Putney West Hill Race: 11.9.08

I don't know jack about training really, and with the USGP coming up this weekend in NJ I was going to train hard after Noho right through Putney, then take it easy this week to be ready for the races in Trenton. I'll have to ask someone someday if you can effectively build, taper and rest in a 5 day period... Probably not. When I didn't get to ride other than last Wednesday, I decided to take it re-engineer it as a "rest week," an effort to try and make myself feel like I had some sort of handle on it all. Whatever.

So into Putney I go plenty fresh and feeling good physically. The course was the same as always but the top half much more slick than I've ever seen it and the corn field much more dry than before. The section after the downhill and before the field was the trickiest, and my pre-race prediction of carnage in that spot came true: I went down in warm ups and again for good measure on lap one along with another rider. 

The elite men's race paid 10 deep and there were 10 of us. Everyone gets paid! Half way through lap one the top 5 guys were gone. I had crashed and was just behind Toby Wells and Colin Reuter. I rode back up to them in the field and the three of us were together for an other 3/4 of a lap until Colin laid it down to the muttled delight of the "crowd" gathered behind the shop. I think Toby got held up behind that because I ended up in 6th all alone for three laps. I could see that the gap to Toby was pretty consistent for the first two of those laps and I thought that I'd rather just ride it in from here anyway, I wasn't really in the mood to race. The pain I had in my back at Gloucester came back a bit, but I don't recall it hurting the entire time so it must have gone away.

At 5 to go I could see Toby gaining on me. The "crowd" was cheering for him pretty loudly as I was going by so I knew he was getting close. He caught me near on the corn field at 4.5 to go and I wisely sat on. I'm sure it ticked him off but that's bike racing, you've got to play your best hand and mine was to rest as much as possible, keeping it close until the finish and then see what happens. He tried a few attacks but I was able to respond to each of them. With 5th place 30 seconds ahead and 8th well behind, it was a two man race between us so I wanted to let him do as much work as possible. 

At the bell I think I led on the run, but Toby was by me around the barriers when I missed a pedal. He took a great line through the first right hand turn and got 3 bikes on me. This had happened before and I had been able to make it up between the shop and the descent, but when I got loose around the shop he got another 4 bikes and the gap stuck. I was riding hard in the field to bring him back but he was going just as hard to stay away. 

It was a good race, but really long. We did 10 laps total and I was gassed. Karen got 3rd in the abbreviated women's race.

What a cross bike should look like.

I 

New Direction

With just Putney on the schedule this weekend and the USGP in NJ next weekend, I'm looking at the next few weeks as a training block for Sterling which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Putney is so much fun, taking that race too seriously can ruin your day and your race. The past two years it has been bone dry in the days before that race, yet somehow Putney is always greasy. Trenton will be the last weekend of racing away from the family and with a different mix of competitors, the pressure is off a bit. I'm really looking forward to the second half of the season.

So what to discuss... how about our recent election. I never understood why politics is such a hot button for so many people: being an employee of a large fairly, stable, and by nature risk averse company (insurance) probably insulates me from the volatile issues somewhat, but as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate a few things about politics and how people react to the political process.

1) Discussing politics without divulging your particular political tendencies is nearly impossible

2) Anyone who chastises someone else for being a radical is most likely just as radical in the opposite direction.

3) Post election I don't believe for one minute that the loosing party feels that the winner is "their President."

4) Two parties cannot possibly represent the full spectrum of political ideology. It leaves all of us with some degree of compromising to do.

5) The industry of politics is much larger than it should be. How much money did these two guys spend on this election?

6) How Central Mass became the home of bass fishing and country music is beyond me. Admittedly not political, well sort of political, but just something that has always puzzled me.

Was I successful in keeping my political leanings hidden?

If not, then you probably guessed that I supported Barak Obama. To my fourth point, neither candidate really got me excited personally. There is one issue that is enormously important to me: public education. 

I cannot for the life of me understand why educating our future isn't the most important thing on every single American's mind. I mean every single American. Generally we love our kids, right? Some people struggle with that, I understand, but ask 100 parents what the most important thing in their lives and 98 of them will tell you that it is their kids. Why aren't teachers the highest paid jobs in our society? Why do we have to count on someone's good nature to take a job with substandard pay to teach at schools where they spend the majority of their time being parent's to kids who's mom and dad are working 80 hours a week and sending them to summer camp after summer camp? I'm bleeding over into another topic that gets me excited... the rampant consumerism that drives Americans to chase the brass ring at the expense of the human relationships that really do matter. Moms, Dads... one of you stay home with your kids... or at least be there when they are. Ok, back to education.

