The Tale of a Lost Season

Most people following this blog probably assumed this already, but my road season this year looks to be a lost cause. I've done a handful of races and even had a couple of decent results. But my training has tailed off the last few weeks. I rode today for the first time today in about two weeks, aside from a Tuesday Night Crit somewhere in there. It wasn't pretty, particularly when I think back to the early-season form I was in back in February, when the air was cold and people were staying away from their bicycles.

There are a lot of reasons for how I got to be where I am. None of it can be boiled down to a single source. There are several personal, professional, and in recent weeks, family reasons that have made it difficult to concentrate on training for cycling.

But I can't really say I regret it. Except one thing. We all signed a rider agreement early in the season about what obligations we would fulfill. I can't honestly say I've lived up to much of it. I've been absent from a lot of races and group rides. In short, I haven't been a good teammate. In the past, I've always understood that this is an amateur activity, and therefore there are plenty of reasons that keep people from dedicating themselves to the sport with full abandon. Still, I always hoped people would show up for early Saturday rides, mid-day Sunday rides and even the fun Monday rides. I know how frustrating it can be to show up to an early weekend ride, only to count how many people haven't showed up.

And this year, I'm the guy not showing up for those things. I've been a lousy teammate. And for that, I apologize to anyone who still cares.

A lot has changed for me this year, and in many ways, it's for the better.

Things will continue change for me from here on out, I'm sure. For one thing, I'm getting ready for what I hope will be a great 'cross season, which is what I really like about this sport.

For another, next road season will look a lot like this one, where I'm not hitting a lot of races. But instead, my plan is that I'll be doing triathlons more than I'll be doing road races.

I think triathlons, often the subject of mockery among cyclists, will represent a new challenge for me. Not that I've conquered cycling in any way, but I just think this will be a good activity for me to try. I used to spend hours in the pool with broken bones in my legs from my college days, unable to run. Finding ways to swim successfully always eluded me. But I want another crack at it. And to combine that with running and cycling — the two things in sport I've always loved — with another mountain to climb is something I can't pass up.

Another reason for this is after my epic crash at last year's VeloTek Grand Prix, I've never felt comfortable racing in tight packs since. I thought it would be a brief mental hurdle to climb. But I really do hate riding a few inches off some other person's wheel. I just don't think I can race effectively any longer on the roads with this mental block. I've tried to work on this in group rides, but as anyone who has practiced rotations with me can attest, it's just not working out.

So tri's are where I'll be next summer.

But before that, this fall and winter will be all about 'cross.

If I'm still around then.

He lives!

So things have been a little slow on this blog lately. OK, a lotta slow. But life has taken on a life of its own for me lately. I won't elaborate on the details here, but I deny any implication made by some (and perhaps others) that my balls have been taken away from me.

Part of the inactivity on this blog has been due to a fairly dry race schedule. Until yesterday, my season's racing consisted of three races. One of those was a mountain bike race that, while fun, was pretty disastrous for me, results-wise.

I did my first Tuesday Night Crit the other night. Did a couple of fun things I normally don't do. This race was a fairly large field and had some fairly fast riders. Early on, I went off the front with an SKC fellow. We built a good distance on the pack and traded leads for a few laps. I think he was getting tired because he stopped pulling ahead and let me lead for longer and longer intervals. Eventually, everyone else caught up.

So I hung out in the pack for a few laps before I saw a group pop off the front. This was a slightly troublesome prospect because, obviously, packs have an easier time of getting away than just an individual or two. So I sprang after them again and we rotated for a while and built a decent lead again. In the offseason, I did some practice in these paceline rotations. But on one, after I took a pull for about half a lap, I went to the side but slowed down too much. So when the last guy, Colavita's Michael E., went by, it was too fast for me to latch on behind him. That meant I spent about two laps about 15 feet off of the last rider in the rotation and therefor getting no benefit from drafting off the lead pack. I eventually got swallowed up again.

On the last lap, I moved up a bit and tried to get in a position to perhaps catch the dwindling lead pack. Chuong D. asked if I had any juice left. I said I'd see what I could do. I went ahead until about the last turn but then found I had no juice at all and just got destroyed in the final sprint. No big deal.

Just one last thing that I discovered on Tuesday night: Most cyclists want race courtesy and etiquette for themselves. But not for others.

