Last week's training (and a race)

Monday J19: AM 2:25 cycling- easy with some pickups PM 0:10 core 14km row in ???
Tuesday J20: AM 2:20 cycling- easy PM 14km row in ???
Wednesday J21: AM 2:08 cycling- easy PM 14km row in ???
Thursday J22: AM 2:20 cycling - easy PM 14km row in ??? 0:10 core
Friday J23: AM 1:04 cycling- easy PM 0:16 cycling 0:10 core
Saturday J24: AM 75 min WU- crit ~40 min? 45 min CD PM 45 min WU 16km hilly time trial in 22:29 20 min cd
Sunday J25: AM limited warm-up ~30 min 49 mile race in ?2:30? limited cooldown ~20 min

Comments: This week, I was focused on the Blacksburg Cycling Classic and I was pretty tired from my big weekend of cycling. My totals were 18:00 cycling (not bad for a race week) and 4:00 rowing (which is probably a high). The Blacksburg Cycling Classic when really well for me. It started out a bit rough when I missed the start of my first cat 4 crit and started almost a lap down (I realized that I had missed the start when I saw the leaders coming around the final turn of the .89 mile-lap). I took off and rode the hardest 40 minutes of my life- managing to catch all but the top 7 riders for some much needed omnium points but no cash. The course was great for me (as good a a crit course could be) with a nice big hill and brake-free corners. The weather was a different story (Photo by Dave Cobb of Team Traveller)


The time trial went a little bit more smoothly (I made there on time) but I had tweaked my rear derailleur just before the start and I think that I made it worse. It was find for the (easy) warm-up but when I started to hammer for the TT, it was pretty bad. I managed 3rd place in 22:29.1 0.4 seconds behind second- which is a good lesson to always dig for that extra 1/2 of a second... After the race, I tried to adjust my derailleur and the cable came clean out. Had that happened during the race, I would have been stuck with only my smallest cog? I guess that I was pretty lucky after all.

The road race was not until noon the next day and the theme of the day was the weather (courtesy of Nataliedee).



The cat 4 race was three flattish to rolling laps with a mountain-top finish tacked onto the end. There were minor attacks on the first lap but the peloton mostly stayed together- or so we thought. I breakaway of three riders had gotten away and and the beginning of the second lap, we learned that they were 1:10 up. No one really wanted to organize a chase and so we languished around on the second lap (with me pulling most of the back half). The third lap was just as bad and I pulled for some of it despite really trying not to. Toward the end of the third lap, one of the break away riders had come back but the other two had a pulled a 4:20 lead. I lead the chase group to the bottom of the climb and let it rip. I caught the two riders about 1/2 of the way up the hill and managed to pull off a very luckily timed win! Results can be found here.

Last week's training

Monday J12 AM 0:45 row (felt terrible) 1:05 elliptical (felt ok) all day in the field PM 0:10 core and 0:15 cycling

Tuesday J13 AM 4:15 ride to and from Holcomb Rock- easy

Wednesday J14 AM 0:59 easy ride PM 1:10 warm up (race delayed because of the combination of the earlier (4/5) and later (1/2/3) races) / 45 laps in 45 min??? 1:20 cool down (sorry, Dave) around downtown Roanoke and up and down the Greenway...

Thursday J15 AM 2:30 ride- Bratton's Run backward with an add-on in VMI- felt ok but tried not to push it so that I could recover from yesterday and get in some quality this weekend PM 714km row in 59:42

Friday J16 AM 14km row in 59:57 1:00 elliptical PM 2:30 ride- North Mountain from the side- rode at 3:00 pm = really hot!

Saturday J17 AM 7:55 ride to WV border and back- felt pretty rough around 3 hours in and much better in the second half...

Sunday J18 AM 4:10 ride- Vesuvius and the BRPW- felt tired....

