Steelhead Fast Approaching--Race Plan

Color me excited! This week has been so busy with my trying to get ahead at work in preparation for the long weekend ahead that I have hardly had time to think about being only a couple days from my first A race of 2009…until now. This afternoon, I’ll be leaving Cincinnati and making my way to Benton Harbor for Steelhead 70.3 on Saturday. Then it’s a mini-vacation with the wife to celebrate a successful first year of marriage (our anniversary is August 2nd).

With working extra hours, as well as packing, getting the new race wheel ready, gear checkout, etc…my taper has been less than ideal. It looks more like a drop off a cliff in activity then a gradual reduction. However, my workouts have been high energy and I don’t feel like my poor taper execution will mean much in the course of the race. I planned to get in a day early so I can do one last short ride Friday morning and hopefully a little swim on the course. Then, it’ll be packet pickup, bike drop off, dinner with the family (arriving Friday afternoon) and getting ready for the race, along with whatever sleep I’m capable of the night prior. For most of Friday, I’ll try and wear my Trifuel hat around so I’m noticeable to any other TFers. If you see the hat, come say hello as I’m still yet to meet another TFer face to face.

As for the race, I created a race plan before even starting my winter training to start the 2009 season when I was heavy in my season planning phase. As I saw more vast improvements that I expected, I adjusted the plan, even tweaking it as recently as Monday. I feel pretty solid with it at this point.

Here’s how things will hopefully go down:
Swim (1.2 mi)— 0:40
Bike (56 mi)— 2:40 (~21mph avg)
Run (13.1 mi)— 1:48:30 (~8:15/mi pace)
Transitions—0:06
TOTAL: 5:14:30

So, basically my overall goal is to break 5:15. Based on my training, this should be doable. However, since I haven’t done a HIM in 2 years and have never successfully completed one w/o blowing up the run, I’ll be happy with anything under 5:30.

My rationale for the 5:15 goal is as follows…
The swim should be about 40 minutes, simple as that. My training and previous race data say so…other than being more crowded in the water, I tend to swim the same pace pretty much all the time.
The bike could be faster, I’m guessing…although the real goal will be to hold back. I’ve completed some 60-70mile rides in training at around 20.5mph with traffic and no race adrenaline…so I think I’ll put a good time in here. I also have the benefit of my new Hed 90 rear to give me a mental edge. My main focus is to sit in a nice aerobically comfortable pace. Unless there’s a short, steep hill (which I’m not aware of) then I should never feel like I’m pushing it.
The run will really depend on the bike and the first 3 miles. My open ½ marathon time from April is ~1:32, so I’m expecting a drop off. However, as long as I don’t push too hard on the bike and don’t blow out of T2 like a maniac (somewhat of an issue in my transition runs) then I should be alright. I’m going to go out at 8:00/mile pace and at around mile 6-7 see how I feel to determine where to go from there.
My nutrition is planned, I have a spreadsheet detailing it in my training plan…it involves banana and gel just pre-race, 2 nutri-grain bars and 2 servings infinit nutrition (280cals/serving) on the bike, and 2 gels + 1 serving infinit on the run...pretty evenly distributed throughout the race.

My wife and mom will hopefully capture some awesome shots of my dad, sister, and myself. I’ll write up a RR as soon as I get around to it. GL to everyone else racing this weekend.

Vacation Recap and some fun facts

Well, unfortunately vacation had to come to an end.  We’re now back in Cincinnati and back into the routine.  The only nice things about returning was seeing our dog and being able to bike again.  I know I gave a basically day to day report of our vacation activities, so this post will focus on some quick thoughts about our destinations and some interesting things we saw or did along the way.

Southern Montana: Big Sky and the surrounding ranches on the highways are definitely the place to go to really get away to the backcountry.  We had no cell reception for most of our time up here, and the general pace of life seemed slow and relaxing.  I’m sure Big Sky buzzes in the winter with activity, though.

