I have been a very bad blogger and havent posted in the last bagillion years... ok, 2 months, but close enough. I will attempt to summarize my entire summer of sporting in this blog.
First off, cycling took a backseat to soccer for me for most of this summer. I was the goalkeeper for the U-20 Patriot Football Club Rhinos. We had a pretty successful season where we won the league with a 4-3-2 record
(http://www.socceragency.net/maps/MSSL/2010/U23_standings.htm)
I only gave up 5 goals during seven games in our regular season (I missed one weekend because of working (I'm a soccer ref)).
We also competed in the U-20 Region 1 Cup
http://www.usasa.com/schedules/2010/21628322.html
where we took 4th after a very hot and hectic weekend. Unfortunately my team more or less fell apart because of a multitude of personnel reasons and attitude problems. We definitely could have won this weekend, but in the end, its a team sport, and if people start worrying about other things than playing (like yelling at the refs to an extreme amount), then you will fall apart, and thats exactly what we did. Our first game we did extremely well, defeating the team 3-0 and played real quality soccer (website is wrong). Unfortunately during this game, I injured the tendon in the back of my knee which severely restricted my punting, goalkicks, and overall ability to move. The next game, people got cocky and got out of their heads and we lost 3-0 to the team that tied the team we beat. Next day was the semi-finals in 100+ degree weather on astroturf. The other team scored first, then we scored, and scored again making it 2-1. By this point people were tired, and yet our coach would not sub players who needed it even though they could barely move. This led to another goal, making it 2-2 and bringing us into overtime. We score early in overtime making it 3-2, but then on a free kick from outside the box, our team could not agree on a plan of action (very long story which led to the other team scoring. PK's are up. The other team had very talented PK shooters, and they put 4 past me. Unfortunately our team was only able to put 2 in, so we lost before the 5th shooter. For the 3rd place game, we decide we're only doing a PK shootout, no game because it was way too hot. Both teams score the first two. I make a save in the bottom 90 to put us ahead, but then their keeper makes a save too. On the 5th shot, their keeper also blocks the 4th, and I was unable to block the last one, so we lost that as well, bringing us to 4th place.
Lastly was the U-20 finals. I'm not going to talk much about this game because I was extremely dissappointed in my team and especially my coach who insulted some of my ref co-workers. Fortunately I am done with this team for good now, I'll leave it at that.
So, now time for what this blog is really about; Cycling.
On May 23, I compteted in my first ever Time Trial down in Seaside Park, NJ. The TT was appropriately named, The Jersey Shore TT. For this race, the only aero equipment I had was my new Aerohelmet. The course was flat in terms of lack of change in elevation, but the road was consistenly up and down (I guess approx. 2-4 feet change per 10-15 yards), so it really drained the legs because of all the falseflats. It was a long and semi-boring, but beautiful course
http://www.jsmultisport.com/courses/2010_js_time_trial/NEW%202010%20Jersey%20Shore%20Time%20tria.pdf
Nice ride through town, LOOOOOOOONG straight ride down the park, then turn around into the wind to repeat. Towards the end, I caught the rider who started 5 places ahead of me (so was beating him by 2:30). We then more or less start racing eachother and then round a corner and all of a sudden see people all over the road. We then realized we passed the finish line about 40 yards earlier. So on my 3rd race, I forgot where the finish line was, just like my first race. I really need to make it a habit to remember where the finish line is... Anyway, final results were not too bad. For this 18.6 mile course, I finished in 53:53.10 which averages to 20.711 mph. I finished in the middle of the Cat 4/5 competition in 35/54
http://www.njbikeracing.com/files/2010/jstt-results.pdf
On June 12, I participated in the Ride 4 Autism,
http://www.ride4autism.org/
which was truly a fantastic experience. I raised $130 for this event and rode the 50-mile course, which was extremely beautiful and slightly challenging, but not too bad. Halfway through I met up with George (after I almost got lost, which allowed him to catch me ;) ). We then road the last 25-ish miles together (and intentionally blew past any of the groups we saw doing the 25 or 10 mile rides. Once we got back (after I beat George in a spring to the finish line), we got some great food! I had a great time at this event and am definitely doing it again next year.
Me and George (its funny how sweat on the lens can make a cool effect :P )
Soccer season then came up, so my next race was not until July 29 in Rockleigh, NJ for the aptly named Rockleigh Criterium. This is a weekly thursday night series on a closed course that is really perfect for crit racing. 1 mile, 6 turns, only a slight change in elevation. About 30 seconds into the race, I think "crap, what the hell am I doing?".
