The folks at Provident Clinical Research have asked us to pass along information on a study they are doing on Elite male athletes between the ages of 18 and 40 that train at least 100 miles a week.
It's a two hour research study and participants receive $100 for the study visit plus a VO2MAX exercise test.
Download the flyerJeannie Kuhajek, who will be racing with the ABD Women's Team when she heads stateside this summer, has taken over the green points jersey after the second stage of the Women's Tour of New Zealand.
Way to go, Jeannie! Your teammates can't wait for our summer season to start!
Well, the weather outside was frightful, but inside the Winfield Middle School, it was so [de] lightful. Yes, in spite of a power outtage, the resourceful ABD club forged ahead with the 2nd indoor TT of the season. Thanks to all the volunteers who got the generators cranking to keep the computrainers going so we racers could continue to "race" nowhere fast in the dark!
Since we all choose to live in this part of the country and love this crazy sport, we're forced indoors during our "off-season" to keep some kind of form until the weather breaks. We mid-western racers mostly only use these events to push ourselves harder than we normally would if left to train alone in our basements. Being that I was in the last wave to go off today, I was able to use the motivation of trying to put in the best women's time to my benefit. There were many great results posted earlier on, the time to beat was by Kelly Whitley with a stellar time of 16:42 shortly before my wave. Seeing her result got my nerves going and it hurt really, really badly to better it by only a little more than 10 seconds. Jenn Howland was the third fastest woman of the day.
Although it was horribly painful, I'm greatful for everyone who makes these indoor events possible! I hope many of you had a great event today and felt satisfied in knowing you laid it all out there. Thanks to all the ABD volunteers who as always put on fun, well-organized events.
StacyFirst off a big thank you to all of those who came out and raced today! We have now completed 2 events out of the 4-part series, and have one final indoor time-trial before we take it outside for the John Fraser. We are one step closer to answering the oh so famous question of life. And no, the answer is not 42! Our next event will answer that age old question: "Is it March yet?" It will be soon, and we will celebrate it with 1 more indoor, and then we are going outside!
So, were you there when the power went out? If you were, I hope we didn't inconvenience you much. Final verdict was this. The local water reclamation plant overloaded the circuits and fried a fuse down the street. What I find interesting is that the plant and the school are on the same exact grid. Having written software for these types of plants in Gurnee and Highland Park, one thing I know is that a) you put them on their own grid and don't allow them to share power, and b) and the reason for "a" is because when you have a lot of rain like we did today, they have to fire up every pump in order to move it to a retention area. So when they fired up those pumps, they took us out. So the next time you flush the toilet, remember to send them even more junk, because they almost interrupted your racing today! :)
That's right, almost! Luckily, with some quick thinking, we were able to switch over the stations that were effected over to a line that was being fed power from the school's backup generator. Which I have to say worked like a champ, because when the power went out, the other stations didn't even have a hiccup, and if you are experienced with the CompuTrainer software, you know a sneeze is all that is needed in order to take it out.
Anyone try the oatmeal raisin PowerBar Bites? Oh my, love those things. Thanks to PowerBar for bringing goodies and thanks to the American Diabetes Association for coming out and bringing awareness.
Thank you all once again for making this an exciting and wonderful event. The competition was great and I didn't see anyone cutting piece of bar tape off in order to save weight before hitting the scale.
So, next month....SATURDAY! Yes, that's right, the next event is on a Saturday. Saturday, March 19th to be exact. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Location. So if you haven't registered yet, register now either online or by sending in the form. Pass it on to your friends and family who you think might enjoy this, and have them come out and race against you next month. Head on over to http://www.abdcycling.com/events/ttseries.html and either register online or download the form and mail it in.
See you all next month! -- Rich Johnson Event Director Athletes By DesignAs if my first Shootout experience weren’t enough to scare me away, I was back for more 2 weeks later in the cold desert hours of the morning. For a teenager, this was like having to wake up at 3:00 a.m., which was the equivalent of 6:00 a.m. in regular people hours.
There was one key difference to this Shootout, though. As you’ll recall in my last Shootout report (which I’m sure you all have read) I explained how there are really two Shootouts: The first one consists of older riders with pent up energy and competitive spirit from a week of sitting at a desk, while the second one (which left 15 minutes later) consists of professional riders spending their off-season training in Tucson. It wasn’t until I was sitting amidst a pack of cyclists with about 1% body fat that I began to realize how little dignity I would have by the time this was over. My only options were to 1) sneak away quietly before anyone even noticed I was there, 2) crash out the entire field within the first mile, or 3) prepare to lose a massive amount of face. I decided to go with option 3 since my kit was far too bright to be able to sneak away and I didn’t want to be charged with crashing out a potential World Champion.