Yellowstone: I had heard going in that this would be a disappointment.  However, the only disappointment I had was with Old Faithful, which I kind of expected.  The terrain changes constantly as you travel the roads in the park…mountains, canyons, rivers, forests, lakes…it’s all there, along with the geothermal features.  Don’t go see Old Faithful to base your judgment of Yellowstone on.  Yes, the traffic is slow…but you’re there to sightsee for God’s sake…relax.

Grand Tetons:  Although much smaller than Yellowstone, the Tetons offer more hiking (at least publicized) and is more “user friendly” with better information at the ranger stations and less traffic.  Also, the mountains themselves are spectacular.  Also, the ski resorts on the south end are well developed and give ample opportunity to take it to the mountains (w/o having to hike the whole way).  There are also bike trails throughout much of the park…very nice.

Traffic:  Since the roads get torn up in the winter, they seem to do a good deal of road construction in the summer throughout the region.  This does get old when many highways are cut down to 1 lane (total).  If I lived in NW Wyoming…I’d have to bike commute, everywhere.

Behind the numbers:

Total miles hiked—36.3 miles

Total elevation covered in hikes—10,000+ ft (8,000 on long hike, seen below)

Our day hike summary

Total distinctive wild animal species identified (by us amateurs): 12, bald eagle, osprey, large crow (scientific name), moose, grizzly bear, pica, snake, pronghorn, mule deer, beaver, coyote, and elk.

Distinctive state license plates spotted: 47 + 3 canadian provinces (Alberta, BC, and Ontario)…we only missed West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Delaware

 

That’s about all I got…on more triathlon related subjects (it’s been rare of late, I know), I am just under 2 weeks out from Steelhead 70.3, my first A race of the season.  I start the official taper after tomorrow evening’s med-long run.  I’m sure in my taper boredom I’ll write up my race plan.  Also, I got a used Hed Jet 90 that should arrive tomorrow…my first race wheel.  Now I just need a Jet 60 or a trispoke for up front and a wheelcover…at some point.

Vacation Report, Day 7…Last full day

Per usual, we started our morning with runs, my legs felt better than I expected once I got them going…they certainly were stiff getting out of bed. Then, it was a relaxing breakfast while we worked out the details of renting bikes for the day. We decided to give mountain biking a go since it’s different from what we normally do, and there are plenty of trails available in riding distance from town. So, off to Hoback Sports we went to get our mountain bikes, then away we pedaled to the trails. We were decked out on some full suspension rides, which were so much heavier and more reactive to the roads than what I’m used to riding…it was slow going, particularly up hills.

Leaving the paved surface for the trails

The extra weight combined with the built up fatigue from the week kind of sapped our enthusiasm as we approached some technical single track runs. Before we even really got going, we had already decided it would be a short go of things just to get the experience in. After a little ways up the road, we split off on the Cache Creek Sidewalk path for the return trip.

Me heading onto the single-track trail

The drop off to the left sure looked a lot steeper when on the bike

After returning to the lot, we decided to use our bikes more for exploring than for trail-riding, so we went a little ways into the national elk refuge (but saw no elk) before turning back and heading into town for ice cream.

The ice cream stop at Moo’s Ice Cream in the Jackson town square (located in the rear of a cowboy store, but worth finding) made up for not getting our reward yesterday. The flavors we tried were: Oreo (tasted exactly like the cookies), Espresso bomb, chocolate cabernet, and chocolate almond. All were amazing and some flavors I’ve never seen before.

If you see this sign, follow it to deliciousness

To get our money’s worth, we explored the rest of the unseen areas of Jackson via 2 wheels before turning our rides in and heading to the condo for rest. Yes, you heard that right…we rested for almost 2 whole hours before returning to town to do some shopping and go to dinner.

Dinner was at the Snake River Brewing Company, an award winning micro-brewery. Between the 4 of us that drink beer, we sampled all they had to offer except the malt liquor offering. This included the English ale, German lager, organic ale, American pale ale, stout, hefeweisen, and American lager. All were delicious, my favorite was the English Ale.

Hefeweisen…Hurray, beer!

