pinellas park circuit/crit race report

Our race began 40 minutes late because the Cat5 race prior to ours had a bad crash in it and EMS was called to the scene. While waiting around, the weather turned worse and worse. We now had sprinkle and a rumble in the distance.

Finally, we lined up and were off. Lap 1 was a neutral lap because EMS was still on the course at the last km of the 2 mile course. Once we passed, the hammer dropped and we were strung out. There were a couple teams represented out there including Team Paisa, Colavita, and AJ's bikes. I stayed towards the front the first 7-8 laps as I needed to if a group were to break away. The sky just openned up and we were being shot at by the torrential downpour. But the race continued on. About lap 9, I just missed the break and was doing most of the chasing myself with one other guy. I was doing long pulls and was starting to feel the affects of the hard work. About lap 12, the Pros caught up with us and absorbed our field and I had a sign of relief that we would be able to pull back alot of time from the break group and I wouldn't have to do as much work although the pace would be higher. I stayed towards the middle-front of the giant Pro1/2 and Cat3 field and kept positioin. In the final lap, I slowly tried to work my way closer to the front and ended up 12th for the Cat3.

A very solid effort for my priority B race and my training focus since the last race about 1 month ago really paid off. I felt strong and was able to hold long pulls. I was agressive when needed (although I missed the break), and held confidence when surrounded by a large field. I didn't get discouraged when Colavita was soft pedalling to increase the gap with their man in the break. I would have like to have placed higher, but I would call this race a success. No crashing with standing water turns, wet roads, and the downpour. This has been the 1st crit since last season where I crashed in the 2 crit prior.

Thanks to my dad for coming out and supporting me in the rain, and of course Desiree who ended up treating me to California Pizza Kitchen! I love that place.

more pics: http://sports.webshots.com/album/577265668wwTmZz

Next race- Webster Roubaix- Saturday 4/3/2010
Tune in for details.

active weekend

lots to do and people to see.
Saturday started out with Desiree's 5k race at UCF. We decided to stay at her parent's house night before and that allowed me to ride to see her race. Two other co-workers, Lori and Ashley, also participated in the race. Afterwards, we went for a bike ride from UCF. Originally to head out to Fort Chirstmas and back, however the route was amended after executive decisions. We then headed back to Desiree's to get cleaned up before heading to St. Pete for my race on Sunday.
Upon arrival in St. Pete, we met up with my dad and joined him as he was giving a speech/MC for a vietnamese physician on Hepatitis B and pharmalogical treatment options. The dinner provided was a vietnamese wedding style catering where there are 7-8 courses family style platters brought out to each table. This particular menu was a seafood menu with crab soup, shrip, lobster, steak, fish, and friend rice. The meal was culminated with a ginger tofu dessert.
Before calling it a night, we stopped in home depot to brouse around since it was on route home. I ended up buying a chandelier at a great price and got to use a gift card that I received from my house warming party. Thanks John.

Sunday morning was church and then relaxing before my race. From my dad's condo, we could hear the St. Pete Gran Prix road circuit race going on in downtown St. Pete. Pretty cool to be able to hear those cars from that far of a distance.
Race time approached and I warmed up on my trainer next to the car. Afterwards, headed over to the start/finish and said hi to a bunch of ZMotion guys- Mauricio, Yip, Grant; Pablo, and Paisa guys- Fernando, his brother, Mateo, Sheriff and others. Always a pleasure seeing these guys.
The race finally started with rumbling in the background (not be breaking wind, but thunder), and later the sky would open up and dump on us (Please read race report for full details of the race). It was nice to have my dad and of course Desiree out there in the rain supporting me. After the race we headed back to Ocoee/Clermont but did take a detour to Internation Plaza where I was treated with lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. I love that place.

What a weekend.

cycling, art, homecoming, friends and birthdays... great weekend

What a great weekend. It all started Friday evening with friends over for a movie/dinner night with some co-workers. I cooked salmon cakes with my infamous potatos complimented with a spinach salad. We watched Hart's War with Bruce Willis and Collin Farrell. It was unusual that between the 4 of us, neither one of us has seen the movie. It was actually really good and the ending was unexpected. You don't find that in many movies these days.

Saturday started off with a nice 2+ hour ride with Desiree to spin out the legs and increased her mileage and saddle time. We then headed to meet her mom up at the art festival in Winter Park. It's supposidly one of the 'booshiest' art festivals in the area. It didn't really seem much different than going to the one around Lake Eola a couple months ago, but there were artists from all over the US that set up shop.
Afterwards, we headed over to Stetson University- my alma mater for Homecoming/Alumni weekend. I got to show Desiree where I spent 4 years of my life; from the fraturnity house to the commons, the gym to the business school and the music buildings. She didn't realize how small the campus was educating just over 2200 undergraduates. She got to meet friend and professors. It was good to catch up with a few old professors that have been keeping up my with updates/blogs. We headed downtown (4-5 blocks away from campus) and had dinner was my favorite restaurant around Stetson- Belinis. It's a mom and pop Italian restaurant that makes the best stromboli I've ever had. Then we ventured around to the local bars and night life and to the homecoming street festival where a Journey tribute band was playing. I got to see friends that I haven't seen in a few years and the oppotunity to show Desiree a big part of my life.

Sunday, I did the Windermere Sunday ride and had the best power profile ride setting personal bests. I ended up with just over 40 miles averaging 20.3 mph and 161 average HR. My power profile was 384 avg power for 5mins, 328 for 10mins, 309 for 30mins, and 287 for 60mins. I was blown away at the numbers and it is an indicator that training is going well and that things are shaping up real well for this weekend's race.
We then went to church and did some greocery shopping in the pouring rain. The combination of wind diplayed sheets of water falling sideways.
It was nice that the rain cleared up as it made for a pleasent evening with Desiree's family to celebrate her mom and step father's birthdays at Macaroni Grill.