The first 20 minutes of the ride was a regulated warm-up, and then as soon as we hit Valencia Road the testosterone began to fly. As long as I could stay protected from the wind I was able to hang on (let’s face it, there was no way I could hold 400 watts like the riders at the front). And then my luck ran out (as it always seems to do) and we hit a brutal sidewind section and everyone decided to screw everyone else over by staying in the gutter and not moving over to create another echelon behind the one at the front. I soon found myself dodging an obstacle course of riders shooting off the back and trying to get every bit of draft I could from the rider in front of my by riding in the 2 inch gap between his wheel and the pavement dropoff on the other side. Then I made the mistake of looking up the road and seeing the dire situation the rest of the peloton was in as everyone was suffering in a single file line several hundred feet long. And yet I was determined to squeeze every ounce of training I could from this ride. I don’t quite remember (because of memory loss due to lack of oxygen to the brain) but I’m pretty sure I was frothing at the mouth and blood was dripping from my eyes and lactic acid was coming out of the pores in my skin before I finally just couldn’t close that gap that the rider in front of me so kindly left as he sat up and called it quits.
I wasn’t alone off the back, though, as a small group of riders came to my rescue and murdered my legs even more as they insisted on chasing as though they were in fact the breakaway and were racing for a million dollars (which is also the equivalent of racing with a giant ego). So I suffered on the constant uphill section with this group with the main pack in sight for the next half hour until I got dropped for the second time on a nasty steep kicker. Luckily it wasn’t long before the Scraps Group came along and I became an official Scrap Member. This group was finally down to the level where I could actually pull through in their paceline which redeemed about 2% of the ego I had lost from the beginning of the ride. So by the time I got back to the parking lot where we had started at 7:30 a.m. (4:30 my time) I had lost about 98% of my ego. Another 1% was lost when I realized how badly I had parked my car (trying to back in at a slant) and the other 1% when I realized I hadn’t even turned on my bike computer.
I've been a bit busy lately, but after the big dump, it has taken some time for the skiing areas to become ski-able. I know Todd Busteed and his wife finally got out and are now hooked on x-country skiing.
For those of you interested, here is a quick update on skiing conditions locally.
Arrowhead GC (Wheaton): The GC has been groomed, but there are shallow if any tracks for classical skiing. Skating is better, but with the amount of snow and the ability to put pressure on the snow to pack it, the skating is uneven and soft in places. However there is ski rental here and you can venture into Herrick Lake.
DuPage FP (Herrick Lake, Blackwell, etc.) - No grooming has been done, but there are a LOT of skied in tracks to classic ski. Some are better than others.
Bartlett Hills GC - Has been "groomed" for classic skiing. I put quotes around groomed because in some places it is better to make your own track. However the terrain here lends itself to a VERY good workout. No rental here.
Deer Grove FP (Palatine) - I have not been out there yet, but I have heard from a reputable source that the skate road is very good and the skied in tracks around the perimeter are good. Again no rentals, but I believe that the old Bikes Plus shop on Rt 14 and Rt 59 (Village Cycle now???) does rent skis and is relatively close by.
Rockford area: I have not seen any reports about Rock Cut State Park. Sinnissippi Golf Course has been groomed for both skating and classic skiing and they are reporting very good conditions. Sinnissippi does have ski rentals (more info at http://ninordic.org )
So. Kettle (Nordic, McMiller, Scuppernong) - Conditions are very good but soft. The groomers there do an EXCELLENT job. Ski rentals can be had at the General Store in LaGrange (about 1 mile south of Nordic)
That is it for trails within an 1-1.5 hr drive.
Last weekend my family went to the Dells for a long weekend. We downhill skied on Sat at Cascade which was in fabulous shape. Then on Sunday I x-country skied at Mirror Lake State Park. Again, the DNR does a fantastic job grooming. If you ski and are going to the Dells for a long weekend, Mirror Lake is a must do. The trails are not extreme and can pretty much be skied by anyone. Lots of K's to keep yourself entertained.
Finally, two weekends ago I did the Noquemanon 50K Classic marathon race in Marquette MI. Marquette MI is located on Lake Superior in the UP and is where the Univ. of Northern MI is. This was my 9th Noque and second time I classic skied the marathon. Probably not the right choice for this race as skating would have been quicker, but it was a great training race (finished in just over 4 hrs) and will set me up quite nice for the Birkie at the end of Feb. Lots of hills and other challenging terrain. If you are looking to do a nice race, the 25K is primarily downhill from start to finish, but there are some nice climbs in that 25K. I would highly recommend this for next year if you are looking to do something new and exciting.
See you out on the trails,
Jim
