For A Good Cause

I have a friend and fellow teammate who is riding the MS150 this year. He has chosen to ride on Kate's(my wife) behalf. follow the link to his blogspot and read Kate's story and if you can give, please feel free to do so.

http://somethingclassicinkc.blogspot.com/2011/08/bike-ms-im-riding-for-kate.html?showComment=1314113450460#c4672128380867139438

How Far?

Sunday July 31,2011 was Volker bicycle's 100 mile Grand "Fundo" ride. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to be at the shop by 5:45am. I decided to ride my bike from home to the shop. I had packed the night before and managed to fit everything I would need into the three pockets of my kit and my saddle bag. light had just started to sneek out into sky when we all set out for Lawrence at 6am which was our out and back point. I have had my bike for over a year now and I have had the same bottle cages for that same amount of time but for some reason this is the day that the front one decides to pop off with bottle in it and all and go rolling down the road just about 2 miles into the ride. I stop and pick it up because I knew I would need 3 bottles of water and not just 2,this would turn out to be a very wise choice. I was able to get the cage to pop back on without having to unscrew or screw in anything. I work like mad to catch back up to everyone. We are going at a pretty good clip and we get maybe another 10 miles down the road when we go over a set of railroad tracks and you guessed it, the cage comes off again. I once again grab cage and bottle and snap back on and I look up and can't seem to see anyone down the road. I didn't really know the route to get out to Lawrence but figured I would wing it. So I continue alone heading west. I reach Bonner Springs within the hour and I just happened to look to my right and I see a group of cyclist that were with the ride just starting back up from taking a bathroom break. I speed up and latch on for the remainder of the ride. There were 7 of us total and we all worked well taking turns pulling. Up until now the ride was super flat but now begins the "rollers". They weren't too bad but I would certainly feel them on our way back.When we were about 10 miles from town some guy in a SUV came to a rolling stop at a stop sign and because of the sun he claims he couldn't see us so he started to speed thru the intersection, he suddenly sees us and slams on his breaks causing a rider to stop short and the guy behind to go down. Luckily no one was hurt.We arrived in Lawrence just after 8am and we rode thru town and stopped at a gas station to refill our bottles, stretch, and eat. At this point I had 48+/- miles on my computer. I felt great and I was ready for the 48 or so miles back.  The sun was up higher in the sky but the temps were still tolerable. They were calling for 97degrees plus the heat index for the day. 8:30 am and we start our way back home, about 35 to 40 minutes into the ride one of the riders has a blow out so we stop to repair in the shade. She gets the new tube in and we all roll out again when no more than 5 miutes later she has another blow out. This time she takes her time to really inspect her tire and realizes that her side wall has a slice in it. Aubree suggests to use a clif shot wrapper to patch the hole. She said to put the wrapper between the tube and the tire on the inside of the tire, they do so and put everything together. That darn thing held the whole way home with out any other problems. At mile 83 we stopped under a bridge to check on someones tire and while we sat there I began to feel pourly. We were all low on water so we found the nearest gas station and filled back up. I took some sport beans and a packet of "Emergen-C". I was amazed at how well I felt after that. We made it to the shop at 12:00pm. The sun was blaring although it would get hotter into the day. Pot-Pies restaurant and Volker bicycles had pasta and vegetables, fruit salad, and Cokes waiting for us. Most of the other riders took a longer route and they did closer to 115 miles for the day because of a couple closed roads/bridge. After eating a little and sitting in front of the fan to cool off I decided to ride home. By the time I got home my computer said 97 miles. This was by far the longest ride I have done to date, I have done numerous 65 mile rides but never this many. I am glad I did it and now look back at the first time I tried doing 18 miles and how far I have come from bonking at 18 miles versus bonking at 83 miles. I am still a little impatient with my progress but when I look back and think how I smoked for 18 years and was 30 pounds heavier just 1 and a half years ago, you know I am not doing too bad.

Thank you Britton for putting this ride on and thank you John from Pot-Pies for cooking the food. Who ever supplied the Coke, I thank you the most!

