Matt’s blog

I want to be on a monkey squad!

I was really excited about this course until I read that it was only for high school students.  Be sure to check out the brochure.

Today I did the Judson Ride with my Oregon Scientific ATC2K video camera onboard.  Here are a couple of clips to check out:

paceline fun

sprint

Next I hope to mount it to my track bike for some velodrome footage...

Last week I did the Iowa City Road Race as my first race of the season.  It was hilly and very windy with no place to hide in the crosswind.  First, consider the hills.  In bike racing, doing well in a hilly race is all about strength to weight ratio.  I had only done one race-pace training ride in a group leading up to this (I know, bad idea) so the strength wasn't there yet.  And the weight?  I'm about 40lbs heavier than the really good climbers even though I'm fairly lean for a 6'1" guy.  Sure enough I was dropped in a hilly crosswind section of the course.  Since you save about 30% effort by drafting in a pack of bike racers, my race was pretty much over.

Saturday was another windy and even more hilly race in Wisconsin.  This time the first hill was so damn steep and long that I didn't even worry about the wind so much.  That hill saw me get dropped even faster than before in Iowa City.  That was one of the worst days I've ever had in a race.

Yesterday we arrived at Vernon Hills, IL for a flat criterium, which is my kind of race.  Still, it was windy again and my confidence was in tatters.  I seriously considered that I might not finish the race in the pack.  The only thing that kept me going was the idea that I needed to practice for next week when our team has a big target race.

The race started and I settled in pretty easily.  There were a few hard crosswind sections in the first few laps as the attacks started, but I was smart with my positioning to keep my nose mostly out of the wind.  Some parts of the race had me going as hard as possible just to hold the wheel in front of me, but I was ok with this knowing that I will improve rapidly over the next few weeks.

Hanging out second wheel

A few guys broke away from the pack and maintained a solid lead somewhere in the middle of the race.  At one point I even considered bridging up to them, but I was actually looking forward to a brief, intense field sprint as opposed to the enduring pain of a breakaway effort.  Fast forward to one lap to go and I had pretty good position leading into turn one.  There were three riders from the breakaway still unreachable, but two others chasing them who were within reach.  After turn two a rider almost took out my front wheel and I had to slow down to avoid a crash.  I chased back to the front of the field and just as I caught them I decided to attack.  I got a nice gap just before turn three and sped up to the two chasers.  I hoped that they would lead me into the sprint but by the time I reached them they were pretty pooped and the rest of the field caught up in a few moments.  There was a momentary lull as we all eyed each other, then someone started the final sprint.  I went as hard as I could and finished fifth in the field sprint for eighth overall (I think).

Needless to say, I was quite happy with my race after the two previous outings.  I'm looking forward to more flat criteriums and I will appreciate them much more after my road racing forays.

p.s.  Is this really a picture of an air traffic control thingie, or something far more sinister?

Airtraffic2

Last week I was on another bike ride doing one of several hill repeats in Highland Park when I saw something cross the street up ahead.  It was a deer who had just jumped a 4 foot high fence on the right and joined a couple friends  near the top of the hill.  At first I was a bit worried and started looking for more to come.  If a deer were to run into me (s)he could cause major damage!  Luckily the one I saw was the last.  I stopped to check him out and we got into a bit of a staring contest from about 20ft apart, which was very cool.

The hill repeats were pretty damn hard.  My muscles are in pretty good shape but the cardio system needs lots of work.  This is normal for this time of year but it always alarms me when a spring effort hurts so much more than late summer/early fall.

What else?  We've had lovely weather lately and I also did a ride in sub-zero temps out of sheer stubbornness.  I'm pretty tired of riding the indoor bike.

After the deer sighting, I went back Sat and did 10x hill repeats.  Total climbing for that day was 1,100ft according to the bike computer.  Slowly making progress...

I forgot to post about my rides last week.  Friday, I worked from home so I could sneak out for 2 1/2 hrs.  The weather was great so I couldn't resist.  I love my Blackberry because I could check work email a couple times on the road to make the day guilt-free.  Not that I should feel guilty anyway since I make up for it at night and on weekends...

Saturday was 4hrs and another 2 1/2 on Sunday... both pretty uneventful.

I am supposed to race in 3 weeks so I need to get more serious.  I've been skipping days mid-week because I feel too busy at work and that has to stop.

Here is a great story about failing to see the beauty of what's plainly in front of your eyes.

I liked the part about the postal supervisor who once studied violin.  When asked if he regrets not becoming a concert musician, he said "No. If you love something but choose not to do it professionally, it's not a waste. Because, you know, you still have it. You have it forever."  I'll try to remember that if I ever start to regret not becoming a pro bike racer again.

I want to go back so I can author my own test answers like these.

The first one to make me laugh was "Find x".

Things I saw on my bike this weekend...

Saturday - 3hrs lakefront ride
- saw lots of fog, some of it rolling across the bike path right in front of me.

Sunday - 4hrs to Highland Park then Navy Pier and back home - weather in the 70s
- first, before the ride, I "mowed the lawn" meaning I shaved my legs for the first time this year.  It is a bike racer thing...
- at the bagel shop in HP, a guy in front of me in the line abruptly reversed direction and barged past me, saying "go ahead" as opposed to "excuse me"
- saw way too many people on the bike path.  What was I thinking?  With the nice weather it was mobbed.
- lots of cyclists, roller bladers and walkers all going side-by-side taking up the whole lane so they could chat.
- a really attractive Saint Bernard
- a woman crossing the street without looking out for me (her hair was swept across her face by the wind), wearing ear-enclosing headphones
- three (3!) separate cyclists riding the wrong way down a one way street in the bike lane.  They looked at me like I was in their way.  I yelled "wrong way!" at one of them and she said "oh, really?".  I guess directional signs aren't to be bothered with when you're on a bike.
- the Hi! guy - I yelled Hi! and he practically screamed Hi!
- a small boy at Navy Pier (a really crowded place) peeing out in the open.  His caretakers just kind of grinned about it, not seeming too concerned.

Today on my ride (pretty much a duplicate of yesterday) I thought about my old racing bike from the 80's.  It was a custom Redding hand-made in Burlington, Iowa and made to measure.  A few of us on The Cyclery racing team received one of these as part of our sponsorship and each came in a special greenish-yellow color that really stood out in the primary or neon color 80s.  I have many fond memories of racing on that frame.

That bike also has a coincidental connection to Jason McCartney, one of the best American cyclists on the Protour today.  I was friends with Jason's brother Aaron and one day we visited his house.  Jason was nice enough to let me try out his Rollerblades and in return I let him try my racing bike.  He was really a good kid and I'm happy to see he has become so successful on the bike.

Later Lisa and I went to Bistro Campagne - I think we were missing French food a bit after our recent trip to Paris.  I had a very nice meal starting with sausage and lentils followed by steak frites.  But the best part was dessert... they had Green Chartreuse!  This is a special, delicious 110 proof drink produced by French monks that packs quite a punch.  And, bringing the day full circle, the color reminded me once again of my old bike...