The week before this race really burned out my legs. Soccer game on sunday (the finals), I re-injured my tendon. Of course I couldnt take it easy because on tuesday, I drove 3 1/2 hours out into nowhere Maryland for my referee fitness test, which I aced. (1.5 miles in 11:20, 50m sprint in 6.78 seconds, and 200m in 31.something). The next day (Wednesday) I had TTT practice for the NJBA TTT State Championships (which I wound up not competiting in so I could work because I'm broke). Anyways, very hilly course, very tough on the legs, didnt help me feel better.
So back to the crit on thursday. My strategy was to stay towards the front, not work, and stay out of the wind. In reality, I really bounced around the field, but did stay towards the front for the first 15 minutes or so. After the first corner, up until after turn 3, the field always surged on the gradual uphill, so I just relaxed and let people pass me. Once they slowed back down (to approx. 17-19 mph), I just causually rode up the side of the peloton to reclaim my place at the front before turn 5. This worked very well for a while, until at one point, the field surged again about 20 minutes into the race, except faster up unto about 29 mph. My legs just did not have it after the past week, so I got dropped , but I was not alone either, there were about 5 or 6 other riders who got dropped with me, so I wasnt feeling too bad about it. It wasnt until later that I learned that all but 1 of these were riders who already raced in the P123 race and just wanted to ride around with the peloton in our race, ugh. But for the next 10 minutes, I basically just acted like a time trial and rode pretty well around the course, until after 31 minutes, I look behind me when I'm near turn 1 and see the peloton turning onto the straightaway after turn 6 and realize I wont be finishing the next 14 minutes ahead of them, so I pulled off and retired from the race. I still felt good about what I did because all of the other racers have been riding more or less everyday. I was riding less than once a week, so I was happy with what I did. I also learned from this race that I DESPERATELY need to work on my cornering skills. That was killing me in turns 1 and 2 (also part of the reason I fell back during the surge)
To make my leg feel better, my knee decided to swell up while I was reffing on sunday, and I couldnt run at all during the last game I was ARing for. So of course, I decide that it would be a great idea to do a time trial race the next saturday.
So here we are, Aug 7th in Tuxedo Park, NY for the Long Meadow TT. A very hilly course that definitely favors the guys who weigh about 40-50 lbs less than me. Good news though, I got myself some aerobars! Well, extensions, but regardless. ("I can ride my bike with my aerobars, with my aerobars, with my aerobars. Look at me, look at me, hands on my bars like its good to alive...")
So equipment for this race is aerobars, aerohelmet, and a bike that wont shift between my big ring and small ring. Lovely. Fortunately before the race (on raceday) I was able to find a person at the sign-up booth who was able to help me out. Did some more warming up and it shifted just great. Headed out onto the road to climb to the starting line (yes it was a serious climb to the starting line). Off the bat I was doing extremely well and was time ground on everyone around me (according to my dad from where he was standing). Unfortunately, my lack of riding came into play and I started losing ground to everyone around me (very possibly also due to my lack of aeroequipment that everyone else had, but I'm not using that as an excuse). Like I said, this course was hilly, so I went anywhere from 43.1 mph (very fun descent (For those of you who dont know, I'm a speed demon, and the faster the better)) to about 11 mph on the leg down to the halfway-ish turnaround. Immediately after that was a steep climb, followed by the steepest climb of all which everyone had to shift into their little ring for. I wound up doing between 7.5-11 for this climb. Towards the top I try to shift into my big ring for the sure to be fast descent, but of course my bike would not shift again. I see I have 3 miles to go, so I decide I need to be in my big ring since most of it will be down or a slight uphill. So I jump off my bike and manually put my bike into the big ring, then take off again (lost about 20 seconds doing this). For the last 3 miles, I was averaging about 35-25 (25 going up the incline. I kept telling myself "this is down, going down, going down", and it worked. Compared to everyone else who was training everyday, I did terribly. Compared to what I was thinking I would do because of my injuries and lack of riding, I did excellent. Finished the up and down 14.5 miles in 42:57 which came out to 20.256 mph
http://www.njbikeracing.com/files/2010/LMResults2010.pdf
Not a bad result. I had a great time riding this course and definitely plan on competing here again next year (keywords, actually competing here).
I might do the Blueberry TT this coming weekend, but we'll see. Still need to get ready for returning to GW and frankly just ride more.
Until next time!
J-Mac
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