Imagine a society where teaching jobs were highly sought after, and candidates had to keep coming up with new and creative ways to communicate with and challenge their students. Where teachers were motivated to continue to improve not because of the specter of standardized testing but because of the love of the craft and the rewards of a satisfying and prosperous career. Where programs like music, art and physical education weren't cut, but were overflowing with resources,  exposing kids to culture and personal performance beyond that which is contained in the program of a hand held gaming device. Where schools were glimmering cathedrals to learning, not make-shift over-crowded relics of a generation ago. Schools should have money sailing around their halls and shooting out the chimney like leaves blowing around the yard on a dry and windy autumn day.

Why this isn't the basis of our society cannot be explained rationally to me. 

So I start there, and while Obama won't get us to that place we have to make compromises come election day (again see point #4 above). Every other social program supported by the democratic ticket is of little to no importance to me, and were it not for this one issue I'd probably vote Republican every time. 

The overhead that comes with voting for the Dems is worth it.

The only other issue on my mind this election is the war in Iraq. I feel it is time to bring our soldier's home. For them, their families, and for the sake of our country's global image, which has been damaged perhaps beyond repair.

Race reports to start up again next week.

Cycle Smart Day 2: 11.2.08

There isn't much better than two days of cross racing at the same venue. No travel (assuming you find a place to stay), a course that is familiar and strange at once, and usually much better turnout in terms of racers and beer vendors. Day 2 of the cycle smart international was a much anticipated race on my schedule, I was sure JD & AHM would come up with something great.

The boys didn't disappoint. The course was laid out on the same foot print as the day prior, but it played out completely differently. There was only one transition between the lower and upper sections per lap, meaning you rode all of the bumpy roots in one shot and hit all of the power field sections in another. The loose run up was gone, replaced by a climb up the down hill from the day before. The prior day's ride up was now a high speed descent that launched you over the rail road tracks. The barriers>paved path>finishing straight were the same, but that was about it.

Map (ignore the red line heading out of the park counter clockwise... I forgot to turn the GPS off as I left the venue): 

My warm up consisted of sitting on my arse in the sun to try and stay warm. Someone said it was 26 degrees out, sounds about right to me. A full inspection of the course revealed that the start was going to be a problem, it got tight within the first few turns and having a problem there could ruin your race. I was not optimistic with my 6th row position on the grid, but I was going to try and move up as much as possible before things got tight, which would be about 15 seconds into the race. 

At the whistle I missed a pedal and the field roared by. I got moving but was well back just like yesterday: hugging the left side through the first few right hand turns and riding face first through the tree that got me the day before (glasses on this time... and every time from here out). As we approached the tightest section of the course I was behind JTFerraro, and our outside position on the far left became an inside position as we approached a sweeping left hander around another pine tree before the fast descent. Riders to our right were trying to cut into our line and I yelled to Jeff "be aggressive!!" but he got slowed by someone who beat him to his spot. When he tapped the brakes, I had to, and a moment later as I got back on the power my rear wheel slid out in the greasy soil and I was down. Running to remount I had fallen back further into the group and was now solidly placed in the tape-to-tape cattle drive of mid-pack racing.

Down the hill and over the tracks, the enormity of the task ahead hit me. The leaders had already reached the far end of the course, turning to make the return trip back. I picked of at least a dozen guys in that section, moving up to find a fast wheel to jump on for the long pull across the lower field. After a trip down and back and about 1/4 way through lap one Colin yelled "you're 34th!" Really?! Based on the number of guys that I passed and who was around me, I thought I would have been right around 20 by now. It was going to be a long day. 

I made a sweet move up the left hand side of the ride up on lap one and after a few more efforts was in the high 20s by the start of lap two, when I formed a group with a Battenkill rider and a guy from Benidorm. We were chasing Paul Curley, Bob Bisson, Aaron Millett, Chris Borrello and... you guessed it... Mike Rowell. 

I was trying to swap pulls with the two guys I was with, but they had "issues." The Battenkill rider was suffering from some sort of short term memory loss, he just couldn't figure out the course. Maybe he was mixed up from the race the day before, that's happened to us all, but a lap or two and you have it all figured out. Not this cat. He'd sprint out of a turn and directly into the tape as the course would turn again. Next lap, same thing, same spot. He did it for three laps in more than one area of the course. It wasn't bike handling, because he was pretty strong technically through the turns where you could see which way the course went up ahead, but if there was a turn that went around a tree, it was like the guy was riding on ice.  Whenever Battenkill would get in front to take his pull, he'd over cook the very next turn and I'd have to go to the front again. The Benidorm guy's problem was that he was simply skipping his turns. The group with Mike Rowell and Paul Curley was riding just ahead this entire time, not getting any closer, and I was getting tired from a good portion of the work. I lamented to my group that there was no way I could bring the guys ahead back by myself, I needed help.