Now, we’re packing and preparing for an early flight to Denver. The good news is, we’ll be back in Cincy (fingers crossed) by early afternoon, so have time to settle in and see our dog again, but I think I’d still rather be on vacation, especially out here. The scenery is just overwhelming, and seeing it every morning hasn’t taken anything away from the wonder…amazing. Oh well, back to reality.

Vacation, Day 6…The day hike

The morning started off with a quick morning run.  It was chilly per usual, but the makings of a another beautiful day with clear skies.  Then, it was back to the condo to shower and have breakfast before preparing to leave for our most ambitious hike.  The goal was to take the ferry across Jenny Lake (in Teton National Park), then climb 1 mile to Inspiration Point.  From there we would head another 3.5 miles into Cascade Canyon to the fork in the river.  Finally, we’d travel another 5.1 miles to Hurricane Pass before turning around and coming back the same route.  All told, it would be a little over 20 miles hiking.  There were good descriptions of what to expect until we reached the fork, but from there we had no idea what terrain we’d be tackling…

Pronghorn Antelope… Another new animal to add to our collection on the drive to Jenny Lake

Hidden Falls, the first landmark on the hike

A Pica… These little guys have been everywhere.  We finally got a picture of one.

Our view from Inspiration Point… after a mile of climbing

A Beaver crossing our path on our way into the Cascade Canyon

The Cascade Canyon

Getting up close and personal with a (male) moose

Arriving at the Fork… 4.5 miles down

As we left from the fork, chances of covering the full 20 miles was looking slimmer since we were already nearly 2.5 hours in and the path leading out of the fork was pretty much all climbing again for the next mile or so, but on we pushed…

Over a precarious looking bridge, but it’s better than having to ford the river

The family dominating all obstacles in our path

Susan and I from a ledge overlooking the three paths between the mountains

We made it to the snow line!

Giving up on the dream of Hurricane Pass, but a beautiful turn-around point nonetheless… 7.1 miles

On the return trip, no pictures were taken…we were focused on getting back, it was mid afternoon and the animals were not out anymore, and it was an out and back hike, so we’d see most of the scenery already.  By the time we reached the Jenny Lake ferry to return to the car, we were out of water and worn out.  We planned to reward ourselves with ice cream, but the strange Wyoming traffic had other plans, and after sitting in the car for an hour, our ice cream motivation was gone.  All told, we covered ~14.25 miles on the hike in just about 7 hours (including breaks).  I’ll post the elevation profiles once my dad has a chance to upload his Forerunner data when we get home. 

The rest of the evening was dinner, then watching some TV at the condo, then early to bed.  Our last full day of vacation (*sniff) is tomorrow, where we are going to give cycling a go (not sure if mountain or road biking yet), then maybe checkout the town of Jackson an bit closer…it will be a pretty tame day for us.  I’m still holding out hope of catching a glimpse of a bighorn sheep or an elk, so we’ll keep our eyes peeled.

A closer look at Mr. Moose.  So impressive.

Vacation Report, Day 5…rafting and walking down a mountain

Like most days on this trip so far, we started the day early…even earlier than usual in this case since we had somewhere we needed to be.  Our rafting excursion, the only planned activity of the vacation, required us to meet in town at 6:40 to check in.  Considering this would be the day we would be closely interacting with water, it was a little disappointing to see the morning temperature drop below 40 to a chilly 37.  Due to the cold, the excursion check-in desk recommended we rent wetsuits (sleeveless) for the rapids portion of the ride, which seemed like a good decision. 

The raft trip itself was a 2 part ride.  The first 8 miles being a calm float trip to take in scenery, grab some pictures, etc.  Then, there was a stop for breakfast at a campsite before embarking on the additional 8 mile rapids section of the river.  Even though we rented wetsuits and booties, we decided not to use them for the float trip section.  This was a mistake since the water in the bottom of the boat froze our feet, and they didn’t thaw until toward the end of breakfast.  The scenery on the float section was beautiful, as we travelled through what was basically a wide canyon.  Unfortunately there was a road to our right most of the trip, which kept away a lot of the 4 legged creatures we had a chance to encounter.  We did however, get plenty of great bald eagle and osprey sightings since they were out peering into the river from the treetops looking for breakfast. 

