A Big Turd And Then A 3rd!

Well, after I laid a big turd yesterday I had to make up for it in today's Whitewater Road Race and I did just that, taking the uphill field sprint behind a breakaway of 2 riders. It was a pretty hot day, about 90 degrees and there wasn't much wind which was good because we had to do 7 laps of a 6.0 mile course with one medium size hill and a couple of pretty small rollers that made the legs pretty sore by the end of the race. I felt a lot better than yesterday right from the start and kind of figured I'd be in for a good day and although a few people tried to animate the race, not much happened as the race went on. There were a couple of attacks that gained maybe 20-30 seconds but they were reeled in by the last lap which is when 2 guys took off and stayed away by about 30 seconds. I knew that we wouldn't catch them so I positioned myself to be at the front coming around the last turn and when we hit the corner I took the inside line and everything opened right up for me and I was able to fly up the right side of the road to a 3rd place finish. All my teammates had a great race today, we were by far the best team with 4 of us finishing in the top-10 and all us riding strong at the front and doing a lot of the pacemaking. I feel bad for Glen that he had some cramping on the last lap otherwise we probably would have had 5 in the top 10. Dave S. rode strong as always and got 5th, Doug is improving by leaps and bounds every week and got 6th, John had a great ride today and was the first 50+ rider with a 9th place finish. Andy had a really strong race after doubling up yesterday and he still had the energy to be at the front today and he finished strong in 19th. I have to apologize but I don't know what place Glen got but he rode strong all day and unfortunately cramped at the end. Mike also gave it a go today and although he didn't finish, he managed a few laps in only his second race this year. We also had a great showing in our M1/2/3 group as Dave E. got 2nd place after breaking away from the pack with 4 laps to go and he was later joined by one of the strong men of that group and they stayed away for the remainder of the race. 5 top-10s for the team today, it was really a great day. Well, this is my last post for the week until I get back from vacation on Friday afternoon. I'll be up at Governor Dodge with the family for a week of camping but as I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm bringing the bike and we'll be riding for most of the week. Tomorrow I probably won't ride, Tuesday will be an easy couple of hours, Wednesday and Thursday will be hard days of 4-5 hours to Blue Mounds and back and then Friday we head home and I'll do an easy spin ahead of Saturday's race. Well, that's it until Friday, until next time............

Mountain Biking Anyone?

That's what today's course felt like, just a big loop of one small hill, then a walking path, then a downhill turn off of a steep driveway ramp in to the street, if you missed the barriers then you continued until you hit a nice 180 degree turn and then it was like 150ft. to the finish. Just a really crappy course that was even worse than the course last year at Whitewater, which I didn't think could be possible. How this course ever got approved by USAC is beyond me. Anyways, in spite of that, I should have been able to do well as I've always been a good technical rider and I've only missed one top-10 out of 12 or 13 races this year so top-10 should be no problem right? Wrong. I sucked right from the start. I didn't get position going up the hill and then it was all spread out from there and there was no help for me between the lead group and the splintered packs behind me. I was by myself for a bit and then caught a Crono guy who sat on my wheel until the last couple of laps and then dropped me after he did no work the whole race. I also caught my teammate Glen but he was stronger then me today and dropped me as well, I think we were together for 4 or 5 laps before I couldn't hang on anymore. I have no excuses, basically I had nothing today, I couldn't breath, it felt like I was hyperventilating the whole race. The legs felt good though, but what does that matter. As a bonus I also crashed about midway through the race going around the 180 degree turn. My ass is burning right now from the road rash, but I didn't hurt myself bad and the bike is o.k.. My teammates Rudy and Dave S. also crashed, with Dave crashing twice and getting the worst of it as he bloodied up his hip and his elbow. He also had the best finish out of all of us though as he was off the front a bit and had plenty of time to recover before too many people came around. He should have been 3rd but his last crash allowed a few people to get around him in the finish straight. I'll get up tomorrow and see how stiff the hip is, I'll ride a bit to loosen it up and then if it's good I'm heading to the RR. I heard the course isn't too difficult, no really big hills, just a rolling course. Let's hope I have a better performance than today, as I lost my points lead and need a really good race to get it back. Oh, I got 13th today by the way.......Well, that's it for now, until next time.................

Weebles Wobble But.......