Half way through lap 4 I noticed John Meerse gaining on us. Help was on the way. 

John reached us at three to go and put in a massive sprint on the start finish stretch. I knew he was the ticket up to the group ahead, and while I didn't catch his wheel I kept it close enough that I was able to catch on with some selective braking going into turn one. John is strong, and there were four or five slower turns before we hit the fields that would represent my last chance to enjoy the scenery and realize something of a rest. I know full well what was coming when we got down the hill. 

John led us down the hill and into the field and turned it up to 11. The next 35 seconds were the hardest I've ever ridden a cyclocross bike. I was in his draft and struggling to stay on. We caught the group ahead 1/3 of a lap after John joined us and I was pretty happy just to be there. John went straight to the front of course and rode away with Curley and Millett to chase Bisson who had slipped away. 

We tooled around for a lap and the Battenkill rider got a gap at the pavement with one to go that he held to the finish. He almost picked up Curley, who couldn't hold on to the Meerse freight train. Mike Rowell and I were sharing the work at the front of our group of four with the Benidorm guy still skipping his turns and Borrello trying to move to the front through the corners. Mike lead into the lower fields and through the sand then tried to ride it and bobbled. That leaft me on the front with about 2/3 of a lap to go.  Onto the lower paved section I fought to hold my place from Borrello who clearly wanted to lead into the final few turns on the field section. As we approach the ride up, I felt the surge coming from behind again, so I blocked a bit and held onto my front spot going up the hill.

This was all going well, but I knew that there was two long paved sections to finish this race and the weak finish I put in yesterday still stung a bit. Being on the front for 4 minutes leading into something like that isn't ideal, the guys behind would be resting where they could, and surely they would beat me in sprint.

But I decided that today would be different. I decided to harden up a bit, lead through this entire last section, lay down the sprint of my life, and make them come around. Leave it all on the course.

I rode as fast as possible through the final rooty sections, trying not to brake at all so I didn't have to spend any energy getting back up to speed. My pal Ken (who put in two monster days marshalling a course crossing while freezing and out of the sun.. thanks Ken) yelled "c'mon Matt drop this group!"  

I didn't drop anyone but could hear from the brake's on Mike's carbon wheels that he wasn't the one directly behind me. We came in hot to the barriers: 

Borello's front tire buzzed against my rear through the turn right after this, and I tried to keep the speed high with as little effort as possible. Making the turn onto the pavement, there was 150 meters to go. The next 25 seconds were the second hardest I've ever ridden a cross bike, and no one came around. I ended up 23rd.

Years ago I played golf quite a bit and more than once I heard people talk about how one good shot, no matter how badly you played otherwise, would bring you back to play again. That final lap at Noho was that one good shot for me.

Cycle Smart Day 1: 11.1.08

Four years ago I came to Look Park in Northampton and entered my first elite master's 35+ race. These old dudes were fast. and smooth. I got lapped. 

Now I'm a regular in the top 25, and with a decent structured week of rest I wound it up to give it another go for a VERGE point. This year, there were two Northampton races as Farmington was dropped from the calendar (yeah!!). I love Noho, and racing there twice is a special treat. 

The course was unchanged from last year: paved start to a hard right and down to the lower field section. A few straights, a few turns, a sand pit. Onto a short stretch of pavement, up a very loose run up, and into the first section of roots. Down a short descent and back into the field for more turns and a few trip over the mini-railroad tracks. Back up a ride up and into more roots, a set of barriers, then the final two sections: a paved walking path and the start/finish stretch again.

Le Map: 

The call ups list is getting long, and a poor registration performance had me in the third row after all of the point getters. I usually give it a really hard sprint to start the race and get myself well up in the field then try and hold on. That formula has resulted in a 17th, 23rd, 24th, and a 21st in the first four VERGE races. I've tried to start slower and then work forward a few times, Southington last year and Beer Cross last weekend, so with a cr@ppy start spot I decided to try it again in Noho. 

The traffic from that far back is really crippling, and while the tape to tape cattle drive of mid pack first lap riding certainly keeps you from blowing up early, it merely shifts that effort to the end of lap one and into lap two. Such was the case Saturday.  After hangin' with the fellas over the railroad tracks, I started the slow march forward. 