Comments: First off, Wednesday's crit went really well. I got off to a really poor start due to some difficulty with getting clipped in but after that, I moved up pretty quickly and took the lead with 35 laps to go for a 45-lap race. I got out-sprinted for the preem but my corners were much, much better than last week and I managed to drop all but one rider instead of all but two riders... Saturday was a great ride to and from the WV border- this is only my third border crossing (MA to NH and NH to VT being the other two) and it started with a bear in the road just south of Goshen! I also saw a copperhead as roadkill... Overall for the week, I had 25:49 of cycling, 2:45 rowing, and 2:05 elliptical with 30:39 total. Not bad. Below is pic from Wednesday's crit with eventual first-place finisher, Gordon Wadsworth behind me. Photo was taken by Team Traveller's Dave Cobb.

Random Thoughs

Some random thoughts from the past few days...

1. I think that Annalisa is currently running more than anyone else in our immediate family (who would have seen that coming a few years back?)

2. I saw my second bear in two weeks this morning and I have heard stories from four other people who have spotted bears in Rockbridge County in the past few weeks. Awesome!

3. Nothing says, "screw you for leaving me off of the TdF team again" like this.

4. My favorite race is going off at 7:00am tomorrow (Sunday) morning. I am anxious to see if Matt C can make it up and down for the win one more year against Rickey G. I think that Rickey will run well at The Barr (based on past performances at "similar" races) but anyone who bets against Matt on his home course has just not been paying attention. Nevertheless, I expect a battle royal...

5. I got upgraded from Cat 5 to Cat 4 this week for road cycling by USA Cycling. For those of you who are not familiar with the category system, this means that I have graduated from "beginner" to the JV of the JV of the JV of the JV of the sport.

6. I rode from Lex to the WV state line this morning; now, I am tired...


7. I have a race (or a series of races) coming up next weekend. Saturday morning starts out with a crit (boo) and Saturday evening, I will do my first real (not uphill) time trial. Sunday morning, there is a road race with an uphill finish (yeah).

8. I forget what eight is for...

Last week's training

Monday 7.5 AM 4:20 Brattons Run backward with 42 extension- felt pretty good

Tuesday 7.6 AM 2:00 ride- out Forge back on Plank PM 0:10 core 14km row in 59:49

Wednesday 7.7 AM 1:09 ride- easy on Traveller PM Roanoke Civic Center Crit Series 0:55 warm-up 40-lap in about 40 minutes, 30 mine cool-down.

Thursday 7.8 AM 2:59 Borden Grant to Vesuvius to Irish Creek- felt great PM 14km row in 59:42 0:10 core

Friday 7.9 AM 1:57 ride- Big Hill but no Turkey Hill felt terrible and bailed PM 14km row in 57:49 (pr) 0:10 core

Saturday 7.10 AM 3:30 ride- felt pretty bad but tried to stay flat

Sunday 7.11 AM PM 4:41 cycling- to BBRPW on 60, south to top of Apple Orchard mountain, back via Petite's gap PM 4:19 cycling- group ride to Augusta county- mostly easy with some drills and sprints (really hot...). 0:10 core

Comments: Finally, a week that I can say was good; granted, no running but still a good week. The Crit on Wednesday was a really good workout as I led for the last half of the race before getting passed in the final straight be two riders. Friday, I had a great row, and Sunday, I got in 9 hours of riding. The photo below is me leading 1st and 2nd in Wednesday's crit (taken by Kristin N. Colonna).

