In The Homestretch: Prinner's Final Tucson Report

Editor's Note: This report is reposted from The Prinner Posts

It still hasn't quite occurred to me that I'm not actually in Tucson anymore; I continue to wear shorts and run outside on random occasions only to realize it's not 70 degrees. Though I'm in serious withdrawal from Tucson paradise it had become obvious in my last week there that it was time to go home:for one, most of my waterbottles have grown cultures of microorganisms due to both my own neglect in cleaning them out and Accelerade's reluctance to detach itself from plastic.Plus my supply of earplugs had diminished greatly as they always seem to mysteriously disappear in the night, never to be seen again. My back wheel wobbled precariously (I still insist I had nothing to do with it) and my handlebar tape continued to unravel despite my attempts to fix it. I sensed the urge from some greater being that it was my time to move on as the Tucson pavement continued to attack me relentlessly (although it's more probable that I keep attempting to attack the pavement and never seem to learn that I will always lose).

A fortnight ago my Wednesday night training crit was short lived as I succeeded in embarrassing my cat. 2 status in blatantly trying to pedal around a 180 degree turn and paid the price in even more skin.So not only did I bear the scars of the Shootout crash on my left side but I now had a full set on the right side to complement it.So I dejectedly rode home that night kicking myself for such a novice mistake as I now had no clean side to crash on.Of course my next option would be to wear arm/leg warmers in the stifling Tucson heat in my next race as I didn't feel like having road rash on top of my road rash.But at this point most of my wounds have healed and have that wonderfully pink hue that you just know will turn purple and stay with you for the rest of your life.

On my last week in Tucson I was joined by my dad as he was to help me drive 27 hours back to Chicago.I decided to take him up Mount Lemmon for less sadistic reasons than you think, and as it was a high of 90 degrees that day I was confident I wouldn't die on the side of the mountain as I almost did several weeks ago.I could only shudder as I passed that scenic pull-out where I had sat huddled in the fetal position waiting for either 1) death to find me or 2) a friendly ride to hitchhike down with.Seeing as though I have lived to write this you can probably infer that option two occurred.Roughly 25 miles of climbing later I arrived at the Cookie Cabin, arguably the point that's considered “the top” for all cyclists daring such an endeavor.The idea is to suffer and toil endlessly for 25 miles and then stuff your face with a giant cookie and perhaps a Dr. Pepper and then refrain from throwing it all up on the swift ride down.What a wonderful life.

And then my time ended in Tucson and I prepared for a marathon drive back home. After driving through the night, the sun rose the next morning to display gloomy overcast skies in Missouri, though I still refused to exchange my flip flops for shoes. I'm not devastated, though, as some may think, because in two and a half weeks I begin my next European adventure on the National Team.

Name Dropping the Prez

Chris Mosora just passed on a link to Steve Tilford's latest blog post discussing "deals" in cycling and talks about the Chicago Crit Series when he was racing for ABD President Mike Farrell.

http://stevetilford.com/?p=10428

We've asked the boss what he remembers about that race...

Jim Nowak's Birkie Report

Well, my ski season has officially come to a close with the 2011 American Birkebeiner (aka The Birkie).  Some of you may know about this, but my guess is that most of you have no idea what The Birkie is all about.

The Birkie is the LARGEST cross-country ski race in North America.  This year there were over 8000 participants in the three different races: Prince Hakkon which is 12K, Korteloppet which is 23K and the Birkie which is 50K.  This race draws people from all over including European countries.  There are also several other events that are happening during the week leading up to the races, but last Saturday was race day.

The Birkie course has been described by many as the Autobahn of ski courses.  It is quite wide and fast in good conditions.  There is quite a bit of climbing with a total of about 2600 feet of climbing over the 31 miles.  The first 5K is fairly flat but then the hills come fast and furious.  There are several significant climbs on the course, with 4 of them happening from 10K to go to 3K to go.  The last 3K are then skied across Lake Hayward with the finish being on Main St which is filled with snow and packed.

I went up on Friday with a group of 4 other people, and got to Hayward around 2pm.  The temp was a whopping +9F degrees.  We got our packets and bibs, I picked up my skis which I had sent up earlier in the week to have a race wax service do for me and then headed over to the Birkie trail for a ski to stretch the legs.  We skied from "OO" which is the halfway point for the 50K race.  The groomers had not done the final grooming, but we got a good sense that it was not going to be a super fast day due to the coldness and abrasiveness of the snow, but it wasn't going to be a slog either.