.....They don't fall down. That's how I felt last night. I felt like I was on another level last night than I have been of late, and I was pushing it so hard during bike practice that I almost passed out! I did a little bit of everything during my 2.5 hour ride starting with a nice warm up, which didn't take much considering that it seemed pretty warm and humid and I was sweating buckets just cruising along at 18mph. After my warm up I was on my favorite long, flat stretch of road ready to start my 6x3min PowerIntervals, but this time I cut down my recovery time from a 1:1 ratio to a 3:2 ratio, only resting for 2 minutes instead of the full 3 minutes. I was flying along, HR maxed out for the first 5 and feeling great. I was on to my 6th one and hammering and I figured I was going to try to take it even higher so I started sprinting the last 30 seconds and was about 5 seconds from finishing when I went totally hypoxic and started seeing the little sparkle fairies floating around my head. I was close to falling over but slowed down enough to recover and keep it upright. Back in my old days of training I would do intervals until my head fell off or I threw up in my mouth, then I knew it was a good day of intervals. Now I guess instead of throwing up, I know it's a good day if I almost pass out. Well, that's probably not good, but boy did it feel good. Anyways, after that I took off towards my favorite long climb by Muskego and figured I'd do a few repeats, and would try to better my PR, which was 2min 28sec. Well, on the first one I broke my PR by 6 seconds so I decided that the rest of the repeats would go a little easier. I did a couple more and on the 3rd one, another rider/racer (looked the part of a racer) showed up to do repeats as well and it just happened that I was finishing my recovery as he started his first one. I've never ridden up the hill with anyone else, so I don't have a gauge of how fast my time really is so I figured this would be a good time to see how I compare to someone else who looks like they have the ability to go fast. Well, I started about 10 seconds behind him and caught and passed him pretty easily about half way up, so it turned out that he either wasn't as good as I thought or my time up that climb is actually decent. Who knows, I felt good though so that's all that matters. After that it was an easy 30 minutes home and I downed a huge plate of stir-fry that my wife made.....whole grain rice, fresh vegetables, and lean cuts of steak, it was the best she's ever made so I was quite happy.
Well, as for the rest of the week, tonight is iffy with the rain but it appears that it's going to hold off so if it does I'll be doing 2.25 hours to Whitnall, down to Franklin, and back. It's one of my favorite Endurance pace courses, nice and wooded, quite a bit of it on the bike path and there is always lots of people to keep it interesting. Tomorrow will be about 90 minutes with a couple of PowerIntervals to open up the legs and then it's off to Whitewater for a crit on Saturday and a RR on Sunday.
After that I get a much needed vacation from work, and the family and I will be heading to Governor Dodge State Park for a week of camping. My days will be spent laying on the beach, kayaking, hiking, and cooking over the camp fire. Oh yeah, and biking! I'll be doing 3-5 hours Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday early in the morning while the family is at the beach and then I'll join them in the afternoon where I'll recover by laying on a raft in the lake. I'll do that beautiful climb up Blue Mounds probably twice over the 3 days and of course there are plenty of other climbs to keep me breathing hard. It'll be like a vacation and a mini hill-training camp all in one. Well, that's it for now, until next time...........

Team Wheaton Flying High!

The team had a great weekend, we had 6 top-10 finishes over the 2 days of racing in Grafton and Fond du Lac. Saturday in Grafton we barely missed out on getting 4 riders in the top 10 as we finished 4th, 6th, 8th, and 11th in the bunch sprint. A bunch of the other guys finished really strong as well, with everyone doing a ton of work and riding strong all race at the front of the pack. It was a great atmosphere and a great day. Sunday we headed up to Fond du Lac and with 4 of us lining up for the start it was a smooth, fast race until the last corner as it started to really rain with 2 laps to go and there was a crash coming in to the last turn for the sprint. Doug and Andy managed great finishes with a 3rd and an 8th place, and although I got my rear wheel taken out and had to go off-roading, I still managed a 10th place as the camera caught me off in the grass. I think I got 10th only because everyone behind me quit after the crash and just rode in, I was mad and kept sprinting through the line off in the gravel and grass. Oh well. The team was great, everyone was strong all weekend long and we are only getting better. Can't wait to see how some of these guys finish out this year and how strong they will be next year.
As for me, I only have 3 more WCA races left, then the State Crit Championship, and then I'm upgrading. After upgrading, who knows how many races I will actually do for the rest of the year. There is only one more WCA race after June 30th, and that isn't until August. There is SuperWeek, but my vacation time is almost gone and the races are during the day so I'll have to pick 2 or 3 of the weekend races to do and that will be it. Basically it's June, and my season is already winding down. I may do some other races, like the Tour of Elk Grove or one of those down in IL, but that would be about it, and those aren't until August either. Well, gotta get back to work, until next time.........