Leaving for the float section of the raft trip

The pictures through the morning activities were limited for a couple reasons.  We had our first camera casualty when Susan (my wife) had her camera slip into the bottom of the raft and take on water.  This was a big loss since she’s undoubtedly the best photographer of the bunch.  Then, my camera’s batteries went dead.  Of course, for the rapids section of the trip all we had was a waterproof film camera, so there won’t be any pictures from that yet, either. 

Breakfast was a welcome break to warm up our feet…and the food was delicious as an added bonus.  Pancakes (made from a rice-based batter), eggs, sausage, coffee, melted butter and syrup made up the menu.  Post breakfast, we crossed the river to our bus and donned the wetsuits to prepare for getting wet. 

The rapids leg was all category 2 and 3 rapids, enough to toss us around, but not too much for beginners.  There was one rapid in particular, the lunch-counter, that really hit us hard.  It was basically 3 giant waves hitting the boat head on in quick succession.  No one went into the river, but the river pretty much went into us.  Afterward, Susan decided she might as well jump in the river for fun (it was 56 degrees water temp).  On the bus ride back from the rafting trip, we did see a moose just like I hoped, but it was a female (no impressive antlers) and had its head half buried in the river drinking, so we didn’t get a very good shot of it.

Post rafting was lunch and some errands in Jackson, then heading up to Teton Village to check out the tram to the summit of Rendezvous Mountain (~10,750 feet just south of the Tetons).  We walked to the “true” peak, which was extra windy, then decided to attempt an “easy” stroll 3 miles down the mountain to the Lookout bar for happy hour.  Turns out, walking down a mountain is more difficult than it seems.  We completed the 3.25 mile hike down the steep access road covered with loose gravel, and definitely earned our beers before riding the gondola back to the mountain base. 

A view from the top of Rendezvous Mountain

The tram we rode to the top…holds 100 people + gear

Myself and my sister making our way down the mountain

The goal, the Lookout Bar and gondola the rest of the way to the bottom

The rest of the night was cleanup, dinner, and bed…we were worn out from the day and also have our most ambitious hike planned for tomorrow.  Where I’ll hopefully see a bighorn sheep, but will settle for a moose with antlers.

Vacation Report, Day 4…Moving day

This morning, we were able to redeem ourselves for the failed run from the day before.  We drove into Big Sky early and each got 40-45 minutes of work in.  The weather was only slightly better than the previous morning, but the lack of hail and lightning made a significant difference…and made 45 degrees with a drizzle seem like nice running weather.  I had a 5.5 mile run, which was plenty.  Afterward, we zoomed back to the ranch, ate breakfast, packed, checked out, and took off for Yellowstone.  Today’s plan was the southern portions of Yellowstone and then previewing the Tetons as we made our way south to Jackson, WY…our base camp for the remainder of the vacation.

The trip started with a bang…before we even reached the gate of Yellowstone, I got my wish from yesterday…

A Grizzly Bear…hanging out a couple hundred yards off the road.  A nice distance for viewing safely.

Then we arrived at the park and got caught up in the traffic viewing the same bird we saw yesterday.  Once we passed this obstacle, there was another slowdown for more mule deer…the generic creatures of the park.  Further along, we encountered a coyote…this was something new.  However, with his wily nature, he managed to avoid the camera by ducking behind a bush. 

After these exciting “close encounters”, it was off to view the natural attractions, which I’ll cover in pictures below…

A mud pot at the Fountain Paint Pots… boiling mud, just like the spa, right?

Old Faithful… yep, that’s it.  Would have been prettier on a sunny day, I’m sure.

To be honest, the southern portion of the park did not match the views from yesterday.  Also, Old Faithful, being something I felt I should definitely see once, is something I feel I only need to see once.