Sat morning the alarm went off at 5:30am.  I got some food into me for the day and we made our way to the parking lot to board buses to the start line.  Logistically the Birkie is a nightmare, but having gone through the routine many times, I knew what to expect.  So the 2 mile long line of cars waiting to turn into the parking lot didn't phase me in the least.

We made it to the start area, I made my final "preparations" for the race, and got into the chute and waited for the next 15 minutes until my wave started.  Luckily it wasn't windy as the temp at the start was -9F degrees.  The plan was for me and one of the guys I came up with to ski together for the first 5-6K easy and then when the hills start begin to ramp the pace up slowly.

The gun went off and my skis felt really fast.  I took it easy, but with the speed of my skis, I was able to move around people and make my way forward.  Once the hills started it began to thin out and people were now skiing in groups.  There was about 10 people I was with and various people would set the pace.  I made it over the high point at 13K in good shape and started to push the pace a bit more.  On the big hills before "OO" I again pushed the pace and felt really good.  I quickly got a gel down and continued working hard.  At about 35K I started to fell a bit taxed, so I grabbed another gel.  At this time it was pretty frozen, so I had to take a bit, let it melt in my mouth and then finally swallow it.  It took me some time to do, but I finally finished it just in time to hit the first of the last four climbs (Mosquito Brook Hill).  This is a LONG hill that seems to go on forever especially when you are in a bad spot.  I told myself to just keep the people in front in sight and once the gel kicks in I'll be able to catch them.  Sure enough once I got over the hill and made my way over the rollers, I was good to go.  The second hill (aka Bitch Hill) was next and I didn't have any problems.  This is a shorter hill, rises only about 80ft or so in about 1/2K, but is steep and tough.  Once over that, again more rollers and onto the next hill.  By this time I had pretty much caught everyone I was skiing with earlier except for one guy.  On this hill I pushed the pace and ended up catching him at the top.  Once over this hill you go through a field, and cross Hwy 77 and start the final climb before you come out to Lake Hayward.  The "Hwy 77 Hill" is one of the toughest climbs of the race.  It is quite long (1.5K or so) and has a pretty good pitch to it.  It also comes at about 45K into the race.  I was feeling good and was able to keep a nice tempo up the whole climb.  Once to the top it is a quick shot down to Lake Hayward and only about 3K to go.  I skied as hard as I could catching and passing groups on the lake as much as possible.  Off the lake you get onto Main St. which is just a wall of noise from the fans on both sides of the street (much like a Tour climb).  I skied as hard and as fast as I could and I crossed the finish line feeling spent yet happy with my race.  My time of 2:55 was not my fastest but my placing in both the overall and age group where good (753 overall and 90 in my age).

The temp at the finish was +5F degrees.  There were quite a few people that had issues with frostbite, myself included but only a small area on my cheeks.  As I reflect on the race, one of the things that I was really happy with was that I never panicked, never got down, but always kept positive.  I think part of that is that I have finally figured out this race as this was my 13th Birkie.

I've already started thinking about 2012 am excited to continue to push myself with this event.  The Birkie is like nothing else I have done including bike races, marathons, triathlons, etc.  I truly do have "Birkie Fever"!

Thanks for reading,
Jim

Prinner Post: Random Notes and Race #2

Originally posted at The Prinner Posts

A bunch of random events + an account of my second real race of the year

After a week of bad luck I felt it was about time I got a stroke of good fortune. As if my randomly broken spoke in the middle of a ride wasn’t frustrating enough some greater being decided it would be amusing if I got stung in the neck by a bee as soon as I pulled over to analyze my first misfortune.

And then several days later I crashed once again on the infamous Shootout. The torrential sidewind had the field battling for the inside wheel (even if it meant riding off into a ditch in order to get that sliver of draft) which equated to crashes and carnage. Remember, even though the Shootout is technically called a “ride” we all know what it really is. “Riding” the Shootout is also a very paradoxal experience: on one hand you feel elated to be hanging on for so long as the field is slowly evaporating and on the other you’re kicking yourself for actually volunteering to wake up at 6:00 am (which remember is like 3:00 am teenage time) and turn yourself inside out for three hours in hopes of hanging on for about half of that time. Or perhaps to end up running over another rider (who just simply decided to stop in the middle of the field) and transfer all that energy stored gravitationally and kinetically directly to my poorly constructed human knees. This was a week ago. My knee is still swollen. I am all but baking Ibuprofen into pies by now.