Last week's training

Monday 6.28 AM 1:57 ride around Quabbin Park PM 0:10 core and weights
Tuesday 6.29 AM 2:15 ride into UMASS via Shutsbury Center
Wednesday 6.30 AM 1:07 ride into UMASS PM 0:57 ride back from UMASS- saw two Moose (giant Cow and tiny calf) on Sand Hill Road
Thursday 7.1 AM 2:03 ride into UMASS via Shutsbury Center
Friday 7.2 AM 2:00 ride into UMASS via Shutsbury Center
Saturday 7.3 PM 6:30 ride from corner of 340 and 66 to near the end of Skyline Drive. Hilly the whole way. Saw a bear about two hour in (see below). I was going to ride the entire way but I stopped to eat at 10:00 pm 6:30 in and fell asleep almost instantly- woke up when only I got a text message and decided to sleep for a while.
Sunday 7.4 AM 4:15 ride from Skyline Drive to Lex via BRPW and Irish Creek starting at 5:00 am- very tired- somehow, I did not sleep well on the ground by the side of the road. ...a beautiful ride nonetheless. PM 0:30 ride easy to and from WalMart to buy a new phone (my 5+ year old one crapped out last night) and a fan for my 110 degree apartment. PM 0:10 core

Comments: A week of maintenance during a rough week of analytical work at UMASS. I got very little sleep (even less than during the semester) but it was good to get back and do some of my old rides- particularly the Quabbin and Shutsbury. I only did cycling workouts this week (though I did think about swimming in the old lake but did not quite make it) and got in a total of 21:34- not too bad except that is was mostly in two days. It was a great week for wildlife encounters with two moose in Amherst (of Shutsbury) and my second VA bear. I got dropped off at the corner of 66 and 350 (above Front Royal) with my driver's final works a joking "watch out for bears". Two hours later, I was heading down one of the many, many hills of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park when I saw two cyclists on the other side of the road- one of whom was gesticulating oddly. She was pointing to a medium-sized black bear in the ditch on my side of the road. I passed by going pretty fast (downhill) less than five feet from it! This is by far the closest that I have been to any of the five other bears that I have encountered in the wild. The pic from this week is a set of four elemental abundance maps of a disequilibrium (reaction) rim of olivine and clinopyroxene surrounding an orthopyroxene xenocryst in a porphyritic basalt from the Uinkaret Volcanic Field in the Western Grand Canyon that I made during the week at UMASS.

Last week's training

Monday 6.21 AM 14km row in 58:56 0:30 elliptical PM 2:06 ride- variation on out on Forge back on Plank
Tuesday 6.22 AM 3:20 ride out South River, up Vesuvius, Back on BRPW to Irish Gap and back
Wednesday 6.23 AM 14km row in 59:56 0:30 elliptical 0:10 core
Thursday 6.24 AM 2:14 ride- valley and ridge
Friday 6.25 AM 14km row in 58:xx (really fast but I can't remember exactly) 0:30 elliptical 0:10 core PM 1:10 ride- valley and ridge
Saturday 6.26 AM 0:30 ride- travel day- this is all the time that I had in the AM (got up late)
Sunday 6.27 AM 3:22 ride circum-Quabbin- felt really good and hammered

Comments: Not a great week for cycling with only 12:42 total. I did get in a really good ride around the Quabbin, though... I am coming along on the rowing, though with three hours this week and two of my fastest 14km times thus far. 1:30 elliptical made for 17:12 total for the week. Below is a picture of me taken by Steele Burrow of Burrow Imagery during a foggy hill workout this spring.

Last week's training

Monday 6.14 AM 14km row in 59:57 0:40 elliptical PM 1:53 ride 0:10 core
Tuesday 6.15 AM 2:18 ride
Wednesday 6.16 AM 0:10 core 14km row in 59:36 PM 2:58 ride- South River, Vesuvius, Irish Creek
Thursday 6.17 AM 2:11 ride 0:10 core
Friday 6.18 AM 14km row in 59:24 0:30 elliptical PM 2:17 ride- Bratton's Run (out on 60) on new ride 0:10 core
Saturday 6.19 AM 4:15 ride 60 to BRPW, down Vesuvius, meandered back
Sunday 6.20 AM 4:30 ride to Holcomb rock, one hour of coring, back along BRPW

Another pretty good week for training. 20:22 cycling, 3:00 rowing, and 1:40 elliptical with three productive days in the field. On the other hand, I missed my third consecutive Mt. Washington... Below, the Holcomb Rock Dam taken from the field site...