Takin' It Easy

Not much to say today, took it easy, an on-the-bike scheduled rest day. 90 minutes at an easy pace, 17.0mph, and I took a pretty flat course. I feel really good right now after my tempo and sprint work on Tuesday and my PowerIntervals yesterday and today was just a day to let the body recover and then I'll give it a little kick again tomorrow before Saturday's race. Right now the weather looks beautiful for Saturday, I love the heat and it's going to be close to 90, ideal for me. I'll be cleaning up my bike a bit tonight and tomorrow and I'm sure I'll get a lot of sleep tomorrow as it's finally a race where I don't have to be there at 8:00 for a 9 or 10 o'clock start. It's not a far drive compared to other races so the 2:00 start doesn't bother me, plus we planned on hanging out anyways to watch some other races, have a beer (I'm bringing a cooler full), and grab some grub. Not ideal for Sunday's race but I'm not going to go crazy and have 5 beers and brats......maybe just one beer and I'm sure I'll find something decent to eat. Anyways, that's it for now, just relaxing and waiting for the racing this weekend......until next time.

Loving It!!

Today could not have been much better, it was absolutely perfect out for my ride tonight. Warm, not much wind, sunny, and there were a ton of bikers out on the roads. I got home and headed right out the door after changing and just got back from a nice 2.5 hour ride and I've got some pasta boiling on the stove right now. Can't wait to eat cause I'm starving right now. I did a route out to Waukesha, did a big loop out there and then came back home. Today I did Tempo and sprint work. Tempo was my primary workout obviously as that lasted almost the entire duration of the ride. I did about 6 sprints, 3 flat-road sprints for signs and then 3 downhill sprints to help build leg speed that I can't really achieve on flat roads at that speed. I hit 36.5 on the flat for my max sprint and hit 45.0 on a downhill but I was spinning out my 53x12 so that was the best I could do. I felt really good today, I think the high I was on from having such beautiful weather contributed to that. Yesterday I was having some quad soreness from Sunday's TT as I'm normally not used to sitting so far forward over the top of the crank to push the bigger gears. I was feeling it a little bit this morning yet as well, but by the time I rode this evening my legs were feeling 100%. It was definitely a day that makes being a biker rider worth it. Tomorrow will be bit longer ride, per my schedule anyways, 2.75 hours with 6x3 minute PowerIntervals being my primary workout. Basically high RPM, lung burning, type of efforts that will really benefit me for the next few weeks until I get through all these crits. I'll do those for about 3 weeks and then move on to SpeedIntervals which is assuming I can find some vacation time to do some SuperWeek races. If I decide to use the remainder of my vacation to do some SuperWeek races then I won't have a day off other than holidays for the rest of the year after July. That's a problem for me, so I'll be taking the next couple of weeks to think about how I'm going to work that out. Anyways, pasta is done, time to eat.....until next time........

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Back Roads Bonanza

The weather was pretty nice for today's Back Roads Time Trial, with temps at start time hovering around 70-75 degrees and winds of about 10-15 mph. I felt tired while I was warming up, just a little heavy in the legs and I didn't really feel like I could push a big gear. Well that all changed once I took off from the start line and was motivated to chase the guy in front of me. I felt o.k. going in to the headwind on the way out and was surprised at the size of a couple of the hills, one of them had me down to 16mph. I hit the turn around point at an average speed that was a little slower than I had hoped for based on last year's times, as I was averaging 23.0 as I hit the turn-around cone. I knew that I would have a crosswind or a tailwind on the way back and I tried to ramp it up as I was gaining on my minute man and I kept telling myself I could catch him. I saw my average speed go up a bit on the way back but not nearly as I much as I had hoped and I thought my finishing time was going to be worse than it ended up being. I finished about 14 seconds behind my minute man, almost catching him, and ended up with a time of 22:29, good enough for 2nd place on the day. Times were a little slower this year than last year for some, maybe it was windier than last year but I wasn't there so I can't be sure. Overall I'm happy with what I did, I think if I remember right from the results I would've place 6th or 7th in the Master's 1/2/3, not too shabby. So I guess it was a good day and this week I'll be shifting some of my focus to shorter, more intense intervals as we have a lot of crits coming up in the next few weekends. My ride times will remain the same but instead of the longer Steady State Intervals I'll be doing shorter 3-4 minute Power Intervals, big time fun for sure. Riiiiiight. Anyways, off to mow the lawn, eat some dinner, and relax with a movie. Until next time.............

