Richmond International Raceway Cat 3/4 Race

I have really enjoyed this race for the simple fact that we tend to have large fields.  In the past 2 years we have had 100+ in the Cat 3/4 race, this year was smaller but still had 60+ riders start the race.  Of those 60+, two of them were from Virginia Beach Wheelmen.  With only two of us we know we would not be able to 'control' the race, but we still really wanted to race aggressively.

John Gray and myself got in a good warm up:

Photo taken and enhanced by Dan Gibson.

We lined up ready to go, and we needed to be ready:
 

Photo taken by Dan Gibson

This seems to be a hard course to get away on, but I didn't want to rely on history, so if it looked good, and we missed it, I was going to chase it down.  Right off the bat, Jake King and a rider from Richmond Velo Sports took off and got a little gap.  Jake is always dangerous off the front and since Richmond had like 15 riders in the race, I figured they could shut things down if needed.  I chased it down.  The chase down told me my legs were feeling pretty good.

I'm not in the best shape yet, but John has been having a stellar year so far.  The thought was this, if we missed a break that need to come back, I could chase it down before it got too far out.   If the pack did not go with me and I caught them, one of two things could happen.  If I felt good, join them.  If I didn't think I could stay in the break, then I would slow them down and break them up.  John then kept an eye out and attacked to join or establish breaks in the hope to get him away. 

With just a handful of laps to go, a small break was up the road.  It was close enough that we should be able to catch them on the run into the finish, but far enough away that if we didn't make the move they could slip away.  With 2 laps to go I decided I needed to attack to chase them down.  The pack would either come with me and give John a chance to sprint for the win, or I could join them and sprint for the win myself.  As I approached, two of the three riders gave up, but the third, Kristian from Fat Frogs, kept going.  I was catching him, but it was taking a lot out of me.  As we rounded the first embankment on to the back straight away the pack caught us.  John was near the front and as the pack slightly slowed, he attacked.  It was a good move to try and go for the win.  The pack reacted and I was unable to get back into the top 10 riders so decided to just sit up.  It was a good move on my part considering the riders that went down in the second embankment.  John's move put him in great position, but it was a little too long and he was swallowed at the line but still managed a 10th place finish.  I came across, safely, in 47th place.

Our moves didn't pan out in a win this week but we were proud of our racing.  I have told John that you must want the win more than you fear the loss.  Of 60+ riders in that field, even the non sprinters think they have a chance to win or place high if it finishes in a field sprint.  That is why a lot of times the fly away move with a couple laps to go will tend to work, because no one wants to sacrifice themselves to catch that late move, even when they have teammates.  For us, a win by one is a win by all of us.  No one on our team has a problem with sacrificing for the team.  We know that sometimes, if you want the win you have to go for the win and not just settle for a field finish.  That is what we did this weekend.  Both John and I made our moves to win the race, it just didn't happen, but we can hold our heads high.

Race Review: Snowball Crit #1 A-Race

This year there have been a number of early season training races.  However, for the Virginia Beach Wheelmen, the Snowball #1 was our first of the season.  John Gray, Tim Shockley and myself represented VBW, each with our own specific goals.  For me, build confidence.

It has been a rough cycling year for me.  Fighting my back injury meant inconsistent training.  Whenever I thought I was good to go, I would have to take some time off.  My off season pretty much consisted of high intensity cross training on the Concept 2 rower and Versa Climber.  I rode as much as I could but limited most of my training to solo rides or team rides.  My fitness level is good, I have been posting some decent power numbers.  My weight is a little higher than what I wanted but that is because I didn't do much in the way of long base miles.  Overall I really didn't know what to expect from today's race.

I decided that I needed to finish today's race in the pack.  I wanted to get comfortable in the pack, in the turns and really work on shifting gears and accelerating out of the corners.  This training race was just that, good training.  I had not ridden in a pack since last racing season.

