Masters Racing (All Disciplines) - Just hanging out shooting the bull

Hit the deck today. More details over in the 33 race report thread. There goes the first part of the season.

Hope you find out its only bruises...

Hit the deck today. More details over in the 33 race report thread. There goes the first part of the season.

Crap Racer Ex. I hate those stories. I concur with AZTR and hope its only bruises.

Crap Racer Ex. I hate those stories. I concur with AZTR and hope its only bruises.

I wish. More on the extent of the injuries "over there".

It'll be "interesting" to see how the healing process compares to when I was 25. Keep posting, I draw a lot from you folks.

Hi Racer Ex,

Just horrible. I'm amazed that you can type given what happened. Keep us in the loop with your prognosis. I was wondering about the comment that I saw that said you broke your back again. Now I understand. Leave racing in the pouring rain to botto. We don't get paid enough for this kind of ****.

Racer Ex, When you crashed, were you knocked out or do you know? The reason I ask is due to your nausea. Nausea is a symptom of brain trauma and considering your other injuries, I would not be surprised that your head took a hit as well. I assumed they checked that out at the ER. If your head or stomach does not feel right go back to the ER.

My wife and I are surprised that they let you go home from the hospital without at least one night of observation and a complete neurological check by a neurosurgeon.

Hit the deck today. More details over in the 33 race report thread. There goes the first part of the season.

Oh, no!!!!!

Racer Ex, When you crashed, were you knocked out or do you know? The reason I ask is due to your nausea. Nausea is a symptom of brain trauma and considering your other injuries, I would not be surprised that your head took a hit as well. I assumed they checked that out at the ER. If your head or stomach does not feel right go back to the ER.

My wife and I are surprised that they let you go home from the hospital without at least one night of observation and a complete neurological check by a neurosurgeon.

Really didn't hit my head much if at all; never lost consciousness, helmet doesn't have a scratch on it, based on a quick once over though I need to clean the mud off it. I think the near pass-out was a combination of my usual low post race blood pressure/HR, and a boat load of sudden pain. They did a CT to make sure there was no internal bleeding and several nuero tests including one for a concussion. All clear.

I pretty much walked myself in, hadn't taken any pain meds, and was bugging them to get done so I could go home and have dinner. I guess they figured the likelihood of my staying overnight was nil.

I actually slept really well last night. Couldn't sleep on the injured side and had to be careful how I rolled over, but without a lot of road rash I had at least a few comfortable positions.

Sounds more like a vasovagal reaction to me. I hate those, having had a couple.

Ex, I am glad you slept okay and I am relieved that you head is okay.

Had a nice 31 mile daily ride today. I ran into an old riding buddy on the first half of my first lap and ended up riding the remaining lap and a half with him. Did the ride two abreast so we got a lot of chit-chat done.

The weather forecast called for rain and wind both Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday, we got in a 2 hour time trial workout featuring threshold intervals. We went to the TT course, which I lovingly call wind alley. The wind was brisk in our face in one direction and the temperature in the high 40s. I started out with 58 mm rims and due to the strong cross winds, switched to a narrower front wheel. z4 efforts are always hard and today was no exception. The roads were partially dry but no rain.

Today, the roads were wet at 7 AM and the wind was 15 mph plus. Temps were in the mid 40s. We made a command decision to ride the trainer for 2 hours today. While I was getting the indoor peloton ready, my wife comes out with a bowl full of folded up papers and said to pick out two and whatever it said, I had to do. I said, I hope this is something sexual. No, she said that my picks will be my trainer workout for the day. She took a bunch of Roger's session from the LA track, printed them out and made these folded papers. I picked two and did not like one so I picked a third.

I got 4 times 30 sec z1, 1 min z2, 2 min z3, 30 sec z4, 1 min z2 and 2 min z3. The other was 4 times 3 min z3 and 3 min z2. After a 20 minute warmup, I did the first one total 28 min took an 8 minute rest and then did the other one which took 24 minutes. I took another 8 minute rest and then did the first one again. The total time was 2:10 which included the rest intervals warmup and cool down. Here I am looking like Arnold in the move Total Recall with a towel wrapped around my head during a rest interval.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/Trainer.jpg

Hi,

Way too windy today. Glad that I'm not racing locally today. ;) Hopefully I can motivate myself to do the trainer thing later (the photo of Hermes and Velo Diva is good motivation). Been doing a bunch of bike maintenance and will hopefully finish building my new commuter.