Better Days

This week has kind of been a crappy week, of course things could always be better, but I have just felt a little down this week in terms of energy and enthusiasm. I haven't been sleeping a lot lately so that probably has something to do with it. I've had 3 early days so far this week at work, and have one more tomorrow, today is the only day I got to sleep until 6:30. The bike training has been going fairly well, Monday was an easy ride, just an hour to keep the legs moving. Tuesday was a 2.5 hour ride after work with a couple of practice TT efforts thrown in. I did the first one for 20 minutes at 92% and didn't really push it for average speed or anything, I just was getting warmed up for my second effort which I had planned on tracking the distance and average speed to see how I would compare to Sunday's TT. I did an out and back course with a cross-tailwind going out and a cross-headwind coming back with some moderate hills. I was flying going out but once I hit the turn-around the headwind killed me a bit because it was about 15-20 mph. I only ended up averaging 24.1 for the 20 minutes, which was below my expectations. I figured for the race Sunday I will need to average 26 at least to be top 2 or 3. I think the adrenaline of the race and having someone in front of me will be worth another mph so if I did 25.1 I think that would put me top 5 or 6. I also didn't have on a skinsuit and had open helmet vents so who knows, maybe I'll do better than 25.1.....or maybe I'll just have a bad day and do worse. I felt pretty wiped last night after a long work day, and after Tuesday's effort, so when I got home I felt like going to bed right away but obviously it was too early for that. I ate some dinner and thought about riding but I just said forget it and decided to go to bed early. It was probably the right choice because I wouldn't have had a good ride anyways. Tonight it looks like we are going to get a good storm and the wind is crazy right now, 40mph gusts, so it looks like it will be a night on the trainer. I'm motivated to ride as of right now so most likely it will be 2 hours and tonight I'll be doing some Steady States and Power Intervals in the 2nd hour of the ride. Tomorrow will be an easier 2 hour ride outside hopefully and then Saturday will be a 2 to 2.5 hour ride right away in the morning, probably 7:00 or so. I'm skipping the State Road Race because I just have too much going on at home right now and I will be gone for 2 races next weekend, 3 races the weekend after, 2 races the weekend after that and then 1 race the following weekend. Basically for the next 4 weeks I won't have a single Saturday to get things done around the house. We just moved in to our house 2 years ago and there is still so much to do, so Saturday will be spent catching up on some of those things. Well, that's it for now....until next time.............