What a great way to end the weekend with family.

training and pedal pushing

With the 1st race under my belt, training has become more focused. Longer hours in the saddle with higher intensity had been the structure the last couple weeks. Increased muscular endurance, power intervals, and of course more climbing are the more particulars. These were my areas of opportunity that was brought to my attention from the race.

Here in Florida, the races in my category are mixed with the Pros. Provides for a great opportunity for learning, however it forces you to be on your toes (literally). We will see how the training pays off with my upcoming races.

3/28- Pinellas Park Circuit Race
4/3- Webster Roubaix Road Race

Stay tune for result and what I've learned.

the TT bike is back

Finally finished building my Cervelo P3C time trial (TT) bike after being on hiatus for nearly 5 months. I got new basebar, shifters and rear derailleur for the bike. The basebar is a flat black VisionTech integrated. The shifting is now being provided by SRAM- their carbon A900 bar-end shifters and a SRAM rear derailleur. A new saddle- Fi'z'ik Arione Tri2

Upon building the bike and tuning the shifting on the repair stand, I was having trouble getting the shifting to fall correctly into each gear. I switched the housing and cable to SRAM specific and the problems continued. However, when riding and shifting, I found that it was actually tuned correctly, but the indexing is sensitive on the shifters. Much different than shimano.

Did a 40 mile ride with the bike and my legs were feeling great. I am finding that my position isn't comfortable. This is further worsened by the narrow position of the aerobar extensions. Because the aero setup is intergrated, the width of the aerobar extensions are not adjustable. Also the new saddle puts me in a lower saddle height from center bottom bracket totally changing my position. I will most likely need to make a trip up to Atlanta for Mike to take a look at my position on the bike.

I'm just going to train and play trial and error on the position in hopes to not cause a potential knee injury and build on steady tempo training.

fancy rice + raw fish + mystery ingredients = sushi

a much deserved meal for multiple reasons:
1. awesome race
2. celebrating 6 month anniversary

Last night we went to one of our favorite sushi restaurants because they have great sushi, but also because we have gift certificates there from restaurant.com. They have a daily special for $3 roll which happened to be spicy tuna. Our order consisted of 1 seaweed salad and 6 deliceous rolls including 3 specials. Our total came out to $36 less our gift certificate totaling $11.

Since it was a Saturday and we didn't have a reservation, we sat at the sushi bar. As we were waiting for our check, we over heard the sushi chefs talking about how much sushi we got and how cheap our bill was. It seems like only one of the guys knew about the restaurant.com gift certifercates because you could see the reaction of the other guy.

We have now decided that it would probably be for our best interest/health safety if we only went back there on the weekdays as we have done in the past.

arigato!

race report- and it begins

Yesterday kicked of my racing season with my first road race held in Winter Haven, FL. It was a mixed combined field with the Pro 1/2 and Cat 3. My goals were to stay with the peleton, find my legs, see what areas of opportunities I had to work on, and get back in the mindset of racing. This race was a success is that all 3 goals were met.

Here's how it all went down. 5 laps x 15 miles. The field had about 80-90 racers with about 40% being the Pros. I stayed in the middle back of the peleton most of the race with my best position around middle of the pack. I took a bottle in the 1st and 2nd feed so that I would get caught up in the maheim and slowed momentum trying to scramble for a bottle in the last 2 feeds. About 3-4 miles into the final lap, there was a pretty bike crash that happened right next to me that probably took down about 10-15 guys. I wasn't caught up in it, but was slowed down. The field pushed hard ahead as I worked to bridge the gap and making contact pulling the field behind. Apparently, Desiree told me that there was alot of damaged bike bling. Back to the race. With about 4 miles togo, you could tell that guys were getting that itch and that there was increased tension to fight for position. However the finishing straight from the last turn was a long 3-4km. With 1km to go, my legs were feeling the burn and lactate accumulation and I didin't have position to gain any real position, so I sat up to not get caught up in the field sprint and a potential crash and finished about 5 seconds back.

We finished with 65 miles in 2.5 hours with an average speed just under 26mph. My avg HR was 172bpm, which is a little high however, I didn't feel that my conditioning was a factor effecting my performance. I know that I need to work on muscular endurace and threshold tolerance. Also, I need to feel a little more confidence in the pack and holding my position not allowing guys to get around me.

A special thanks to my support crew: Anh Vu and Darcey, and of course Desiree. They were out there cheering me on, and providing me with watter bottles in the feed zone. That support makes all the difference in the world.

Race season- it's on like Donkey Kong, i'm going to rock out with my....rock out!

More pics here: http://sports.webshots.com/album/576971032ZTCgFk

almost ready

Last week's training turned out real well. I've been in my build period for about 3 weeks now and my form and my base foundation is looking solid.
I had some muscular endurance tempo work, spin ups, interval training, and recovery workouts. My conditioning has really come around where my HR is staying low when it needs to, and responds when it needs to.
This week, I am just doing some moderate workouts to keep the my legs fresh and ready for this weekend's race.
Today's workout was pretty rediculous. The winds were 25-30 mph and i was working on muscular endurance work out in the wind.

My goals for this weekend's race is to see where my form is since this is a priority C race. However, this is a mixed field: Cat 1/2 with 3s. So just finishing and figuring out my strength and weaknesses is of top priority.
Tune in and see how I do.