It's too hot

It has been triple digits hot here for over a week now and not much cooler than that for a couple of weeks before that. The heat is really starting to wear me down. I managed to get a ride in last night. It was about 120 degrees with the heat index. My car read 103 at 6pm and 98 degrees at 8:15pm. The last time I got on the bike was 6 days before that. That is not a very good thing, but my mind and body was not into it like it usually is. I decided to listen and stay off. I took the opportunity to take the bike in for complete tune up and I also cleaned her up. I hadn't realized just how dirty she had gotten. It is amazing how happy it makes me to clean the bike up, it almost feels like I just got a new one.

I haven't been writing or riding much lately because I have become a little discouraged. I wasn't very happy with my turn-out in Topeka. I really thought I was going to do much better than I did. So I have decided to take it a little easier until I get all gung-ho again. I have also been spending a lot of time with Lucy. She is almost 3 months now and all smiles.

Cross season is only a couple of months away. With that means cooler temps. I can't wait to see how well I do this year in cross.

What A Waste

This past weekend was the 4th of July weekend and we had my brother and his girlfriend visiting from Florida. This was a great opportunity for me to show my brother what cycling is all about and why I am so enthralled by it. They were flying home on Sunday the 3rd so that meant that I had to race on Saturday instead. This weekends venue was the Tour of Lawrence. I love this venue simply for the amount of spectators that come out and watch the races. It is two days of racing, Saturday is a campus circuit and Sunday is a downtown crit. Last year I did the crit and managed to finish last. The funny thing is that my results were never posted to my rider profile on USAcycling, not sure if this a good thing or a bad thing. The campus circuit is the toughest race I have ever done, it has several climbs with one long one at the end of the course about 300 feet before the finish.  I know that the pros did a total of 9,000 feet of climbing in their race. If you read my blog you know that I am not made for climbing, but since I have been doing my hill intervals I know that I did better than I thought I would. My race started at 10:00am so I knew it was going to be an early start to the day since it wasn't going to be just me driving out. We managed to get there and set up with only about 15 minutes to spare after I checked in and pinned my numbers on. This is not good. I had no time to warm up at all. A friend of mine on another team who had just finished his race offered to show me the course and all the "bad spots" in the pavement. We thought we had enough time to ride the course, well this turned out to be a huge error in judgement as I missed my start time by at least 45 seconds or so. I managed to make up 12 positions out of 47. If I think about it, this is pretty good for me considering that I never had the protection of the peloton and all the climbing that was invloved. I am just dissapointed with myself for missing my start time. No telling how well I would have done if I had just been in the front of the start line. I only have 2 more races in my road schedule this season and then it is cross training for me.

Crit-Schmitt!

I have not done an official race since before the baby was born. I decided to take the time and train more and to be sure to be home if needed. I had set my sights on this past weekend of racing since it was as local as it was ever going to get. The 48th annual Tour of K.C. was this past weekend and there was racing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I was only able to make Sunday's race since I spent Friday and Saturday camping with my nephew for Cub-scouts. Sunday was a hot day and by the time it was my turn to race it was even hotter. Most of our team was there, we must of had at least 20 riders in the Colavita corner. I think as a whole everyone did pretty well. Our one womens rider won both of her races. We had a mens cat2 finish 2nd on Sunday and I mens cat4 finish 4th on Sunday as well. I on the other hand didn't do as well as I thought,  but it was because I wasn't racing smart either. At the start of the race, I was sitting in the front 3 riders and not pushing myself too hard, really just sitting comfortably. After 3 laps of sitting there I decided to pass everyone on the climb and pull the group, but instead of setting a comfortable pace for myself I was trying to go a little faster. Not really sure why I did this other than I had my whole team watching and I have been improving a lot lately so I didn't want to dissapoint, if that makes sense. Then I start to fade fast and the heat started to affect me and my energy level dropped really quick. Not sure if I remember much after that other than I kept yo-yo-ing with three riders fighting for 19th place. I finished 20th because I thought there was one more lap so I didn't try to pass just before the finish and to be quite honest, it seemed pointless to fight for 19th place. So if I sit back and reflect on what happened I would basically say I blew my wad too soon. I should have just sat back and let everyone else do all the work and wait for the perfect time to go off the front like with one lap left. Oh well, you live and you learn. I am such a rookie. Any ways, This weekend is Tour of Lawrence and I am racing Saturday morning. This race is a circuit race with a tough climb right before the finish. Let's see how I fair with that.