Wild Weekend

Well, kind of.....Saturday I did not get a ride in due to my sister-in-law's wedding and the rain we had most of the weekend. I was going to ride the trainer on Saturday morning before I had to head out to Waukesha for the ceremony but it was early and I was tired so I decided to just do some cleaning up around the house instead. I headed out to the wedding after that and it was a blast, we had a really good time and there was great food, dancing, and of course, beer. Sunday I woke up a little later in the morning and after looking outside I realized I should check the radar to see if the storms were going to be passing through or sticking around for a while. Well, it looked like we'd get a break later in the afternoon so I did some stuff around the house and did some grocery shopping with my wife. I took off at around 4:30 on the bike and although the clouds looked ominous I headed West to do repeats up one of my favorite hills. I got in about 3 repeats and set a new PR up the hill so I was feeling good....but then right at the end of the 3rd repeat the rain started coming down. Luckily I brought my rain jacket so I threw that on and went in to time trial mode trying to get home as it was lightning behind me and the clouds were black as could be. I got to within about 5 minutes of home and the rain lightened up a bit to a drizzle and I contemplated staying out some more but I didn't really feel like getting sick so I headed home. I dried off the bike, changed my clothes and headed downstairs to finish the ride on the trainer. I got in another hour on the trainer for a total of 2 hours and change. Quite a bit less than I wanted to do but I'm not overly concerned that I missed an extra 90 minutes of training. I was able to do my climb in 2:28 whereas my best time prior to Sunday was 2:45, so a 17 second improvement on a climb of that duration shows my form is pretty good right now, so I guess I didn't need that extra time. Well, I'm sure I could use it, but oh well. Today will be an hour recovery pace ride just to keep the blood flowing in the legs. Tomorrow will be 2.5 to 2.75 hours with two 20 minute Steady State intervals as my secondary workout. I've been doing shorter Steady States of 9 minutes the last few weeks but I wanted to increase my time spent at that intensity so I'm cutting the quantity in half and doubling the duration of each interval this week, so I'm doing 2 instead of 4 but doing 20 minutes instead of 9. That will change it up a little bit and make my body respond a little differently than it would with the shorter workouts. After this week I'll go in to more intense short Power Interval type workouts in anticipation of all the crits I have coming up in the next 4-5 weeks.
I'd also like to wish a speedy recovery to all my teammates that crashed at the Trek 100 this weekend, it's really a bummer to crash in a charity ride, especially a crash of the magnitude that they had. I hope they all recover and will be ready for the races this weekend. Until next time.........

Ridin' The Storm Out

It's storming pretty good right now and hopefully will be moving through before the Trek 100 starts tomorrow morning so that my teammates doing that can get in their 100 miles without contending with lightning and downpours. Before the storms moved in today I got in a nice 55 mile ride and did about 120 minutes of Tempo, way more than I had scheduled but I felt really good and wanted to push it today. My back is not sore any more, it does feel a little tight but nothing I can't manage right now with a little stretching. Tomorrow is my sister-in-law's wedding but I don't have to be there until about 1:00 so I'm hoping if I get up early the rain will be gone and I can get in a short ride before I have to start getting ready to go. It's an outdoors wedding so I've got my fingers crossed that the rain holds off for that as well. Sunday is not looking the greatest either right now, about a 60% chance of rain so I might be riding indoors Sunday as of right now.
It's a week until the State Road Race and right now I'm pretty confident, I'm not going to get much better in the next week so I'll make do with my fitness as of right now. I can lose about another 2 or 3 lbs though, anything to help get up that pesky, long hill. Well, time to get to bed, I need to be up early tomorrow and we will be at a wedding, and that means free beer and a late night I'm sure. Until next time.......

Back Breaker

Tonight was a wonderful night with temps in the 80s, very little wind and after a little bit of rain, some clear skies. I got out for 2.5 hours by starting from home and heading to Whitnall Park where I started my 4x9 minute Steady State intervals. Basically it's 9 minutes at 92% and then I give myself 6 minutes of recovery and repeat. I used the Whitnall race course so that I could get some hillwork as well, even if it is a little hill. Nobody else was there and traffic was very minimal, it was almost like I owned my own little race course. After the intervals were done I rode more of the Oak Leaf Trail and then stopped temporarily to get some water and my back started to hurt terribly. I tried getting back on the bike and could barely pedal and had to ride home at like 15mph. I was riding home in my 39x23 and getting passed by rec riders left and right, I felt ashamed. I'm not sure what happened but right now I can't bend over and the left side of my back hurts pretty bad. I've had this before and it usually goes away in a day or less, it's just annoying. This time I'm hoping it's something different.....my intervals went so well and I felt really strong so I think my body is compensating. I think that my back and ribs broke themselves in order to make room for my lungs to grow, you know, like werewolf style. I've got my fingers crossed on this one, I really hope that's it. If not, I'll be really pissed. Tomorrow is another day of about 2.5 hours with 75 minutes of Tempo and I think I'll be heading out to the Vernon, Big Bend, Tichigan area and then back via Muskego, should be a good ride if it doesn't rain. Well, that's it for now, time to go to bed, I have to be up at 5:00 to be to work early. Until next time..............