We moved through Yellowstone more quickly than yesterday, since we had ground to cover.  Everyone waved goodbye as we passed through the southern gate and into Grand Teton National Park.  For the most part, we skipped through here as well, taking some pictures along the way (seen below), at least until we made through a large chunk of the park.  At this point, our party was antsy from all the car time, so we stopped at Calder Bay Village to have a look around and ended up taking a short and easy 3 mile hike looping Swan Lake and Herron Pond, with Jackson Lake and the Tetons themselves as the backdrop….

Welcome to the Grand Tetons

Swan Lake covered with some sort of greenery

Herron Pond with an impressive backdrop

By this point, it was getting late, so we left the park and checked into our condo.  Everyone seemed to be feeling Mexican food (particularly margaritas), so we hunted out a family Mexican restaurant and had very well made margaritas, not what I was expecting in Wyoming.  Now, it’s time to settle in to the new digs and read a bit before bed.  Tomorrow holds a 1/2 day 16 mile raft trip (1/2 float trip, 1/2 rapids) on the Snake River along with some short hikes in the Tetons…and hopefully a moose this time!

Vacation Report, Day 3

The morning of day 3 started bright and early with a 6AM wake-up and group trip up to Big Sky for the family and I to get a run in.  We arrived, and split into 3 groups heading separate ways, all hoping to get in runs between 30-50 minutes.  The weather had other plans, however, and within 15 minutes, a menacing storm had rolled in from the mountains.  My wife and I, who were together, were near enough to a shopping center to be able to get some cover for the bulk of the downpour.  Once the rain backed off a bit, we picked up where we left off, but within a couple minutes, saw my parents in the rental car pull up along side us.  The run was over after only 19 minutes.  A good attempt nonetheless. 

After tracking my sister down, we returned to the ranch for breakfast and prepared for the day.  We took off for our main activities…exploring the central and north sections of Yellowstone.  Our planned route was a loop from West Yellowstone to Madison, then Norris, then Canyon Village, then Tower Junction/Roosevelt, then Mammoth Hot Springs, and finally back to Madison and out of the park for dinner and the trip back to the ranch.  Obviously, there was a lot to be seen, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking for the most part. 

Our first animal sighting…a nest of Osprey

A wide view of Norris Geyser Basin

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

From the canyon lodge area, we enjoyed a nice 3.5 mile hike to the canyon, then down to the falls.  My dad brought his Forerunner for measuring distance, but we haven’t checked the elevation.  I’m guessing it consisted of about 1000ft of climbing all told (including 600 feet of swtichbacks to get down to the brink of the lower falls…seen below.

Lower falls front facing viewpoint

Looking down on the Lower falls from the brink…rainbow bonus

Down the canyon from the falls

From here, we moved north to Tower falls, which although impressive, did not match the canyon.  The north section of the park was less crowded, so we were able to move through quickly on the road.  We also stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs, which didn’t have a lot of activity, but allowed us to hike a bit more.

A hungry buffalo encountered on the way out of the park

We stopped at West Yellowstone, MT for dinner before heading back to the ranch.  Overall a productive day for vacation.  We covered about 140 miles in the park by car and hiked about 5.5 miles with 1500 feet of elevation gain all told.  Needless to say, I’m pretty worn down upon writing this.  Tomorrow looks to be much of the same, except with the southern portion of Yellowstone (including Old Faithful and Yellowstone Lake).  This is our last night in Montana, though, so by tomorrow night we’ll be at our new digs in Jackson, WY preparing to take on the Tetons.  Hopefully tomorrow we’ll see a grizzly.

Vacation Report, Days 1 and 2

Well, the family trip to Montana and Wyoming got off to a slow start with us missing our connecting flight to Jackson Hole.  Cincinnati once again proved itself to be a subpar airport, delaying our initial flight and stranding us in Chicago an extra 6 hours.  This led to us adjusting our first day plans.  We were originally planning on meandering our way through Yellowstone and up to Montana, stopping along the way as we wanted.  This plan was contingent on us arriving in Jackson Hole at around 2:30PM.  Instead, we landed around 8:00PM, so the first day was all but lost.  Our focus turned to finding dinner and making our way to our ranch in Montana the quickest way possible, which was through Idaho.  We were still able to get a preview of the scenery on the landing in Jackson Hole, which is a spectacular approach to watch from the window.  The runway sits in a valley with a mountain range on either side. 

