Cleave

sarals, I might try Sea Otter after I retire. My only real reason to try it will be to race on Laguna Seca (Mazda Raceway). Either Sea Otter or I'll take a race car driving class there.

shovelhd, sounds like a lot of fun and hard work. I think the TDI is the best "green" engine out there short of a hybrid system.

Since our sprinter got injured earlier this year and with the decline in racers in our club (they quit racing, didn't move to another club), I have been solo a good chunk of this year. Might have to start looking at other clubs for racing (I got awarded a lifetime membership to my current club last year).

Anyway, last week was a racing-is-the-best-training week. Three races through yesterday (Sunday) as my calendar starts on Monday.

Tuesday, Park2Park Race Series (AKA Eldo)
My confidence level has been in the dumpster this year and after taking a weekend off of racing after my abysmal San Dimas showing, I needed to do something different at Eldo to get my feet under me again. Eldo is the only race where I end up having some teammates, but most of them just hang in the pack. My younger teammate tries to motivate me through intimidation <JK>. He said, "I want to see you at the front this whole race."

I decided to sort of do that by marking the leader of the biggest team in the race. Interestingly, another loud guy from that club decided to try "coaching" his teammates -- chase him, block, etc -- while the guy I was marking was managing his teammates more sedately. Anyway, I was working for my younger teammate and he got into a promising break. Unfortunately, I couldn't control the pace enough to keep them out there and as the break was getting caught, someone in the break counter-attacked with another guy from the big team and they stayed away. I tried keeping the pace up on the last lap so that we wouldn't end up with a repeat crash from a couple of weeks ago. My teammate was 2nd in the field sprint (4th overall). I might have rolled across DFL.

Saturday, Curt Sutliff Memorial Santiago Canyon Time Trial
So I'm playing with my TT bike until after midnight (Friday into Saturday) trying to get my setup right after having my LBS install some 165 mm cranks. Got to the venue on the late side after getting up late and saw Hermes and Velo Diva. Hermes was playing DS and mechanic for Velo Diva. I got myself together and started warming up on the road. Started hearing an interesting grinding noise. Inner chainring is rubbing on a set screw on the chain stay mounted rear brake. Also see a wobble on the large chain ring. Determined that there was nothing I could do about it so I rode to the start line about 2 minutes before my start time.

Still couldn't get my fat a$$ up the 4.6 mile hill but I was flying on the remaining 6.5 mile downhill. Per the computer I was over 40 MPH for a 0.3 mile stretch and was pretty close to 40 MPH a couple of other times. Ended up next-to-last, about 20 seconds faster than a month ago, and 50 seconds slower than Velo Diva.

Hermes keeps telling me he'll take my Shiv off my hands since it's obviously a slow bike.

Post race I took the bike back to the LBS. The owner-mechanic played with the BB30 shims for a while. I kibitzed a bit (I know little about BB30 bottom brackets) and right now I think it's good to go. The inner chainring is a little lighter.

Sunday, L.A. Circuit Race (Masters 55+)
My club used to co-promote this race. Roughly a 4-mile loop on either side of a 2 mile stretch of divided "parkway" with some gradual climbs. About a 50-rider field with a couple of teams well represented. Women Cat 1/2/3 field started about half a lap after us and I think their race was faster than ours. Our first lap was pretty slow (confirmed by computer data). I attacked on the "climb" on the 2nd lap. Had a decent gap when one of the Rockform guys (a friend) came flying past me. Wish he'd yelled something as he was approaching. Then Ex's ex-teammate, Kal, went by. I got back into the pack and then there were some more attacks and counter-attacks. At the end of all that, Kal and a different Rockform guy are up the road for good for the remaining 3 laps.

I kept looking for an opening to try another attack but I got caught behind a stupid crash (saw the whole thing) and after chasing back on I couldn't get myself into a good position without a lot of effort. Also, I kept wondering why the other big teams, who didn't have people in the break, weren't chasing.

I was actually in a good position going into the final 180° turn but there were the usual kamikaze antics going into the corner and I came out of the corner in the back 1/4 of the pack. Tried moving up on the very gradual and short rise leading into the downhill sprint but the speed was high and everyone was spread across the road. Finished right behind former Junior World Sprint Champion and Racer Ex's teammate, Gibby Hatton. At least I was in good company. I should have tried to sprint around him.

I felt about as good as I have in a race this year but the race was definitely on the slow side.

Epilogue
After that race I went to the velodrome to volunteer. Got to watch Hermes and Velo Diva do the 4 Km Team Pursuit (Hermes was the only male on the team -- he's smart that way) and the 2 Km Individual Pursuit. I was holding, running the start gate (for the first time), and doing lap cards. The guy doing lap cards on the back straight messed up a couple of times and I was getting a bit flustered as I was wondering if I was wrong (I wasn't). Then there was a stretch where people were only starting on the front stretch and I got myself confused and messed up with a rider who I know -- doh! Managed to get everything right after that. I've done lap cards for 100+ lap Madison races and never made a mistake. I managed to screw up on an 8-lap individual pursuit. Must have been low blood sugar.