Quite A Weekend

Well, after being sick from Wednesday until Friday evening I'm feeling quite a bit better now and although I still have a bit of congestion I think I'm close to 100%. I'm in far better shape than when I was laying in bed for 3 days with a fever and intense sinus headaches. Now I just have a good case of sunburn after being outside for the last couple of days (and probably overdoing it). Yesterday I rode for 4 hours with my dad to Delafield and back and although it was windy, it was still nice and warm and we had a good feast when we got back. Today a bunch of my team-mates got together in Burlington and did a bunch of laps of the State RR course and a short loop of Alpine Valley, we had a great time and had some spirited hill sprints, attacks, and stop-sign sprints. We did just over 50 miles and about 2hrs 40 minutes on the bike. We had a great feast today as well, with lots of fruit, salads, beer, brats, and burgers. Yeah, not the best food, but darn good anyways. Tonight I'm just relaxing and will probably go to bed early as it's back to work tomorrow, can't wait. At least it's a short week as it's obviously Tuesday already tomorrow and I only have to work a half day on Friday. I'll be doing lots of riding this week and will have to work around my sister-in-law's wedding this weekend to get in a couple of long rides on Saturday and Sunday as well. Well, I'll update more as the week goes on, time to eat dinner. Until next time.........

Back On The Bike

I took a few day hiatus to deal with this head infection, and I'm calling it a head infection because I still don't know if it was sinus or ear related, it seems that everything was plugged and hurt. I'm on a course of antibiotics and I've been taking Theraflu to help sleep at night and my fever has finally gone away after being 101 the last two days. I actually got in a 1.5 hour ride and felt o.k. although I almost threw up a couple of times, but my legs felt great anyways. Other than that I'm going to be doing 65 miles with my dad tomorrow out to Delafield and back, hopefully I don't get sick then. Monday will be about 3 hours with the team out at the State RR course, hopefully I'm at least 75% by then, I'd like to do the whole ride without getting dropped or getting sick, that would be a bonus. If I'm feeling 100% by Tuesday then I'll start some heavy duty training with two-a-days through the weekend and then the following week I'll start the week strong and taper down by Saturday. My most difficult rides will be next week Wednesday and Thursday and then Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of the following week. I'll start to taper down the week of the 3rd on Wednesday and Thursday and then Friday will be an easy ride ahead of the race on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to the State RR, I'm confident I can hang with the front guys, I definitely need to lose about 5lbs. and be about 175 for the race but I think my power can carry me over the smaller hills, there aren't really any climber type hills so my weight won't be much of an issue. I've trained on those roads a million times in my previous life as a racer so the confidence is there that I can handle them with no problems. We'll see, I'm sure everyone is training like this is their last race as well, so it will be tough, and if it isn't I'll be sure to make it tough. Well, I know it's 5:30 but I'm worn out from being sick so I'm going to take a little nap before I watch some movies with the family and rest up for the ride with my dad tomorrow. Until next time.........

Down For The Count

I felt pretty good today at work and then shortly after work I started to feel really sick, I went out on my ride and got sick and came home just absolutely shivering and my wife took my temp and it's 100 right now. I feel completely miserable, not sure what is wrong, this is the worst I've felt in years. That's it for now....going to bed. 24-hour flu? I hope so. My head cold might have become an infection.

Finally

Today's race, Wheels on Willy Criterium, was one of my "A" races this year and a race I'd been looking forward to for quite a while, well....mainly since last year when I got 3rd and was so disappointed that anything less than 1st this year wouldn't make me happy. So guess what? I'm very happy! I won today's race with a bit of crafty maneuvering and a wicked sprint, who knew?? We arrived at the course at 7:45 a.m. and it was quite cold with a nice cold breeze as well and to top it off, a little bit of drizzle. Luckily by the time our race started at 9:00 the drizzle had stopped and although it was cold the pace of the race warmed us up pretty quickly. I have to say that I felt pretty bad the first 5 laps or so, just dead legs from yesterday and full of snot (sorry) from my head cold. After about 20 minutes I started to feel better and moved my way to the front and tried to stay in the top 15 the rest of the way but it was pretty tough. Finally with 2 laps to go I went to the front and stayed in about the top 10 and as we came around for the final lap I knew that I wanted to be the first one or two guys through the turns in the last lap. I moved up and after the 2nd turn I jumped on the left side and went to the first position through the 3rd turn and was really pushing it with my head down. My initial thought was "great, now I'm leading everybody out for the sprint, that was stupid"....but I still kept flying as fast as I could and made the 4th turn at full speed and stood up to sprint and had no problem holding off the pack for the win. It felt great to win today because it was a race that I picked out at the beginning of the year and really tried to focus on and it turned out exactly as I had hoped. The rest of the guys did great as well today and Glen continued his streak of top 10s with another one today (2 is a streak right?). Andy, Chris, and Bob also had good days and were very active throughout the race, it was a good job by all. Our group is a great bunch of guys and I'm so glad that we still have quite a few races to do yet this year, this is a lot of fun.
As far as the next races go, the next one is a big one, the State Road Race Championship in my hometown of Burlington. I'm a little disappointed that they don't have a separate Masters 4/5 race so I have to race with the young guys and hope for the best. In the old days I used to be able to do big ring sprints up the big hill, unfortunately I can't anymore but my climbing is o.k. so I might be able to hang with them for just long enough to sprint it out up the hill that I know quite well. Anyways, the next few weeks are going to bring some solid training and I'll be concentrating mainly on getting in some miles and hill work. I'll ramp up the duration of my intervals as well and try to get in some more power work so that I can fly up those hills. Well, time to go relax on the recliner and chill out until dinner, no housework for me today after a long weekend. Until next time.........