First lap over the tracks complements of Soups

Check out that supple FMB rear tubular contorting under my girth

I was working hard early, and as usual my new pal Mike Rowell was on my heels mid-way through the first lap. He didn't ride away when we hit the rooty top section of the course and as we began lap three, I went wide and into the pine tree there. I ducked for the first branch, but looked up directly into the second one and took it squarely in the left eye. I fell off Mike's wheel and John Foley came around. Tears were streaming down my face, and at the expense of depth perception I rode the next lap with it closed. I got back on with Mike and John shortly thereafter, and the three of us worked to keep Ian Madestow, Jeff Ferraro and a few others behind us.  They were moving along really well and looked ready to close the gap at any moment.

Somehow I got off the front of my small group in the upper root section and decided to try and reach Aaron Millett and Bill Shattuck alone. Two laps of that silliness and I was back with Jon and Mike with just over two laps to go. Jeff, Ian and the gang behind weren't falling off the pace, there was no room for error. On the paved section with two to go Foley attacked and got a gap, then did something really strange. He sat up, looked over his shoulder at Mike and I, then got back down. I'd seen him behind me for the past few laps, and he wasn't the one driving the train so his mini celebration perplexed me and a few others who saw it too. 

No way I was loosing to him now, and Mike and I worked to get around him within a half a lap. Going into the bell, it was Mike and me, like so many times before this season. Into the sand his lovely wife Cathy yelled "Go Mike!! Matt's right on your butt!!" John was gapped and it was down to Rowell vs. Myette episode 6.

We shared the work through the last parts of the course with Mike first to the barriers and onto the final paved path. He opened up a strong sprint from the last corner and it was over right then and there. He easily held me off for 20th. 

It's hard riding from the back, but it can be done. Very strange to end up right at the 20-24 whether I go hard and try to make it stick or ride up through the field. 

The next 12 hours were agonizing... my eye was oozing and streaming tears all night, bright lights burned and blinking was pure torture. I slept better than I expected considering the hurt eye and strange bed, but it was still very sore on Sunday for the second race...

Tomorrow, Rowell vs Myette episode 7.  

Beer Cross: 10.26.08

The cross season bears a strong resemblance to the romantic tendencies of your average high school kid. The season is short and the action... intense. You squeeze the activities in where you can, when you can, often in the cold outdoors, and sometimes in close proximity to others. You find reasons to participate when you know that you shouldn't, and more often than not you are left with a feeling of complete emptiness... Maybe that last part is/was just me.

This past weekend was supposed to be one of my favorite races of the year and yes, I know that I say that every race is my favorite. The Southington race truly is one of my favie-favorites, but the promoter went ahead and got his wife "pregnant" and doesn't have "time" to organize a "race" with his second kid "running around." (stylistic credits to my mother in law and stats boy). What an excuse. The Southington course is awesome with not 1, not 2, but 3... yes 3 sand sections, the queen section being a run along the beach that turns 90 degrees away from the water and up a set of stairs. They tried to go towards the water one year and somehow it didn't work out. 

With Southington cancelled (just kidding Wade, good luck with the kiddo, but let's see what we can do about getting that race going again in 2009, eh?) the schedule for this weekend was going to be open with just Wrentham and Beer Cross slated for Saturday. Charlie has soccer on Saturday's and I promised him I'd go to every game that there wasn't a VERGE series race scheduled. Thinking I was pretty much guaranteeing myself top dad awards for such a sacrifice, Charlie followed up my pledge with a few questions...

"Daddy, what's a VERGE?"

"It's a company that makes cycling clothes CJ"

"And what's a series?"

"Listen... stop asking so many questions you little creep, alright?"

I-am-just-kidding people!! I certainly did not say that to my son. I told him what a series was and that there was no way on heaven or earth that I was going to miss any of my important races for his stupid soccer.

Again: kidding! What kind of an animal do you think I am?! 

As it turns out, I will not be missing any of the VERGE races... even the Saturday ones. his soccer games are really fun, much better than teeball imho, the ball is already on the ground and is supposed to be there. It's hard to wipe the smile off his face when he's playing. 

So, back to this past weekend - CJ's soccer was going to keep me from either race, until the guy who runs Beer Cross used his keen business acumen to detect a threat and an opportunity to the success of his event. He was going head to head against Wrentham, a well established race on Saturday, and Sunday was more or less open with Southington out and the next closest race in VT. He masterfully moved his own race to "maximize racer participants" - a direct quote.

Despite my previous experience with Danielson Adventure Sports aka DAS - the Beer Cross promoters (that story in a moment) I decided to race this even event in preparation for the Northampton VERGE races the following weekend.