A view of the approach out my airplane window

And the airport isn’t much more than a small lodge, so you walk out of the plane straight into the beautiful surroundings.

Departing the plane

After crossing through the Tetons and into Idaho, we stopped for some pizza and once we were got going again it was dark…very dark.  You could vaguely make out shadows of the mountains as we made our way north, but not too much to take in.  After almost 20 hours of travelling, we didn’t mind and just wanted to get to a bed.  Needless to say, sleep was welcome when we arrived at the ranch in Montana.

Day 2 – the first REAL day of vacation

Restaurant of the 320 ranch at breakfast

Morning arrived in Montana, and it was time to eat.  After a solid complimentary hot breakfast, we surveyed the ranch offerings and then headed back to our cabin to prepare for a nice morning hike.  Conveniently, the 320 Ranch has a trail head leaving from the rear of the property that connects into an intricate series of backcountry horse and hiking trails that stretch from Bozeman, MT to Yellowstone Park (hundreds of miles).  My dad stopped at the lodge and asked about a good easier route to get us started and picked up the bear repellant…which seems to be high powered pepper spray to (hopefully) ward off a grizzly that’s too close for comfort.  With our grizzly repellant on hand, we were off on our hike…

Embarking on the hike

Impressive rock formations as seen from the valley floor and me feeling very small

Some riders moving ahead of us on the trail

Our turnaround point, “the cow flats” with a great view of Ram’s Horn Peak (to the right)…that’s my dad off to the left, contemplating

The winding creek we followed for most of the hike as seen on the return

As we neared the end of the trail, I was hoping to see a little more animal life than we had.  I got my wish, sort of, when my dad stepped on a snake in the trail…no one was bit, and he wasn’t a dangerous snake, but the stepping on him did prompt the snake to pose for the photo below.

By the end of the hike, we were a hungry crowd.  About 8 miles of hiking will do that to you.  So, after a quick pit stop at the cabin, we made our way 10 miles north to Big Sky, a nice (apparently developing) ski town where we had lunch and picked up some snacks and supplies.  At lunch, we got to see a strange hippie looking man attempt to flirt with our waitress by starting a water fight with her.  Some free entertainment.

We got back to the ranch at around 3:30 and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon heading down to get our national parks pass to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, as well as to grab some trail maps and do a little reconnaissance.  The only animals we saw out this evening were plenty of Mule deer.  I’ll get some pictures of them tomorrow since we’ll be heading back to the north and central sections of Yellowstone for the bulk of the day.

Now, we’re cleaning up and relaxing a bit.  The rest of the night will most likely consist of dinner on the ranch, some delicious local beer, and some bonfire action.  More to come tomorrow.

Hyde Park Blast Crit and Other Updates

I recently “fell off the horse” when it comes to keeping this up to date, so now it’s time to play a little catch up.  Nothing like missing a connecting flight leading to a long layover in O’Hare to motivate some writing.  So, here’s what I’ve been up to…

Hyde Park Blast Criterium (June 27)

The HP Blast Crit is an all-day fitness oriented street festival in Hyde Park (Cincinnati).  The morning starts with a 4 mile run event which draws some pretty high-level talent (course record is around 18minutes for a not flat course).  Throughout the middle portion of the day things calm down with a sidewalk sale.  Then bike racing starts in the late afternoon and continues on into the evening with the Pro/1/2 race finishing under the lights at around 9:30. 

Seeing as this was my first crit, I was obviously racing in the Cat 4/5 race.  Three friends were racing with me as a sort of unofficial team.  Only one of the four of us had any crit experience, so we weren’t exactly expecting to win.  My goal going in was a solid pack finish and no wrecks.  I wouldn’t want to ruin my tri season with a cycling injury, so I was planning on racing conservatively. 