Starting the 2010 race season

At one point, I thought I was going to write this long-winded post reflecting about the erstwhile cyclocross season. But I'm going to skip that other than to say that it was fun and that it's over. No one really cares about the past anyway; they just keep doing the same old thing as though nothing ever happened.

So Saturday was the start of my road season. I trekked out to Lawrence for the Spring Fling. I guess this has been going on for a couple weeks, but I decided to show this last Saturday as I didn't have anything else to do.

The race started off slowly enough, what with there being 15 riders in the Men's 4 field. Before too long, I decided to kick up the pace, so I jumped in front and pushed the pace a bit for three or four laps. This left me close to the front for the first sprint lap. I was leading going into the last turn for some points but got edged out by someone else, a Bicycle Shack rider, I believe.

I sat in for a little bit after that lap and re-took the lead heading toward the second sprint lap. On that sprint lap, I went to the very back of the pack and stalked the other riders for a little while. Then I came around the last turn before the start/finish line and booked it past several riders. As I approached the line, I felt my calf seizing up, so I stalled my momentum a bit and got fourth on that sprint lap, which was still good enough for some points.

I was pretty tired from that sprint, so I was kind of worried when a VeloTek rider started crushing it again right after the sprint. I thought I was in trouble but we were able to reel him back in. So the race settled for a while until the last lap. Again, I dropped back to the end of the pack and staked things out again. I did the same thing and built up a strong sprint on the second-to-last-turn. I cruised by a bunch of people but it was not enough for the win. I got second behind a Bicycle Shack rider. With the prime points, I don't know if it was enough to get the overall win. I haven't seen any official results, so we'll have to wait.

Overall, it was a solid opening race. Fun and exciting and a decent result, given that I had no idea how I would do.

Interestingly enough, Chris Hshy. from the In-A-Tub team was riding next to me at one point and said "You're racing better than your reputation." I was afraid to ask what reputation he was referring to or how he found it out, so I let it drop.

Do you all have any ideas? What is my reputation? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments, and make it anonymous if need be.

(Mis)adventures in atmospheric pressure

So yesterday, I'm all set and excited to start off the new road season at Perry Dam. It's the best day of weather we've had in 2010 by a long shot, I'm excited to race and my sister and a friend are coming along for the ride.

I'm loading up my bike in the friend's car when suddenly, with no prompting at all, the tube pops and the tire goes flat. For no reason at all. We were already cutting it close on time, so with no bike stores in the immediate vicinity to buy a new tube and with no spare ones of my own and no certainty that someone else at Perry would have one for me, I was resigned to the reality that there would be no racing for me that day. Instead, we found something else to do.

I'd be interested in learning why it just popped like that. I had just gotten a new tube the day before after I popped an old one on a huge pothole near the Kauffman Foundation, which I was forced into as I was avoiding a slew of cars leaving the parking lot and generally not following traffic laws.

So I'll try racing again next weekend. I was sorry to miss yesterday's race. Sounded like it would have been a lot of fun. I've been really looking forward to racing again.

Good things come to those who wait, or don't plan ahead.

On a related note, I heard today that there was an ugly wreck in the Category 5 race yesterday. Apparently some guy was on a new bike that came apart during the race. I guess he had some serious injuries and was out cold on the road for a while. To add to that, I heard a bunch of Masters racers bitched and moaned about the race being neutralized.

Think about that for a moment. A bunch of oldsters whining about their race being stopped so that a guy in serious need of medical attention can get some emergency care. If this is all true, it kind of makes me not want to race road. If this is all true, then I offer a sincere "fuck you" to the masters who selfishly complained about their race in light of a fellow rider going down hard. I really hope my source of information on this is incorrect, but I've been around enough cyclists to envision this exact type of scenario unfolding.

Race director: We're going to have to neutralize the race.

Masters rider: Are you fuckin' kidding me? We've got a race going on.

Race director: Uh, yes, but there's been a serious accident in the Cat 5 race and there's emergency personnel all over the course.

Masters rider: So? We're trying to race here.

Race director: Right. But it wouldn't be safe for you or the medical personnel for a race to continue going on while they're trying to help this fellow out.

Masters rider: Why can't he just get up and finish his own race so that we can continue ours?

Race director: He's been out cold and has multiple broken bones. I don't think that's possible.