I was supposed to be up in the Bay Area this weekend for the California Senior Games. Long story cut very short; they postponed the races for a week and gave us an alternate event for qualifying for the National Senior Games. We can qualify via the Pasadena Senior Games in June. Decided to take them up on that offer for a number of reasons.

Next week I plan to do a circuit race at a new venue on Saturday and a hill climb on Sunday.

Racer Ex, hope the day-after finds you feeling better.

I made a request of a friend who organizes a lot of small-group rides for "climbing base" yesterday, since I wasn't racing. He responded that it was an oxymoron, but he understood what I meant. So 6 of us did a 65 mile ride with about 3.5K of climbing. I felt good: longest ride on the new bike so far, and everything felt great.

Rainy today, and I was going to stay in and do computer work, but there was enough of a break in the rain where I felt like I was wussing out, so I got on the Gunnar (backup/rain bike) and headed out. Rain did hit, and I decided that, yes, I really am a wuss. I turned around after less than an hour, and decided that was smart when hail started bouncing off my helmet. Neither the rain nor the hail really got going though, and I managed 25 miles without getting soaked.

This storm dumped a lot of snow in the AZ mountains, closing 180 miles of I-40 (Old Route 66 route through Flagstaff).

Only teammate who entered San Dimas DNF'd the road race: pulled after losing motivation/nerves and falling way off the pace. He said he "rode at the back like a scared girl" (apologies to the ladies on his behalf!), and was dropped on the first descent because he wasn't willing to push it when his brakes weren't braking. By all accounts, it was a real mess.

Got 75 miles in today of which 55 miles were a Cat 3-4 race. Huge field with 100 riders on 1/2 a road was trying. I was "trying" at one point and I got relegated by the moto ref to a spot 100m behind the field.:D I had a very hard week of training that totalled 21.5 hrs of riding and core/resistance and didn't expect too much for the first race of the season. I rode very strong and never was in danger of loosing the lead pack that kept getting smaller each lap. At times it was hard racing but I never felt like I was over my head. Just 4 years ago my racing goal was to finish in the field of a Cat 5 race.:lol:

The young Cat 3's and 4's are aggressive and it was near impossible to move back up in the pack once I was put at the back about mid-race. The pace was a pretty fast 24.08 ave for the first race of the season. At the finish there was probably 45 riders left in the front group with no one up the road. The finish had a 90 degree turn then a 1/2 mile stretch with a big cross wind, up a 500 meter hill then 500 meters of uphill false flat finish. I decided before the final turn that the sprint wasn't for me since I was so far back and to practice the finish that I might use next week in the gravel road race, since I may be alone or in a small mixed group. When we got to the hill I was near the back and the leaders were already 1/4 of the way up it. I powered up OTS passing some riders, then once on the flat I just rode TT to the finish and passed a few dying riders. I'm guessing that I was in the top 25-30 but it doesn't matter since I got the speed ride that I planned to do and am feeling really good about my fitness at this point of the season.

Recovery week coming up and I am looking forward to it.:thumb:

Got I was "trying" at one point and I got relegated by the moto ref to a spot 100m behind the field.:D

I've been yelled at for that, but not relegated yet. Patience is not one of my greatest virtues.


I had a very hard week of training that totaled 21.5 hrs of riding and core/resistance ...<snip>... Recovery week coming up and I am looking forward to it.:thumb:

One would think so!

As I am typing this tears are streaming down my face. What a horrible weekend (see 33 thread). It is times such as this that I could throw all my bikes into the sea.

I'm with you, Hermes. I was just telling my wife last night what a horrible run it had been, and how it was affecting me, only to learn this morning that it has been even worse than I knew. Awful.

Deaths are so rare in amateur cycling, which makes them hit so hard. I can't get this off my mind.

The report in the 33 is saddening. My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.

