Wow, so after all my whining about my back on Friday….I had a great Friday, Saturday, Sunday’s worth of riding and racing.

As mysteriously as the back pain came, it just as mysteriously went away.

Friday night, sometime after I had composed the previous post, I slipped out for a ride with Jon S and CJ over at Hains Point, just to loosen up the legs for Saturday’s race.  It was the perfect pace, just toodling around chatting, nothing extraordinary about the ride until the very end.  For most of the ride, the sky was unusually dark and ominously cloudy, but sometimes a dark cloudy sky is just a dark cloudy sky and passes by harmlessly….so until it starts sprinkling, I don’t even think too much of it (except to always have a little ziploc baggie to stash my iphone in).  Anyway, after peeling off from the other two guys and heading home, I noticed the wind started to pick up and I ended up with the craziest little tailwind heading from the 395 bridge along the Mt Vernon trail up toward the airport.  As I was riding along effortlessly at 23-4mph, I looked over my shoulder and saw black and brown tornado-like clouds.  I was clearly on the leading edge of the storm.  It was just as though I was trying to outrun it.  As I neared the airport, a jet slowly descended in to land (the bike path comes within 50 feet of the runway with only a little chain link fence in between, so the jets literally fly less than 100ft above your head when they land)….but, just he passed over my head, maybe 80-100ft up, his wings started rocking back and forth like crazy and seconds later, the pilot gunned the engines full on and pulled back hard up into the sky.  It was actually pretty cool to see.  Probably not for the passengers who probably felt like they were on a roller coaster ride…but it was cool for me.  So after seeing this pilot respond to the storm that was pushing me home, I figured it’d be a matter of just a few minutes before I’d get blasted by hail and driving rain.  I crossed my fingers and started hammering as much as I could….watching the dust blow around the bike path and the brown clouds bear down on Crystal City.  I kept waiting for that first little pitter patter of drops before the merciless wind and sideways rain…..hoping I’d have just a minute more.  I got within 100 meters of my building and felt those first few drops…..and after really gassing it to get in under the awning of my building…..the rain started to pour, and sure enough…an absolutely brutal maelstrom raged for the next 30 minutes.  I looked out my apartment window at the tree limbs snapping and the crazy wind howling….so grateful I didn’t have s soaked bike to prep for the next day’s race.

So besides escaping Mom nature’s fury, I was also very very happy with the way my back felt on Friday.  After being achy all day at work and feeling 90, I went for that ride and felt more like the [slightly less than] 30 year old I am.  That gave me a lot of confidence for the following day’s race…..not so much in terms of fitness, but at least in terms of pain-free competition.  I still found a reason to self medicate with a few Belgian ales before bedtime however….

….which of course meant that I woke up at 5am on Saturday extremely dehydrated and not all that enthused about the 2.5hr drive I had ahead of me.  Its always those first 10 minutes out of bed that are the hardest.  I can’t help but ask myself: why am I about to spend my Saturday morning in the car?  Oh that’s right, I’m driving 200 miles each way so I can pay to ride my bike 25 miles…..that’s why.  So I got in the car and made the tired drive up to Lancaster county.  I have to say, I really dig the Lancaster area.  Its basically like a mini-Belgium.  Its got the same kind of rolling topography, epic farm field vistas (not the boring flat Indiana corn field vistas, but more the Belgian kind that rationalize my pilgrimages).  To top it off, the sky was a perfect blue mixed with cumulonimbus clouds….the kind that would make for a great generic desktop wallpaper landscape.  I also got the timing down. I wasn’t there 2 hours early and sitting around on my hands (like previous races), instead I was a perfect 1 hour early, just enough time to get my registration packet, chug some more water and coffee, and do my 30 minutes of warm-up on the trainer.  I lined up at the start and realized that the field was unusually large for a Cat 5-Only race - there were nearly 50 of us.  So right from the start, I knew it’d be a challenge to stay in a good position for the finish.  With a strict center line rule, the entire race was a fight to stay mid-pack or better.  There were 4, 6 mile laps with lots of twists and turns and a finish that opened up into 2 lanes for the last 1km.