John Gray has really been training well and was using today's race to see how aggressive he could be and attempt to establish himself in a break.  I kept an eye on his efforts and moved to the front to help cover or block when he made his moves.  Some of the breaks he got in had some serious promise but unfortunately he missed the winning break.

Tim, much like myself, needed this race to establish a level of racing confidence that he has lost by not racing much in the past few years.  He did well, moving around the pack and even putting in an effort or two at the front.

John ended up in 6th place and Tim and I rode in somewhere in the pack.  Although it may not sound impressive, it was a victory for all of us.  We know what we can do, now we need to show how far we can push ourselves. 

I am already looking forward to my next event:  Snowball Crit #2 A-race.

The Bike Fit

For those that have been following my posts, you know that I have been dealing with injuries for the past year.  It has essentially been low back pain, though the origin of it is more complicated.  I have come a long way, but not healed yet.  One part of my recovery was to make sure that I was sized properly on my bike.  I wanted to be sure that my bike was not adding to my problem.

In mid-December I went to East Coast Bikes in Ocean View to have Iesha Shipp size me.  Iesha is a certified bike fitter, plus with her extensive knowledge of anatomy (yoga instructor), she was perfect to be able to get me set up properly.  After an extensive interview she took notes and measurements on my body, including my flexibility ranges.  Aaron assisted Iesha by taking all of my current measurements I had set up on my bike.  After all of this I got on the bike for rest of the evaluation.  With no changes to my set up at this point, this is what I looked like (take a minute and look at these photos before scrolling down, can you tell what needs to be changed?  Leave your guess or opinions in the comments):

Seat height?  GOOD
Plumb line?  GOOD, slightly back but within a good range.
Stem height/angle?  That needs to be discussed.

The best picture to see my problem is probably the first one.  It is not an issue with my bike, but its an issue with how I ride my bike.  You always hear that you should keep a flat back.  Do you know what is meant by that?  Where does the flatness of your back originate?  What should have caught your eye is the angle in relation to my saddle that is made with my sacral.  It is essentially straight up and down.  The back bends at the lumbar, thus not creating a flat back.  Not only is it non-aerodynamic, but it has put a lot of pressure on my back.

If everything on my bike is good, how then should we fix this problem?  The answer is to learn how to ride differently.  When I told my teammates about this issue, Tim Shockley told me that his former coach, Peter Teeuwen used to always tell them to roll their hips to put their sacral at a 45 degree angle.  Its funny, been riding for decades, no one ever told me that before.  Its hard to evaluate yourself so most of the time, things like this go unnoticed.

Ieasha thought that a different stem my make it easier for me to transition.  Using the stem adjuster, we tried it out:

Better, but quite awkward.  In reality, it was not going to be easy to change riding position, because any change would feel strange.  I just had to bite the bullet though and make a conscious effort.  We put back my original stem and I tried it out:

 
Here is a side by side:






I would like to report that prior to getting this fit done, my back would hurt and my left foot would go numb within 30 minutes of my ride.  After consciously changing my riding position, I have not had any foot numbness on the bike.  My back pain is not gone completely, but it actually feels like a tiredness not a pain.  Because of the change in position, I need to strengthen and stretch certain muscles before this because really comfortable.  It gives me a lot of hope that my issues are going away.

The bike fit that only dropped the nose of my saddle down a hair, seems like it could change me as a racer.  Thank you Iesha, Aaron and East Coast Bikes.

Please feel free to leave opinions and comments, I would love to hear what you think.

Recovering From Injury--The Good Side of Getting Hurt

I have thought about writing this post for a little while but I was hesitant for a couple of reasons.  First, I didn't want to make it absolute public knowledge that I was still trying to recover from an injury.  Secondly, I wanted to wait long enough to actually have results to share.

When I was first thinking of a title for this post I thought about "The Good Side of Being Hurt".  I changed it from "Being" to "Getting" because being hurt sucks regardless how you look at it, however after you recover from an injury, many times you could look back and say that getting hurt was one of the best things that could have happened to you.