Masters rider: But I wanna race now!

Race director: Sorry. You're just gonna have to wait.

Masters rider: Life's not fair!

Most of the people I meet in this sport are really cool, but there's some heartless fucks out there, too.

Happy President's Day!

There's a shopworn, tired story I've been telling about Valentine's Day this week, so I won't repeat it here. But nevertheless, I think I might not have noticed this year's passage of the Big Greeting Card industry's self-created holiday were it not for a cadre of married or otherwise taken men complaining about it. After 27 years of this holiday for me, I'm done caring about it. Here's why:

I didn't date all that much in high school. That's because I was awkward and invisible.

I didn't date a whole lot in college, either. That's because I thought at the time that long-distance running was really, really important. I made these silly rules for myself, like no hanging out with women past Wednesday if I had a track or cross country meet that Saturday. And if the Big 12 meet was coming up, I more or less put myself on lockdown for the two weeks prior. That understandably annoyed people and drove a few away. Now I can see how idiotic that was, which is why I now don't put my cycling ahead of too many things in life. I want to do well in my racing and I spend a fair amount of time at it, but not to the outright exclusion of other things I want to do. To do so would be to miss out on a lot of other experiences.

So by the time I got done with college, I was gainfully employed, living in a new town and thinking things were pretty good. But the one thing I thought was missing was what everyone else seemed to have, which was a nice, long stable relationship. Before long, that's what I had. For about three years, I was mostly involved with one person or another. Most of that time was spent with one person, followed by a couple of brief flame-outs and then a longish stint with someone else.

Come Feb. 17, I will have been single for exactly one year. And at this point in time, that doesn't really bother me at all. Some people, like S.C.'s girlfriend, poke fun at me for it, but no skin off my teeth. Relationships are fine. In fact, there's a lot of really great things about them. But it's not a big priority for me anymore. I sort of understand all the Facebook and Twitter updates lamenting the loneliness of being single on Feb. 14, but I say fuck that noise.

Speaking of which, check me out on Twitter, yo.

I celebrated Valentine's Day with a 40-or-so mile ride with Britton K., Chuong D. and Jason K. Britton and I rode Homeboy Bikes, which was a good decision. After several miles in snowfall, a few centimeters of ice built up on virtually every component of my ride. Even the bell stopped working. It was a pretty quiet ride for the last 10 miles or so. There were lots of frozen hands and feet, but I was glad we did it anyway. I don't think a lot of other folks I'll be facing this year were out riding today.

After a couple errands, I spent the evening with a plate of Gates, a few cold ones and Donnie Darko.

Happy Valentine's Day to me! Now listen to each of these songs.

Sandbagging and other things

Editor's note: Marcus S. was kind enough to help me redesign the photo on the top of this blog. I think it looks pretty cool — a great photo by Philip W. Thanks a million to both, and goodbye Graybeard!

A lot has happened since my last post, while at the same time nothing happened at all. Here's a rundown:

I got my ass handed to me in the third stage of Street Cred last Saturday. It was an urban 'cross race, so you'd think I could hang. But you'd be wrong. My steady decline in the Street Cred series is pushing that bamboo frame further and further back in my wildest dreams.

Despite that awful performance, I got called out on the Sandbagger blog. It didn't make much of an issue about me sandbagging. Before I go further, sandbagging is a phenomenon where cyclists run up a bunch of top finishes in their racing category and avoiding going up to the next frame where they would ostensibly get their ass handed to them. So instead, they race guys who they know they can beat just to collect cash and merchandise prizes.

While I had a few decent finishes in 'cross, I don't think any reasonable person would call me a sandbagger — although r5 doesn't seem to direct that claim toward me. But the sandbagger tag is getting thrown around quite a bit there. And it's kind of becoming an all-purpose receptacle for mocking the local cycling community, slinging mud at people for more than just sandbagging. And it seems to have people's attention. The post about me alone has almost 60 comments. Most online stories in the Kansas City Star don't get that kind of feedback.

The sandbagging blog has revealed a pretty ugly side of the local cycling scene. My problem is not so much with an anonymous person flaming people (although I can understand the frustration), but the way people are reacting to it. One guy seemed to go apoplectic in the comments to defend himself. And many others have done their part to fan the flames. The whole thing has gotten plenty of laughs from me.