Fortunately a distraction arrived in the form of Leah Sanda, Gary Whalen and Katie Isermann that same weekend and I was like a goldfish reunited with water as my Chi-Town buddies and I had an adventure around Tucson. Gary received a flat not a mile from my temporary home, but it was a good thing he had all the tools necessary to change a flat including a spare 650 tire and a 700 that already had a puncture in it.

Plus I got to use my frame pump for the second time ever for Gary’s flat. After roughly three years to travelling beneath my top tube I had not once used my weathered frame pump. The moment of truth arrived on an easy Friday ride with my housemate Matt (the one with the Canadian accent that says a-boot instead of about) when I received my first flat of the trip and came to the realization that I seriously had no idea how to use my pump. Luckily Matt is a mechanical engineer, and after much tinkering (including sketching out diagrams on the pavement and doing some insane calculus and trigonometry calculations—to which I pitched in to remind him of Sohcahtoa) he finally decoded my frame pump and we were well on our way.

This past Saturday I also signed up for a criterium downtown at the University of Arizona, and with $900 dollars awarded to the top three women in the 1,2,3 race I was ready to eat some more pavement in an attempt to nab some of that cash. The field was small as usual (about 15 women) but despite such a harmless façade it was a loaded field in terms of power including Julia Garnet (a National Team member for Canada), Erica Zaveta (a member of the USA Mountain Bike Team), three Trisport teammates, Chloe Forsman (last year’s winner), and a few other strong women who I simply don’t know all that well.

The race was fast from the gun, and with the wind picking up to over 20 mph, making drafting both difficult yet essential in this small field. The Trisport ladies were continually successful in counterattacking and consistently getting riders up the road, to which I had to pick and choose what to chase, bridge, or sit in and hope the others would close. Roughly halfway into the race a break of two consisting of a Trisport rider named Cara Bussell and last year’s winner Chloe Forsman escaped with over a 20 second gap. After attempting a failed attack to try to bridge I knew my best chance would be to wait for the perfect counterattack to clear the field. After a massive attack from Julia Garnet followed by a jump from Erica Zaveta I attacked in the gutter as the field sat up and clustered back together. It was more or less the timing of the attack that made it so successful as everyone at that point was in the “screw it I’m not chasing anymore” mood and I immediately racked up a large gap further discouraging chasing from the Trisport riders as they didn’t want to close on their own rider up the road. From there I put the hammer down and suffered for four laps to catch the two leaders who looked around at me startled as though I’d just fallen out of the sky. For the last 20 minutes of the race the three of us traded pulls (with Cara taking a $100 prime with 14 minutes to go) and the bell lap coming down to the typical cat and mouse game. The three of us were crawling at about 10 mph looking around at each other to see who would attempt an early jump and I decided to get the adrenaline and impulsive behavior flowing with a fake attack which prompted a jump from Chloe that got us back up to speed. With less than a half a lap to go Cara began to ramp it up as Chloe jumped around her in the second to last straightaway to start the sprint. I accelerated in third position, holding as much draft as possible. Chloe and Cara hit the last turn neck and neck and braked in nervous anticipation while I slid through on the inside brake-free with just a little bit of momentum and a slight distance advantage that I carried to the finish line, gritting my teeth and throwing my bike with a half a bike-length for the victory over Cara.

As a self-employed cyclist, I earn anywhere from $0 to $500 an hour. That day I was ballin’ with five crisp hundred dollar bills in my pocket. For the police officers reading this: If you happen to pull over an individual carrying a shady looking envelope containing ridiculously large denominations of bills, there is a very small probability that they’re just a poor, elated cyclist returning from a successful race, not necessarily a drug dealer.

Research Study on Elite Athletes

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 flyer

Green Jeannie!

Jeannie 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!

Appelwick Report - Indoor TT#2

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.

Stacy

Indoor TT Series - The race that the lights went out in Winfield

First 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 Design

Prinner Report: The Shootout- Round #2

This report reprinted from the The Prinner Posts

As 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.

Nowak's Nordic News Update

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