking a boatload of Advil before leaving the house it really didn’t turn out to be much of a problem.

The Race:
I ran this same course in early March and was really disappointed to only average 23.7mph. Report here: I had two goals for this TT, stay relaxed, stay aero! I think I did a pretty good job of both. Finished in 28:25 and averaged 25.3mph. A nice improvement over March despite plenty of wind and rain.

Few pictures of Rob and I here:

Weekly catch up.

Signed up for a couple races tonight, the Pedal Dynamics 12 mile TT in Black Diamond on Saturday and the Vance Creek road race on Sunday. I really want to bring it on Sunday but I need some redemption on the Green Valley TT course. I raced 10 miles back in March on the same course and was very disappointed in the result. Whatever happens it should be a fun weekend!

Skipped work today to stay home with a sick 9rd old. After Mom got home I was able to get out for a quick ride. The rain was looming so I stayed close to the house and got a couple climbs in. I was thinking Zoo Hill but the legs were a little weak after yesterday’s 100 miler and I settled on Lakemont and Forrest dr. I also worked on sprinting over some short climbs, burn baby burn!

Garmin file:

4/18

Met Travis (from last weeks race) and his friend Nate in Woodinville at 8am. Nate was really strong (especially after finding out he had only been on a few rides this year) Travis is a monster! I did my best to hang on his wheel as much as I could all day, that was no easy task. About 85 miles in Nate and Travis headed back to Seattle over the I-90 bridge and I finished riding across Mercer Island and back to the house. At about mile 95 I had a TOTAL power outage, I needed calories pretty bad. I swung into Starbucks for a smoothie and finished with a little dignity.

Garmin file.

Olympic View Road Race 4/11/10

Pictures:

Garmin file:

Cat5 race report.

Note to self: Five beers on the golf course the day before a road race is a bad call! I hadn’t swung a club in almost six months due to a broken finger playing football in November and a serious ankle sprain in January. It was good fun and I played much better than expected after such a long layoff. That said, getting up at 6:00am and starting to drink beer at 10:30am the day before a race wasn’t ideal preparation.

The alarm went off at 5:30am this morning, boo I need more sleep after yesterday! And another thing, damn my back is sore as hell, wonder if that has anything to do with golfing, DONG.

The race starts in Brady, a small town 30 miles or so West of Olympia. Anessa drove and we arrived about 45 minutes before our scheduled 9:15am start time. Plenty of time to check in, use the rest room, and prep everything. Today’s race consisted of three 18 mile laps. The terrain was flat with several rolling hills but no significant climbs. The neutral rollout was only a few blocks so the race got started pretty quickly. Nothing to report on the 1^st lap other then the fact that the bike-sale team had eight riders in the race and one of their guys was in an early break away. When we crossed by the start someone at the timing tent yelled out that the gap was 1:16.

Lap2 – I really wasn’t concerned about the gap since we still had 36 miles left. I was generally sitting in the last 3^rd of the pack up to mile 20, I hadn’t seen much of Rob but I knew he was only a couple bikes behind. It was becoming clear that the bike-sale guys planned on controlling the front and keeping the pace down since they had a rider up the road. I wasn’t sure how many riders were in the break (I think it ended up being 5 riders after looking at Hunter’s video) I started chatting up another unattached rider (Travis) and in mile 21 we went off the front to try to close the gap. Travis was strong, we shared leading for several miles pushing it pretty hard. We were alone for 6-7 miles but never really got more than a few hundred yards clear of the pack. At one point my HR hit 189bpm, is that possible for a soon to be 37yr old? Up to mile 32 Travis or I were at or near the front of the pack, Travis tried hard to rally some others to get up front and do some work but there was absolutely no appetite for it. OK, I guess it’s a race for 5^th? I did think it was funny that while I was out front (and had been for a while) one of the bike-sale guys actually had the stones to tell me not to “change my shirt” if I was up front. This really pissed me off, I was simply pulling down my arm warmers. I let my F-U reflex go and told him if I was up front working I’d do what ever the fuck I wanted, there was no response. Around mile 32 I slid to the back of the pack and Rob was gone, he’s a total animal so I figured he probably had a mechanical issue.

Lap3, final lap – In the first mile or two I hear “hey dr, J”, Rob was back? Somehow he had fallen off the back and managed to team up with an unattached rider who had been DQ’d for crossing the center line earlier. Pretty awesome that they clawed back into the pack. Nothing to note for the next 20 miles. At mile 51 I moved up to the front and pushed a little off the front for a very short stretch. The most significant hills hit on mile 52 and it blew the pack apart. Rob passed me halfway up the hill but I managed to stay with him. The 53^rd mile we raced past a cemetery and down a steep hill with a sharp turn at the bottom. Coming out of the turn I was out of position and near the back of what was left of the pack. I managed to hang on a wheel and move up a few positions.

The Finish – CRASH! With 200yrds to go right in front of me on my left a rider went down very hard, he was immediately hit by another rider who flipped over him. I swerved hard right (Anessa confirmed this later, she was relieved to see me still upright) a piece from one of the bikes hit me in the cheek. Well, this is the CAT5 crashes that everyone talks about. I yell out wholly shit Rob, I saw he swerved left and was also safe. I jumped back on his wheel and finished right behind him. I’ll update the post when the results are posted.

Great ride, sad that a team of 8 would protect a CAT5 break away 40 miles from the finish though. Even more sad that other than Travis not a single rider was willing to even try to do anything about it. It was great racing with Rob , hopefully he catches the bug!