The first two laps were pretty mellow and I tried as hard as possible to stay really really conservative.  I saved as much energy as possible and tucked in behind people with the least sketchy bike handling.  Mid-way through the 3rd lap, I started to work toward the front.  I jumped on the outside and launched myself up to the top 5-6 guys and started to ride pretty aggressively to secure a spot in the top 10.  Toward the end of the 3rd lap, 3 riders on a local team made a coordinated break and I jumped in with them.  Being without any teammates, I figured if I just mooched off them and refused to do any work, it’d maybe get us caught earlier than if I pitched in, but I’d at least be toward the front of the peleton on the final lap when we’d most likely get caught.  Well, we got caught pretty quickly going into the last lap, and so I was left fighting pretty hard for position in the last 3-4 miles of that lap.  Just before the finish, about 1.5km out, there was a little hill that spread out the field on every lap…..every lap except the last one that is.  I was really hoping that the hill would enable me (sitting somewhere around 15-20th wheel at that point) to jump on a strong rider’s wheel and leech myself a lead-out.  On every other lap, it looked like that would be a perfectly viable strategy.  Unfortunately, the field remained much too clustered for me shoot into a good position and instead, the top 20-25 riders (top half of the field) just went nuts into a totally chaotic and extended sprint about 1km out.   Keep in mind that 1km is where folks like Cavendish and Pettachi start sprinting for the line….NOT Cat 5 racers.  It was a really weird finish because nobody appeared to have coordinated anything with anyone else, on behalf of themselves or otherwise.  It was just this long drawn out sprint with everyone for themselves from whatever position they were in after the hill about 1km out.  So I sprinted my balls off and managed to move up to 11th place, totally fighting the wind, with presumably horrible form.  If there were 2 or 3 riders working together well, they probably could have delivered the world’s worst Cat 5 sprinter to the line for the win.  95% of my team was busy running a Maryland race that our club sponsors and so wanted to race, this was my only last minute option - hence the lack of any team to coordinate with.  So anyway, I can live with 11th out of 47-8 riders.  Not my best day, but not my worst either.  One thing is clear though.  I really “need” to get a race bike if I’m to make this a regular thing.  The Lemond, as money as it is on nice long training rides (i.e. super cushy and compliant), it felt like a wet noodle in the sprint on Saturday.  It was the first time that I ran the bike through a 110% effort at peak power and it wasn’t pretty.  Since Saturday, I have been poking around on eBay for a cheap used carbon or aluminum frame - something really basic, not a long term frame by any stretch…..I’m thinking a Fuji Team or something on that order.  Just something to race the rest of 09 and maybe the spring of 2010.  I’ll post up some possible frames this week, maybe tomorrow’s post

oh and yesterday was indeed Ride 126, and was pretty much just a recovery spin around D.C.  Ok, enough blogging for now….more on the pending frame swap soon!

I might as well re-name the blog again….to something about perpetual aches, pains and injury.  After splending plenty of time dwelling on my knee issues, I told myself I would limit bitching to intermittent posts….  Well, thats easier said than done, especially when you are sitting in your office chair with a back that feels about 100 years old.

Remember the villain in that cheesy Bruce Willis movie about superheroes “Unbreakable“….Samuel L Jackson’s character, the guy that is as fragile as glass (or something like that)….thats how I feel lately.  Just when I thought I was heading down a path of moderation and balance, splitting my time between sessions at the climbing gym (upper body and core strength) and moderate road rides (aerobic fitness and lower body strength)…..I end up feeling like a cripple.  This is the first time in my life that I’ve ever had “back pain,” and I now see what all the fuss is about.  Its pretty much the most debilitating kind of pain you could have.

The good news here is that I think the source of my pain is muscular in nature, which means that I should feel better within a week or so.  The weirdest thing is how it just randomly assaulted me almost a full 24 hours after my climbing session.  After a pretty mellow night at the climbing gym on Tuesday, I found myself getting stiff in my office chair late Wednesday afternoon and by that night I was having trouble sleeping, struggling to find a pain-free posture in bed.  Yesterday morning I was feeling even more pain left wondering what in the hell I had actually done to myself.