There are really two types in injuries in sports--traumatic and overuse.  Traumatic injuries are the result of an acute stress that causes injury.  These injuries are usually unpredictable and tough to prevent.  The recovery form them tends to be quick (relatively speaking) and may even give the athlete a much needed break from the sport (no pun intended).  Overuse injuries on the other hand are caused from a chronic stress that causes injuries.  These are usually pretty simple to predict and can be prevented if caught in enough time.  The recovery from these are long and many times extremely frustrating.  These are the injuries that I want to talk about.

Overuse or chronic injuries are usually the result of a muscle imbalance or improper training (usually leading to a muscle imbalance).  These imbalances are, in most cases, tough to recognize until they start to hurt.  I am going to use my injury and time line as an example.

In February of last year, on my 35th birthday, I was doing a plyometric strength workout.  I woke up that morning with a little ache in my lower back.  I had the "I'm not old and this is not going to stop me" attitude.  Near the end of that workout I was in a lot of pain.  By the end of the day I couldn't stand up straight or move very well.

In the next couple of months, I stretched out a lot and felt like I was making progress.  I also, at home, installed new flooring in my entire downstairs and built a deck in my backyard.  Both of these projects seem to reset my pain.

Well into the racing season, I was not willing to take time off the bike to work this injury out.  It seemed not to bother me much riding (so I thought).  What it did do was flair up every couple of weeks and force a week off of training.  My season was very inconsistent.  I finally went to the doctor in which they said I had a bulging disc in L5/S1.  This was diagnosed by a specialist but not confirmed by an MRI.  I was given physical therapy which helped tremendously.

After physical therapy, many of my symptoms were gone, but not all of them.  I decided to take the CX season off and really work on recovery.  This is when I was able to really take a look at myself and find out what was wrong.  My body was not properly aligned.  I decided to try a chiropractor just to see what that was about.  It was not bad.  He definitely had an understanding of the body and was able to really point out my imbalances.  I went for a couple of weeks but really did not feel much different.  My problem was really due to a muscle imbalance, and I felt that until I corrected that, the chiropractic adjustments wouldn't hold.

I had a colleague of mine at the gym help me evaluate myself (its tough to find imbalances on yourself).  We determined that I had a forward rotation of my pelvis probably a result of weak hamstring muscles in compared with my quads.  The numbness that I feel is probably the result of a pinched nerve (sciatic) due to piriformis syndrome.

Over the past few weeks I have really focused on posture.  Changing your posture is tough and could feel a little goofy at times.  I told my wife her job was to evaluate me and remind me to tilt my pelvis back and have everything aligned.  Then for my training, I have pretty much stayed off the bike because it bothers me a little.  Since I am aware of my weaknesses I can fix them.  My strength training this year has included a large variety of work that I have not done in the past few years.  Most of the things that I dislike (which is probably why I was weak in them).

Currently I still have my good and bad days, but there are starting to be more good days than bad ones.  I think I will be ready for the racing season.  Without this injury, my weaknesses would have gone unnoticed.  The strength training and cross training that I have done has put me remarkable shape.  The only thing I am missing is miles on the bike.  I will get those.  Just remember that out of injuries comes a better more rounded athlete.  Stay positive and stay motivated.  Fighting through these issues have made me a better athlete, a better coach and has really improved my mental toughness.  That is the good part of getting hurt.

The Hunt: Redemption

Went hunting again. After my first experience with hunting I had to go out and redeem myself. Last year I didn't get a shot. This year was my first attempt with a crossbow. Here was the result:

It is Either on the Trainer or in the Rain

My plan this morning was a group ride but the chilly wet roads deterred me from that. Then I thought how about the trainer? Final decision was Mike and I on CX at First Landing.

Now Mike just showed up and said he forgot his shoes. Intentional? Maybe but we are going back for them.

Thank You East Coast Bikes

I just wanted to say thank you to East Coast Bikes for their support over the last year.  When we were in need of a bike shop, they stepped up and really full filled our need.  They are also sponsoring the Cyclocross race we are holding in November.  Look them up the next time you need something.