Not Too Bad I Guess

Well, it was a tough course today, and considering that I'd had a head cold and sore throat all week I didn't expect to do much today and would've been happy just finishing in the top 40 (there was only 50 in the race). Surprisingly I felt pretty good and actually ended up 10th today on a pretty brutal course and I'm quite happy to take that result. We lined up under beautiful skies and I can't say that I was feeling good or bad as we rolled about 2 miles to the big hill but as soon as we started going up I decided to pace myself and not try to stay with the few guys that were taking off and it was definitely the smart thing to do. I managed to get in a group of about five for the first lap as there was a group of 10 that formed at the front and we were the second chasing group. On the 2nd time up the hill I could see the front pack and it appeared that we would catch them before the start of the 3rd lap and we almost did but ultimately we caught them right after the start/finish and of course it was right before the big hill. I realized everyone wasn't there when we made the catch and I was right in that there was 6 guys off the front and we had caught the remaining 4 guys. I think we were with them for about 2 minutes before I got dropped on the hill again but this time I managed to come to the top with only the front 6 and 3 out of the 4 from the second group in front of me. I tried to catch the group of 3 but it was just too hard by myself and I dangled about 200 yards behind them for the entire 3rd lap. Eventually when we hit the headwind in the finishing straight they pulled away a little bit but I managed to hold off any chasers and finished 10th all by myself. We had Dave Sapiro in the front group and he managed a 4th place, we had Glen Stroik in the 2nd group and he managed 7th so Team Wheaton got 3 guys in the top 10 today, not too shabby at all.
I've done all I can tonight to recover I think and I'm ready for tomorrow to race at Wheels on Willy, it's supposed to be quite a bit cooler and maybe a chance of rain for our 9:00a.m. start. I just read the flyer and noticed that they changed the course this year, I didn't know that before now, that course has been unchanged for a very long time now, I'm a little disappointed that they changed it. This is the first time in like 15 years that it has been changed I think, so we'll see how this one compares to the old one. Either way I'm ready to rock and roll tomorrow, can't wait. Until next time.........

Double Trouble

This weekend will be double the fun with two races, one each on Saturday and Sunday. First up is a road race in Denzler that features a one and a quarter mile climb that gains 700ft. of elevation. It's definitely a good size climb for Wisco and I'm not sure I'm really suited for that, but what the heck, anything can happen and maybe I'll have my climbing legs on tomorrow. I've got some major head congestion right now in the sinuses and ears but the lungs are clear and the legs have been feeling good this week. I did a half-mile climb by my house last night and went up it with a new PR so I know I'm feeling good right now. Of course I should go up it faster this year than last year since it was my first year back, but I could have kept going for quite a bit longer at the pace I was going so mentally that makes me pretty confident. Anyways, Sunday is one of my favorite races and a race that I've circled on my calendar this year as an "A" race. Wheels on Willy is a nice crit course that is fairly fast and is well suited to break away attempts and I tried one last year and ended up getting 3rd after I couldn't hold off the pack in the sprint. This year I'm feeling a lot better about my chances and I'm really looking forward to that one, it's also a good money race, so winning would definitely help pay for some of the trip expenses, at least a half a tank of gas. All in all the training has been going fairly well but not great this week but I'm feeling strong going in to the weekend. The weather looks great for tomorrow, not so good for Sunday but if it rains for the crit then all the better as I think my experience and handling skills will help me out in that one. After this weekend we don't have any races for a couple of weeks so it will be two solid weeks of long and hard riding and then a bit of a taper for the State RR, I'm really looking forward to that one as well. Well, back to work, until next time.....