The timing of this is a bit ironic.  After my great ride on Monday night, I got all stoked to do a few races before my Ukraine trip in late July.  Then, not being able to contain my resurgent enthusiasm for competition, I registered for the Brownstown Road Race up in PA this coming Saturday.  That was probably about 4 hours before I started to feel the stiffness…and the downhill spiral of pain that ensued.

So now I’m registered to race in what will probably be an accomplishment for me to even participate in.  Last night, I got out on ride #123 to see exactly how bad my back would feel come Saturday.  Interesting enough…..my body position on the bike is one of the few positions I’ve found where my back doesn’t feel like hell….more of a purgatory-like discomfort.  Of course when I stand and pull back on the bars (i.e. to climb or sprint)…then I feel it.  So the question is whether I can limit myself to as much mellow pack riding as possible, while still having a shot at a decent finish.  We shall see.

In other news, the rider that inspired me to turn up my intensity on Monday’s ride….was rewarded by having his bike stolen that very night.  What a disturbing coincidence it was for me to get an email on Tuesday morning from my team’s listserv, on behalf of some guy’s friend who it seems….was the very rider that I was trading pulls with on Monday night.  The only reason I can be sure that its the same guy is on account of the detailed description below that matches my mental catalog of his setup….

Here’s the email:

Hey NCVC,

I’m forwarding this on behalf of a friend at GW who just had his Ridley
stolen. Please be on the lookout for the bike described below.

-Eric

—– Forwarded Message —-
*Sent:* Wednesday, June 24, 2009 12:49:07 AM
*Subject:* [gwcycling] Stolen Bike - Ridley Excalibur

Tonight my car was broken into and my bike stolen. This happened around
11:00pm on Tuesday June 23 in Crystal City.

Please be on the look out for the following bike description:

2008 Ridley Exaclibur Black and Gray Size Medium
Sram Red shifters (custom painted with blue accents)
EA70X tubular wheelset w/Green Vittoria Pave Tires 25mm
Sram Force derailleurs, Sram 1070 Cassette 11-26, Shimano Ultegra Chain
Campagnolo Chorus Carbon Compact Crankset Ultra-Torque, 175mm, 50-34t
White Fizik handlebar tape (left hand side dirtier than right)
White Fizik Aliante saddle carbon rails
EC90 Zero seatpost 29.4 w/shim to fit 31.6

Can you imagine having that setup disappear from your car?  I’d be sick.  I can only hope that he has homeowner’s insurance to cover the cost of a replacement.

Lastly, I’ll bring this post full circle and touch on the “lost rides” that didn’t get posted, and how the remainder of the season looks from my point of view.

Most of you realized pretty quickly after my Race #5 (the Baker’s Dozen) meltdown, that I had devolved into a (gasp) recreational rider and lost a lot of my mojo for posting about bikes or getting all hopped up on gear - hence the “lost rides”.  Being far to vain to descend head long into a beer gut-double chin destiny, I got in the occasional ride, and joined a climbing gym to keep from getting too bummed out (somewhere in there was the sale of my Seven….more on that in the next post).  I saw myself lose a lot of threshold fitness pretty quickly (and the science supports these personal observations….if you don’t train/race near/above threshold, your threshold naturally lowers).  On the other hand, I still felt pretty good aerobically speaking, going out for 1-2 hour 18-22mph rides without much of a problem.  The climbing gym was another story.  The years of upper body neglect were shamefully evident (at least to me), when I found myself burning out after an hour or so and struggling to stay focused on progressing to more respectably challenging routes.  So even as I contemplate a bigger mix of cycling and some increased focus on competition (I still want to get up to Cat 3 within the near future), I don’t see myself neglecting my upper body/core like I have in the past.  Interesting enough, I think one of the reasons that my lower body is so often out of whack after lots of riding….is on account of horribly weak core muscles that provide my lower half minimal stabilization.  This is something that a sports doctor mentioned years ago, and something that I plan to pay a lot more attention to.  With normal core workouts being pretty boring, I’m hoping that climbing will be a far more interesting way to help balance out my body.