The xray tech was commenting on all my injuries past and present with that sort of "you should know better" tone. My wife and I were talking about this while I was waiting for my CT. She's been with me through my first broken back, through being airlifted out of a canyon, and narrowly missing being killed by a shark. She's heard all the reports of deaths and injuries in the various sports I've been involved in. Her takeaway was that she'd be more comfortable if I passed on racing int he rain in the future. That was it. I pretty much agreed.

6 years and 300+ races before this crash. If I hadn't taken cycling back up I would probably be on a bunch of meds for my blood pressure and the heart attack I was heading for (not so good family history). My brother recently had to put his dog down and I gave him my steadfast opinion on losing a pet, it's every bit as applicable to cycling:

There comes a time when you get presented with a bill for all the joy and happiness received. The bill can be terrible at times, but I've never felt that I was overcharged.

Similar discussion to one I had with my wife yesterday, when we finally found an evening for a long-postponed date-night. What I said to her was "You can never be safe, only safer." Our choices always balance risk and reward. Cycling is one of the two activities I've done avidly (Scuba diving being the other) that are not only clearly worth whatever incremental risk is added, but also provide something unique. You can't get what we get from cycling doing anything else, which is why, when s**t happens, we pick ourselves up and get back on the bike.

Got in a windy, chance of rain ride today on the C-dale Hybrid. Wind in the face on the way out and tail/cross wind on the way back
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/159676989
http://app.strava.com/rides/5445138

The xray tech was commenting on all my injuries past and present with that sort of "you should know better" tone. My wife and I were talking about this while I was waiting for my CT. She's been with me through my first broken back, through being airlifted out of a canyon, and narrowly missing being killed by a shark. She's heard all the reports of deaths and injuries in the various sports I've been involved in. Her takeaway was that she'd be more comfortable if I passed on racing int he rain in the future. That was it. I pretty much agreed.

6 years and 300+ races before this crash. If I hadn't taken cycling back up I would probably be on a bunch of meds for my blood pressure and the heart attack I was heading for (not so good family history). My brother recently had to put his dog down and I gave him my steadfast opinion on losing a pet, it's every bit as applicable to cycling:

There comes a time when you get presented with a bill for all the joy and happiness received. The bill can be terrible at times, but I've never felt that I was overcharged.

Right on.

Sorry about your crash; love your attitude; hope you have a speedy & complete recovery.

First night of the Putah Creek Smack Down (the site is down or I'd post the link. www.daviscycles.com/pcsd) 10-mi. out-and-back, pancake-flat TT practice, every other Wed. thru mid-Oct. This is my 4th or 5th year (won't know until the site is up again).

Tonight's conditions: Light breeze NW, humidity about 50%, 70-ish participants. I was #63 so the wind had diminished somewhat when I started.

I went off in a too-big gear, went out too fast, didn't use my inhaler, struggled for 3 miles to find my mojo. Too slow on the turn-around, then not bold enough (concerned w/breathing; felt like a big hunk of phlegm was in the way & couldn't rid myself of it); not in racing shape, blah blah blah.


End result: 26:53. Less than 2 min. than my best time from last year. I'm OK with it. I know I have work to do, but it's less work than I had to do last year.

Note to self: Bring the inhaler.

You have the highest Strava time for women except for a pro.

Hi, all. Haven't been here for a while. Finally did my first crit last weekend - brief report in the 33, which AZT was kind enough to read and comment on. Suffice it to say that all my experience of riding bikes, competing in endurance events, and watching bike racing failed to prepare me for the crit experience. It's a bit like reading a book on the theory and practice of swimming. It all makes perfect sense until someone throws you in the water.

I'm not nearly as fit as I had planned to be, either. At the start of December I came off on some wet cobblestones and broke one, or possibly two, ribs on an inconveniently-positioned bollard. So much for all the base miles I intended to do that month. And in the first week of January, on the very first serious ride following that injury, I hit an invisible patch of black ice. No bones broken this time but so much trauma to my right glute that the bruising was still emerging down to my calf more than two weeks later. I was hobbling around like I was overdue for a hip replacement. So all in all, about seven weeks of winter training went straight up in smoke.