Life Is A Full Time Job

Well, it's been a few days since my last post so I'll update on what's been going on around the Carlson household. Sunday was a busy day as the family headed down to Burlington for Mother's Day, but my plan of riding from Burlington to Alpine Valley and Johnson Rd. didn't quite turn out as planned. My wife had to go to her grandmother's in the afternoon so we had to high-tail it out of Burlington earlier than I was hoping to be back in New Berlin for an early dinner. Unfortunately it just obviously didn't work to stay out there for a nice 4 hour ride so I ended up coming home and then riding for 2.5 hours in the evening. Not quite what I intended as I really wanted to get in the hillwork for the upcoming Leland race and the State RR. It was Mother's Day though and obviously that's pretty important so I had to make a sacrifice. I'm learning that's it's quite different being a 30-something husband and father than when I was a young 20-something racer and could just do what I wanted, there's definitely a lot more to life now. Working full-time, having a family, owning a house is a lot of work, the things we get to do for our own sanity, like cycling, sometimes get pushed to the side. So far we are making it work, although I would always love to be able to ride more than I do now, but what can I do, priorities first. So anyways, I did ride Sunday, and normally Monday is a rest day for me but it was nice and hot out and I didn't ride as long as I wanted Sunday so I rode yesterday as well and I'm glad I did because my muscles felt really tight, especially my back and hamstrings and it felt good to stretch them out ahead of the harder workouts today and tomorrow. Today will be iffy for an outside ride as it's raining and I'm not sure if it's going to let up or not by the time I get home, the forecast says definitely not, but the weathermen have been wrong before. If it's only drizzling or it's done raining, then I'll obviously ride outside, otherwise it will be about 2 hours on the trainer, about 75 minutes of Tempo work. Tomorrow I'll be doing hill repeats on the longest hills I can find by my house and I do have a few picked out so I'll be doing that until the sun sets to get ready for the agony of Saturday's race. Thursday will be a moderate paced ride and Friday will be a short pre-race ride with a couple of power intervals to open up the legs. Saturday I'll be going up to Denzler for the road race, which is 3 loops of an 11 mile course and it has a one mile long 700ft. climb so I'll see if I can get my 180lb butt up that hill 3 times in the lead group, let's hope so. Sunday is one of my favorite races of the year, Wheels on Willy St., and that is one of my "A" races this year, anything less than top 3 would be a disappointment. The unfortunate part of this weekend is that I have to drive both days as my plans of staying overnight in Madison were nixed because I forgot my wife will be gone Saturday morning until Sunday morning for her sister's bachelorette party celebration. That leaves me with the kid and the dog and the kid has a Boy Scout trip on Saturday evening so I have to be home for that and to take care of the dog overnight. I tried to figure out a way to make it all work but finding someone to watch the dog is hard to do and our son is 13 which isn't quite old enough to leave home alone overnight. Basically it's just a few extra hours of driving and a couple tanks of gas, but hopefully I will win some cash to off set some of that expense. Anyways, I'm looking forward to a good week of training and we'll see how it all pays off this weekend. Hopefully all this work I've been doing all Spring will actually get me some results. Until next time.....


Here is a profile of Saturday's road race

Kinda, Sorta, Somewhat Happy

6th place today, obviously could've been better, but considering that I don't really have a sprint yet I was happy with 6th in a bunch sprint.....well, what was left of the bunch after a crash before the finishing straight. I'm heading out tonight to a cook out and will be eating some filet and drinking lots of cold ones....that would be beer. Tomorrow I'm off to Burlington in the morning for Mother's Day and then since I'm out there I'll be taking advantage of my mom's proximity to the State RR course and will do about 2 hours worth of riding on that and then about 2 hours of riding around Alpine Valley. I need a good week of training ahead of the double race weekend coming up. Well, off to eat, more details on the race and tomorrow's training sometime tomorrow evening. Until next time......