That being said, it seems as though the conversation on there has evolved to a slightly more levelheaded tone in the last few days with reasonable discussions emerging about the actual phenomenon of sandbagging, to the degree it exists. I'm kind of mixed on the whole concept. I mean, on one hand, it's really lame to just beat up on people you know you're better than and avoid competing against people who are more on your level. That's like playing beginner's chess and winning all the time, knowing that you might face an ass-kicking if you head down to the Plaza and take on the hustlers. But at the same time, there is some merit to the argument that people getting smoked in races should just try to get better and try to take down these sandbaggers on their own.

Having said even that, I don't think there's much shame to getting licked in any amateur cycling event. A lot of people have jobs, families, other hobbies and distractions to keep them from training all the time. And some people just are not as gifted athletically as others. It doesn't mean they don't belong in the sport. If the Sandbagger blog has revealed another ugly aspect about the cycling scene, it's how much some people seem wrap their whole identities and feelings of self-worth into an amateur sport. Can you imagine how much better off our country would be if people devoted themselves to that degree to things like local government and schools?

Shifting gears here, I've been getting some good riding in around town. I'm sticking with the fixed-gear for these rides. Haven't really touched my road bike. Who knows whether this is actually helping me, but I do think it will pay some dividends in hill climbing, managing a high cadence and turning skills.

Shifting gears again, I was lent a book today that I'm pretty excited to read. It's called A City Divided: The Racial Landscape of Kansas City. It's written by an Avila University professor. As the title suggests, it's a book about the racial divisions in Kansas City. I've been pretty amazed at the level of racial segregation in this town. It was easy to notice when I first moved here five years ago.

I live in a relatively heterogeneous part of town, but if I go not too far to the east, it gets much less diverse in one extreme. And head a few blocks west, it quickly gets less diverse toward the other extreme. I have a general understand of how this all came about from the history of this city, but I'm hopeful this book will fill in many of the gaps. I'll review it when I'm done with it.

Lastly, I'm drinking a Boulevard Pale Ale as I write this. After drinking their IPA, Pale Ale just tastes watered down. It used to be one of my favorite beers. And still is. But Single Wide is tops.

Now, on to some music you need to hear. Lots of it tonight.

A shift in training paradigms

I once thought riding fixed-gear bicycles was a fool's errand, the province of idiots who fit the stereotypes of helmetless scofflaws with little to no regard for traffic regulations and who somehow flaunted their no-brake machines. This image was bolstered by once witnessing a rider without a helmet who nearly caused a car accident while blowing a red light and who had his hand wrapped around a PBR tallboy instead of around the brake handle that his bicycle lacked. But now I'm seeing the utility in these efficient, low-maintenance machines in not only getting around town and to and from work, but also as preseason training bicycles.

My first motivation for doing my January base mile routine emanated from a ride last weekend where my road bicycle got gummed up from miles upon miles of wet roads laced with sodium chloride and associated grime. This gummed up the parts and components to my ride, which was not easy to fix.

So Saturday, I saw the roads were still wet and nasty. Instead of striking out on a training ride with a magnet for these disgusting road compounds, I took the Sputnik out for about 25 miles out in Swope Park and then over to the tony neighborhoods of Mission Hills. It was a pleasant and efficient training ride where barreling down downhills was as much of a workout as pacing up inclines. Best of all, I stayed dry thanks to fenders while the Sputnik's downtube caught most of the brunt from the road grime. That's easy enough to clean.

On Sunday, I took it out again for what was an epic road ride with the better part of a dozen people, most of whom sported their road bikes. I didn't have much trouble keeping up with everyone else. We did a long, winding route that put us in Cass County before the weather turned nasty on us on the way back. We rode the second half of a nearly 60-mile ride into a cold and stiff headwind. Nevertheless, we kept a good pace, although the hills during the last 10 miles seemed to represent an unbearable task to make it to the top.

Regardless, I definitely got a better workout treading the miles on the Sputnik than a road bike. In some ways, it was a harsh and difficult ride, but in others, it was a beautiful experience. The forthcoming road season will necessitate more rides like these. Hopefully we can keep getting good crowds like the one we had today. It was a nice mix of cool people, even though it kind of splintered apart into different groups on the way back.

Either way, I'm planning on traveling the long miles of the base-build up of my training plan on the Sputnik. But sans PBR.