Still, I have had some pleasant ways of trying to make up for lost time. In February I went (for the second time) to help my coach run a training camp in southern Spain for young racing cyclists. Ten days and over 400 miles later I was beginning to feel a little more like myself. The kids were great, too - a dozen or so 13 -17 year-olds, some very talented and one - a 13 year-old girl - whom I confidently expect to see featured in Cycling Weekly in a very few years. Absolutely phenomenal for her age.

Another crit coming up on Saturday. Hopefully I'll have my wits more together this time. And then a short 40km 4th cat road race on Easter Monday. That should be more my style...

Chasm54, Congrats on first crit.

Motorpacing at the track on Tuesday and met my wife yesterday for a lunch ride up Mount San Bruno. On the warmup ride to the base, my legs felt like crap and once I had to tell them to shut up. When we started the climb, the wind was stiff and in our face - this just keeps getting better.

Another crit coming up on Saturday. Hopefully I'll have my wits more together this time. And then a short 40km 4th cat road race on Easter Monday. That should be more my style...

The good thing about crits is that there a lot of them, so you can quickly forget about the last one an plunge into the next.

I'm sure that training camp was great. We have three really promising kids racing on our team, and they are also just great kids overall. It's fun to watch them succeed in cycling at the same time they are learning about life. Our 17 year old just moved up into Cat 2, and has already done well in a couple of Cat 2 races, even with his restricted junior gearing that has him often turning 150 rpm. Kid is really fast.

Boom


http://vimeo.com/38948271

I've had the need to drive to work almost every day this week, so my riding has been limited to our Tuesday night crit, and commuting yesterday. The crit wasn't as fast as some weeks. Last week there were 6 Cat 1's riding, and the pace was blistering. This week it only got really hard once, and I chose to drop off for a lap rather than totally redline it. I hopped back on and was fine the rest of the way, only dropping off as we came around the last lap, since I hadn't earned the right to sprint.

Saturday I'm a volunteer ride-marshall for our Tour de Cure Diabetes charity event. I'm doing the 80 mile route, and will stay up front to yell at the fast folks who don't move over to let cars past. Wups... I mean I will make sure "everyone has fun and stays safe". And I'll help with any flats. If I know the guys who'll be up there, and I do, it will be a pretty quick 80 miler. It's a pretty flat course. I'll do solo base on Sunday.

Sadly, our racing season has only about a month left. :( I may be a real "Zonie" and invade SoCal for a race or two. Looking at the Barrio-Logan GP in San Diego.

Boom

Wow... what a great video. Thanks Hermes.

One of the concepts that has been explored here in Arizona, to fund getting a track built, is to capitalize (pun intended) on Indian gaming. Let folks bet on the races. Human trackies would replace the greyhounds. :)

In Japan, that's called the keirin.

Double boom. When done right, this and the Team Sprint are incredible.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UX10vzP4TZ8

Double boom. When done right, this and the Team Sprint are incredible.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UX10vzP4TZ8

The Brit team pursuit squad is phenomenal at the moment. If they don't win the gold at the London Olympics this summer I think there'll be a national day of mourning.

Double boom. When done right, this and the Team Sprint are incredible.

Opening lap at 20.2 seconds with succeeding laps at 14.4 seconds or approximately 37.8 mph. The final lap was 14.18.

Here is the women's 2011 team sprint gold medal final UK v AUS. I like that team Australia is using Scatto 3T bars which I recently purchased for this event and possibly for the 500 meters and I think Victoria Pendleton is hot. Women have two racers per team and the men have three. In this case, the first racer pulls off in an exchange zone where the objective is to exchange at the last possible moment within the zone to offer the second rider the most drafting benefit. There are specific rules governing the exchange with respect to distance and up track separation. If the exchange is not made correctly or out of the zone, the team is DQed.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzoMeBSF-mI

I don't think this photo of the athletic form is inappropropriate, and I'm hoping the board agrees:

Victoria Pendleton
http://olympicgirls.net/sport-girls/victoriapendleton3.jpg

I like this one.:p

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/victoria-pendleton-6.jpg

Vicky P is interesting. Personally I rather regret her decision to do the nude pictures, she's certainly a wonderful physical specimen but I'd rather that gifted women didn't feel they had to market themselves in that way. It savours too much of half-naked girls draping themselves over cars at motor shows. Others may disagree, it's just my opinion.