Two years ago I went down to the Owen Bell Park in Danielson CT for the second week of a training series that DAS was holding. I remember it like it was yesterday. There were 8, maybe 9 of us and this shorter balding fellow rounds us up before we start. He was clearly charged up and he's swaying back and forth, clapping his hands when he excitedly exclaims "Are you guys ready for some balls out cross racin?!" . . . crickets. He recovered well though and got us going soon enough.

Aside from a little understandable over-enthusiasm from the promoter, the course, in a word, sucked. Bad. Two things stood out. Being a cross training race, there wasn't much daylight, so the guy had set up a dozen or so of those home depot shop lights around the course. Those bad cats will fry your retinas and make you strip to your skivvies when you use them in the close confines of your garage, but when they are set up outside and you wizz by them at 20 mph, they don't do shift. The second problem with the course was that there was this single dirt road that connected the "front section" from the "rear section" (again, props to Marty and Colin, two quotation mark pioneers) that he used going in both directions. The road was split by a series of large plastic traffic barrels, which in and of themselves took up approximately 20% of the usable road surface. Throw in visibility in the 5-10 foot range and it was sketchy at best.

So despite my history with the race, I drove down and gave it a try this past Sunday. It was a nice sunny day, so I was confident that lighting wouldn't be a problem. The DAS guy had also redesigned the course, and while the dirt road was still in play, it was a one way street with no orange barrels of untimely death lining the way. This was good, but what made the change great was that the new method of returning to the back section of the course sent you around a running track (not on it, that was made very clear) and through a great sand pit. Not sure why he didn't put the course through both of the sand pits that were there, but this was much better than the barrel lined corridor of certain hospitalization. This change was like picking off a pass in the end zone and running it back for a touchdown, a huge swing in towards the positive. Further improvements were made and the course was longer and faster than I recall from before. After a preride, I was glad I had made the decision to race. Here's the map:

It seems though that lots of people had a bad impression of this event, because the preregistration was abysmal. There were 2 riders signed up for the "A" race (not a USCF event, so you could really race what ever field you wanted). With a $150 purse, that was the race for me.

Turned out that 6 of us started the race, including Scott Rosenthal who had just finished 3rd in the B race. Peter Bradshaw was riding a hybrid of some sort, but he kicked my a$$ last year in Bedford and is the world bike messenger champion or something like that so I didn't feel too bad for him. Two other guys were way above my league and all I knew about the last guy was that he beat me in Falmouth two weeks ago, he raced elites at Gloucester and he refused to pin my number on me before the race. I cannot wish you luck my friend, but I can wish you well. 

As we line up, the happy DAS guy says "there is good news and bad news.... we won't have any more beer by the time you are done, but I have $50 for the winer, $30 for second and $20 for third." I suggested that he drive his own self or a surrogate 5 miles to RI, where there is surely to be a liquor store that is open and serving the fine but dry residents of Connecticut on such a beautiful Sunday and that he procure some beer as this event was indeed titled Beer Cross. He liked the idea and sent us of with a wild yelp. I didn't do the math quick enough to realize that 50+30+20 is $50 short of the $150 purse that was promised.... Good thing I don't make my living doing this stuff.

At the yelp the pace is fast but not bad. Rosenthal guns it for 1/4 of a lap, then pulls up and says "aaaaaand... I'm done." The two guys above my league were gone, and I was trailing Bradshaw for a half a lap when I decided to pass and keep the two leaders in sight. Moments after I passed, Bradshaw hit a tree or some sort of bush and crashed spectacularly behind me. 

Being my first 60 minute race I wanted to meter my effort more that I have in the past. My first lap was 6:58. Every lap after that was 6:10-6:16... all 8 of them. The course was great, and the file treads were hooking up perfectly in the grass and dirt. The down hill after the run up was a bit slick, but I had no problems at all.

With so few participants, the details of the race were pretty slim. After 2 laps my gap to the two leaders was around 20 seconds, and it didn't change at all until the last lap, when they put another 3 seconds into me. My gap to the riders behind me on the other hand grew steadily each lap, which was a good feeling. I felt better and better as the race went on, perhaps the longer races suit my strengths more, or perhaps not going out 120% for the first lap would be better for me. I'm going to try starting slower this weekend in Northampton and see how that works for me. With the VERGE points list growing, I'll be deep enough back in the field to have to take that approach anyway.   

So after 60 minutes of not so difficult racing and keeping pace with the leaders for most of it, I rolled in for 3rd and was told that someone had in fact gone for beer. I was given my prize money, $25. Not sure how they decided that but ok. Got two slices of excellent spinach, feta, and gorgonzola (love my gorgonzola) pizza and a can of accellerade. 

Not too shabby. 

file tread is the new black

If you have tubular wheels and haven't tried a file tread pattern... keep racing on what you got.

that'll leave more for me.

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