Hermes

Cleave, Thanks for volunteering and I am glad you got my lap cards correct!

LAJ

As much as I detest coalburners, you made a good choice, shovelhd. I don't think I've heard much of anything bad about those from around 2011 on up.

LAJ

Nice race report, Cleave! Nicely done.

shovelhd

Great racing Cleave.

shovelhd

revchuck 

Congrats to the team!

Cleave

Great photo!

shovelhd, you look like the skinniest guy on the team.

Yesterday, I was the smallest of the three holders for the team pursuit. For the first team pursuit I ended up holding the biggest rider. For the next team I said, "I'm holding the smallest rider this time."

The smallest guy on the team comes up and I asked, "How much do you weigh?"

He replied, "127 lbs."

He was about my height and 20 lbs less than I.

Racer Ex 

Nice pic!

gsteinb

I did some math on my drive down to NC. In the 20 bethel masters races over the past 3 years, we won 10 of them. I added a P123 win, and didn't get around to counting the assorted 2nd and 3rds yet.

It was a good run indeed, and since the buzz is that it might be the last spring series race there I was really geared up to win that last one on Sunday.

shovelhd

I know what you mean. I have two published race wins, as in my name is in the race program, on the website, and in the media kit. They are both very dear to me. Out there for all to see, every year.

Cleave, let's just say I have a classic cyclist build, and some of these guys have a classic criterium build. Some of these guys have very impressive resumes, racing non stop since the early nineties.

revchuck 

shovel - The president of the local association (LAMBRA) has a RA of 62. He's also part of the club in NOLA that I belonged to last year. I asked him when he had started racing, and he told me it was during the Nixon Administration. I'm told that last year he logged 11,000 miles on the bike. Some of the guys we race against...

sarals 

That IS a great photo, Shovel! The trophy looks especially good in Gary's hands.

Cleave, fun reading! I get the impression that we're somehow channeling each other. That has to stop

LAJ

Awesome picture, and great racing. Very nice, guys.

Hermes

That is a great pic. We love pictures of teams with first place trophies. Like a lot.

gsteinb

little known fact: the circumference of both my thighs equals my height.

Hermes

I have long legs and long arms. If my height equaled the circumference of both my legs, then I would be a small midget.

Dalai

Track season is over, but am still racing Tuesday nights on the boards for training.

Last night at DISC first race guy in front of me went down coming out of the turn into the back straight (still can't figure out why) and I went straight over him for a full height somersault. Landed heavily on my left shoulder - not a mark on the helmet but the end result is a broken collar bone!

All is aligned so they suggest the conservative approach and just sling. Any hints on recovery, when I can at least get back on the trainer etc would be much appreciated! Bloody hurts moving so I'm finishing breakfast and back off to bed...

revchuck 

I feel your pain, literally. I broke mine two weeks ago, but mine was considerably messier than yours and required surgery and a plate. I'd wait a while before I did anything that might put pressure on the collarbone...like climbing onto the bike on a trainer. I have an appointment with my doctor on the 23rd, and hope he'll okay my getting on the trainer then. That would make it just under four weeks for me, the wreck was on March 29.

The nurse who treated me at the emergency room told me that if what I'm doing hurts, stop. I've been following his advice.

LAJ

I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune, Dalai. My advice is to not go conservative, and get that thing aligned, and plated/pinned.

revchuck, if your dressing is off, and you can take a shower, you should already be on the trainer.

I'm full of opinions tonight, and I do apologize.

Dalai

Appreciate the advise revchuck and LAJ. Had to firmly request getting the x-rays, so will look for a second opinion.

revchuck 

LAJ - An old guy with opinions? Say it ain't so!

Dalai - The fact that you had to "firmly request" an xray and the doctor wanted to just put a sling on it argues strongly for a second opinion. I certainly don't think much of the first. The unofficial consensus here seems to be that the surgery promotes better and quicker healing.

shovelhd

Find a sports oriented orthopedist. They will know best. I did the sling thing and it was a long and painful road back. I was on the trainer in 5 days managing the workouts by pain. I raced again after a bunch of weeks, 6-8 or so. I had bone pain for a year. This was when I was in my 20's.

Racer Ex 

Teton had surgery on his in Feb, similar situation as far as the first doctor saying he didn't need surgery.

For broken vs. cracked collarbones I don't know of any racers who haven't gotten surgery. I'd look at recovery time for the two paths, I'd bet that surgery is a quicker healing process with a better outcome for long term alignment. I think both Shovel and another client went old school and both ended up with "lumps".

L-arginine and glutamine are worth considering as supplements during the healing process, the former enhances HGH production which has been shown in several studies to speed bone repair. Both are WADA compliant.

If I was a non-WADA beholden person I'd just go find a source for HGH. Use of HGH for this purpose varies from country to country, but it's another situation where the health of a recreational athlete is secondary to having "clean" parking lot criteriums, as if this is happening in any case.

These are just things to explore, do your due diligence. Sorry to hear it.

revchuck 

How to Speed Fracture Healing

I read through this, sounds pretty good.