Here is a link to a video of the mens cat4 race on Sunday. The course is dubbed "Citizens on Patrol"  http://exposureroom.com/members/chuongdoan/648637d47ea84f0ab1c94df86a32c3c6/

Are YOU positive

I've had to change my cycling schedule up a little, I now ride early in the mornings on both Mondays and Tuesdays. I get up at 5am on both days. Monday I have been doing Cliff Drive's gooseneck. This past Monday I talked myself into doing it 10 times. My first race ever was on Cliff drive and I had to do the gooseneck 4 times. I didn't think I was going to be able to do it and that was with being able to recover on the remainder of the course. 10 hill repeats one after the other, only being able to rest on the way down was a good gauge for me to see my improvement from last year. Tuesdays I do a short out and back from my house in the morning, about 7 miles. Most of the way back is all incline and I try to keep my intensity high. My weekly training schedule is as follows, Monday and Tuesday mornings, Wednesday and Thrusday evenings, and Saturday mornings. That is about 9 hours of training a week. That is going to have to do for now.

I have been feeling stronger on the bike since my last post. The positive talking and phsyching myself up has really helped. I have even been known to talk out loud. Some of you left some great comments on your own experiences with this subject and I took them to heart. Last Saturday I rode 60 miles with the a few teammates and felt great for most of it. I even surprised myself at how well I was riding among guys who are a higher "Cat" than me. It can be a lot of fun when you see improvements and even better when your teammates notice too. It has really helped to light a fire in my motivation as well.

Most of you know that I do both road and CX seasons but I am not much of a mountain biker or a gravel grinder. This year I have decided to do Joe Fox's Farm House Classic. Satruday July 16th, 2011. I am being told that this years route is 90+ miles. I have a single speed cross bike and have some reservations on this. Not because of the 90 miles but because of 90 miles riding single speed and it being on gravel. 7 other team members will be joining and it should be a blast. I will be sure to take plenty of pictures and post them as soon as possible.

Whatever you tell me to do drill sergeant!

This is something I have been thinking of writing for a while. I was spectating at one of the Perry Dam races. A few of us were sitting on a guard rail watching the women race. At one point in the race there was a small group of riders maybe 3 or 4 of them pedaling up the long inlcine, I took real notice of the second to last rider in the group because she was crying, that's right she was crying with her mouth wide open and everything. I can only assume she was crying from the pain she was going through on the climb and maybe to stay with the pack. That image has stayed with me and I frequently replay it in my mind. I admire that person. She wasn't about to surrender to the pain just yet. I am also jealous of her, I surrender to my pain way too easily. My pain has control over what I do, it constantly puts limitations to what I can and will do. Don't get me wrong, I have improved from the time I first got on a road bike, I am much faster now than ever before but I feel like I could be faster and I could improve quicker if only I would be willing to quiet the little voices in my head that tell me to "slow down", and "why do you even bother", and "is all this pain really worth it". Without pushing myself too far from my "Comfort Zone" I will improve slowly. Last night at Thursday Night Worlds, There came a point where I was trying to jump back into the group, I was really srtuggling to latch back on when I heard a fellow teammate Joe say something like " dig deep James, push yourself". That gave me the extra little push I needed and I was able to hang-on for a few laps. I only wish I always had someone right there coaxing me a long. Kind of like a drill sergeant breaking me down only to build me back up stronger and faster. That is one of the main reasons why I ride with guys who are all faster than me. This forces me to push myself. I am very lucky to have joined a team that does nothing but encourage its teammates, no one has a bad thing to say and I genuinely like everyone. I am going to try and start working on that little inner voice from now on and see if I can't get it to become an optomist.

If you see me out there and I am struggling, don't hesitate to yell some words of encouragement.