As we staged, there were 50-60 riders in our event, being run on the .9mile route that consisted of 4 right hand turns (1 sharp 180) and 1 left hand turn along with 1 climb/descent combo.  They called up about 20 riders to the front of the start, then the rest of us rode to the front in alphabetical order.  That placed me somewhere in the middle back of the pack at the line.

The starting line…I’m somewhere in there, not to be seen

As the horn sounded, the front line sprinted away and I was able to clip in quickly, but was blocked by a couple riders in front of me who were slower to get going.  My friend next to me at the time has better bike handling skills than I and managed to “jump” to the side and squeeze through a hole to get with the main pack.  We went straight into the 180 degree turn, stringing us out a bit more.  Unfortunately, my slow start basically did me in before I got started.  By the time I sprinted out of the 180, there was already a gap to the main pack.  I really pushed the entire first lap, knowing I had to get attached or my goals were shot.  I worked with a group of about 3 or 4, but we couldn’t gain any ground.  It was frustrating being about 50ft off the pack, but not moving.  I tried to make a solo run at them and after making up maybe half the distance, was too worn from the effort.  I would not be making a pack finish.

An early race shot of the front end of the pack…I am absent

Oh, there I am (in white)…off the pack and exposed, double oops

This being my first crit, I still wanted the experience of racing it and working on my cornering in crowds, so I re-aligned my goals to finish.  If you were in danger of being lapped by the pack, you were called out of the race.  1 of the 4 in our group got called out in the second to last lap.  He is new to cycling and didn’t understand the importance of drafting, so wore himself out solo.  I, on the other hand, worked with a small group of 5-8 riders to make sure we didn’t lose too much ground on the peleton.  Most of the rest of the race was pretty much a blur…I remember being in a lot of pain and feeling like I had been pushing forever at about 18 minutes in (it was a 30 min race).  In the end, I had no sprint left and let another rider use me as a lead out for his own minor glory, but I survived.  I probably finished about 1:30 down on the pack with an avg pace of 22.3mph.  It was a ton of fun, but I think I’m more suited for road racing.  I still plan on giving other crits a go in the future though.  It definately will help me redefine my “thresholds”.  My other 2 friends both had solid pack finishes, ending 16 and 18 respectively.

Post race, the wife (who took all the wonderful race pics) and I headed back to the car where I cleaned up, put my bike away, and headed back to watch the better cyclists while drinking some beer and celebrating being finished.  It was an awesome time.

A shot of the pro/1/2 peleton entering the 180 degree turn (early in the race)

The pro race ended in a bunch sprint, which was very exciting and involved a beautiful two man lead train executed to perfection.  Despite the hard effort and plenty of post-race beer, I was able to pump out a solid 53 mile ride early the next morning.  My legs weren’t pleased with me at the get go, but it was a solid ride overall.

2 days later I completed the Cleves 10.2 mile rolling TT course in 24:30, blowing away my previous PR…biking is going good right now.

The rest of the past 2 weeks has been pretty uneventful.  I finished my summer MBA courses, which is nice and had a solid long 4th of July weekend where I got a 72mile ride in and a 11 mile run along with playing some tennis with my wife and her family.  It was the first time I’d played in years, but still a good time.  Unfortunately, I caught a cold to go along with the poison ivy I got just before the 4th, so Monday was a pretty unpleasant day this past week.  Luckily, I’ve got the cold and rash mostly behind me.

Now, though…I sit in O’Hare waiting for our later than planned flight to Jackson, WY.  We won’t get to sightsee at all today as we’d hoped, but we should still have plenty of time to see the sights we will miss today.  My family and I will be in SW Montana for the next 3 days, then returning to the Jackson, WY area for the remaining 4 before returning home.  If' I’m on top of my game, I’ll take pictures and provide some vacation reporting, but I’m not promising anything.  Once I return, I got half a week of high volume training, then I start my Steelhead taper…I can’t believe it’s almost A race time.  But first, off to enjoy my vacation.