OK, so why the interest in riding more and getting back into [some] racing?  What was wrong with the 1-2 rides a week?  One contributing factor, and a funny one at that, is the “Presidential Fitness Challenge” program that some folks at work have setup.  Beginning on June 15, some colleagues signed the company up for the Presidential Fitness Challenge, gave us all login IDs and formed a management team and a technology team, pitting us against each other over a 6 week period.  Each team has the same number of employees (about 20) and we each earn points based on our activity level.  If you’re not familiar with the Presidential Fitness Challenge, its the offspring of the high school testing that everyone remembers from their teen years (the mile, the pull ups, etc.).  In our challenge, we log our activity and each employee accumulates points based on what type of activity they did, how intense it was, and how long they took part.  So there’s no mile or pull ups, but rather a big long list of different sports and outdoor activities.  Me being me, I got pretty fired up about this and took it upon myself to log 4-5 multi-hour rides in the first week to see where I’d stand within the company.  The result?  After the first week, I ended up with 6-7x the point total of the average participant, and scored more points than most of the technology group combined.  Pretty hilarious.  I consider the whole thing to be kinda silly and unscientific, but its nonetheless stoked a tiny competitive flame deep inside me, left smoldering after the Baker’s Dozen.  This contest at work is obviously designed to promote health and well-being, to get people walking during lunch, etc.  Its not intended to increase amateur athletes’ average training time from 8 hours to 12, but I’m just rolling with it anyway. The top three participants get a prize and being a greedy bastard, I’m going to dominate the contest and take the prize…..even if the prize is a $25 Applebee’s gift certificate, I can probably buy a few beers with it…..or stand in the Applebee’s parking lot and trade it for $20 cash.
Anyway, the most significant realization behind my refocusing on cycling, is that I’ll never (in absolute terms) enjoy, or be as good at any other sport as much as cycling (both road and mountain).  The rock climbing scene has really taught me a lot about how hard it is to learn the skills and physical fitness that I quite often take for granted when it comes to bikes.  I look around at other climbers and I feel ridiculously humbled at how novice I am and I get excited about the smallest little bit of progress I make, with very little of it coming naturally.  On the bike however, everything feels extremely natural…..like a conversation with an old friend.  Even though I’ve spent plenty of time in my teens and early 20s screwing around with different climbing disciplines, I never broke through the culture/skill barrier and became a “climber”.  So even though I’ll never be pro, or even Cat 2 for that matter….the saddle is home.

Looking back on this prolific post makes me feel really f#$%ing neurotic……holy smokes.

Anyway, I said there’ll be pictures and there will be…..soon.

Upcoming topics:
Selling the Seven (no regrets!)
Bikes that I’m targeting for late 09 or early 2010 purchase
some random reviews

Ok, so I’m gonna skip all the explanations as to why I haven’t been blogging and cut right to tonight’s ride summary.  I’ll do a longer post tomorrow when I’m more motivated.  Right now, I just wanted to get back in the swing of things while I’m still stoked from the ride I just finished.

Soooooo, Tonight was supposed to be a chill 60 minute “recovery” ride….

didn’t happen.

A guy in a GWU kit flew past me on my second lap at Hains Point and I couldn’t stomach it.

I reeled him back in, and then found myself cranking out another 3 laps around Hains Point trading pulls with the guy (who was obviously really fit…maybe a Cat 2-3 rider).  We were upper 20s the entire time, including about 25-26mph into the headwind on the exposed side.  I almost barfed up the 1000kc meal I wolfed down immediately after getting home from work.  It turns out that pork goyzas, dark chocolate, and milk do not mix well prior to a high intensity ride.

ok, tomorrow I promise to try and provide a recap of where the hell I’ve been for rides 106-121, discuss the bikes I’m scoping out as I plan my “comeback”, touch on some upcoming races and the silly President’s challenge competition at work.