In any event, she's a hell of a cyclist, a wonderfully fluid technician who regularly outperforms more muscular opponents in the sprint. She has inner demons, though, she is surprisingly underconfident and prone to black moods. I suspect that it will be a relief to her to give up competition after the Olympics this summer. Hope she wins, though. I suspect she will lose out in the sprint but that she and Jess Varnish might win the team sprint.

Hey, it's tough to make a buck in the minor sports, and I have no problem whatsoever when people use their natural talents for financial gain, whether that be brains, athleticism, or looks. They are all part and parcel. Lots of nude studies have been published of olympic athletes, both male and female, and I see nothing demeaning in it. It's a celebration, and I applaud what these top-of-their-sport athletes have accomplished by pushing themselves.

she is surprisingly underconfident and prone to black moods.

Trust me, that pretty much covers a lot of folks who compete at that level. Fear of failure is a great motivator. One of the hardest things in sport is to be sitting on top of the heap, get knocked off, then claw your way back.

Wish I had video of it, but here's a pick from our winning Team Sprint ride at 2010 Master's Nationals. Can't find the non-watermarked pic I bought at the moment, props to Willshoot for his great work.

242351

Trust me, that pretty much covers a lot of folks who compete at that level. Fear of failure is a great motivator. One of the hardest things in sport is to be sitting on top of the heap, get knocked off, then claw your way back.


The man knows.

One question from a non-trackie. In the team pursuit, why does one of the guys take longer pulls than everyone else?

The man knows.

One question from a non-trackie. In the team pursuit, why does one of the guys take longer pulls than everyone else?

Stronger riders take longer pulls. In putting together a team, it is unlikely that all riders will have equal ability. So to keep the stronger riders from blowing up the weaker ones by increasing pace, the stronger ones take a longer pull. Part of practicing as a team is to get the right order and duration of pulls to optimize time. Sometimes, there will be a lead out racer who takes 2 or 3 pulls and then stops when he pulls up. The remaining three complete the race. This is typical if one of the racers is more of a sprinter and does not have the endurance to last the entire race.

Every year our club has a speaker from velonews talk about covering the TdF. He is a former member and racer. The pressure to get interviews and racers to produce results is immense. And news media managers have themes and story lines that they want the reporters to follow that in most cases the racers do not want to support. For example, Velonews wanted to know whether Lance was going to compete in a mountain bike race and develop a story. The problem was to find a moment on Lance's time during the TdF when he wanted to talk about anything other than the TdF. He was nice enough to talk about his plans at a mountain top finish. However, that is a rare case.

Thor, the God of Thunder, did not want to grant an interview one year because he had no results to talk about. He did not want to answer the lack of performance question.

Quite frankly, I do not like the lack of performance question nor do I like to discuss things that are not relevant to me at the time. Who does? However, that is the life of a professional athlete. Some handle it better than others and most reporters love the darker side of competition. No matter how great winning multiple world championships, setting records and winning Olympic gold is someone will want to point out a dark side. People want to focus on the negative.

You have the highest Strava time for women except for a pro.

Really? I had no idea.

:D

That makes me happy to know. Thanks for making my day!

Thanks Hermes.

I love some Cav interviews, as he tends to tell it like is without worrying that much about repercussions:

“200 kilometers on Belgium’s worst roads. All ok. 15km from finish, peloton’s riding easy and a d—khead throws a bottle in my front wheel. Crashed hard.”
He added that all new racers “should take a written and practical test to get license.”

Raced the Barry Roubaix in MI a 36 mile gravel road race with 2,000' + of climbing. It was roller after roller with some sandy hills just to make it harder. Over 1,500 racers with 80 in the 55+ race. Rode well even though it was my first gravel race. The first 5 miles was like a crit then it became a long TT to hold my position. I'm the fat dude in white.

http://i489.photobucket.com/albums/rr256/sru75/b26a95bd.jpg