Saturday, December 25, 2010

Starting 2011

The team is in full swing training already for 2011.  We have managed to get our riders into the Tour of the Battenkill which hit almost 2,000 registered riders in the first 24 hours.  More importantly our team has been a blaze with emails and plans for training.  Currently we have two main training groups, the Potsdam crew and the Eastern Block (Peru, Chazy, Plattsburgh).
The Potsdam crew has a few set training times.  We are skate skiing at Higley on Tuesday and Thursday mornings are 8am.  Additionally we will be adding in a weekly trainer sessions above the shop at Wear On Earth on Wed nights at 6pm lasting two hours and led by Tim Akers who just started up NEC.  We will be tossing in a few weekend dates as well but nothing on the books yet.

The Eastern Block is a bit more of a mystery as I have yet to peer through the iron curtain.  The Block has set up some training camps on weekends and also some sessions up at VanHo.  What happens at these sessions is a mystery to us on the western front but we hope to make it over for an arms inspection soon.

Other training plans have been tossed around.  You will see Team Wear On Earth in full force at the Higley Hustle.  Also training weeks are being considered in Feb and one in March.  If you are interested in joining in on some of these training sessions please let us know!

You can expect an update on training next week along with a little recap of what we are specifically focusing on in this early part of the season, Base 1.  Till then Happy Holidays everyone!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Chieffrey's Corner

The training cyclist means two things: Lots of time on the bike and thousand of calories consumed. I once read in an article, I believe on a Team Garmin rider, discussing how he no longer eats for pleasure, rather more as a business. Which makes logical sense seeing if you do not eat enough, you'll have no energy to train, and your performance will suffer.

A pastime I have come to enjoy and one I wish I could partake in a little more, is cooking. This is a nice hobby to have seeing cooking means food, food means energy, energy means I can kick my butt on the bike. I feel bad for the cyclist that can't cook because if you're cooking sucks, then most likely your not going to eat enough. Or your stuck eaten the same things over and over again.

My goal is to share recipes I come across, to help feed the need. But I will advise you try any recipe in advance and never before an event and to read ALL directions before cooking.

Colavita Pasta with Kidney Beans

ingredients:

1 pound Colavita ditali (or any short pasta)
5 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 teaspoon tomato paste
8 ounces fresh spinach
1 14-ounce can kidney beans
Pinch dried oregano
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
Grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat 4 tablespoons olive oil in skillet until hot. Add onion and cook until soft (1-2 min.) Add garlic, stir, and saute for 30 sec. Add carrot and celery and cook until tender. Stir in the tomato paste until combined. Add spinach, beans, and oregano and stir until will blended. Pour in broth and simmer for about 30 min. until all ingredients are tender. Salt and pepper to taste.

While veggies and beans are simmering, prepare pasta al dente and drain. Place cooked pasta in a serving bowl and toss with bean mix and fresh parsley. Drizzle with remaining tablespoon of olive oil, sprinkle with grated cheese and serve. Serves 4-6, normal people, or 2 cyclist.

Tip/Variation: You can add a little more broth and can serve as a hearty soup.

And for you fans of the hydroxyl functional group serve with a Sauvignon Blanc.


I found this recipe in a Bicycling magazine. Hope you enjoy!!


Sunday, October 31, 2010

Introducing SLMBA

SLMBA (Pronounced Slim-Ba),n, An organization to promote the sport of mountain biking to people of all ages with a special focus on youth. Also known as the St. Lawrence Mountain Biking Association.

Well, now that you know what SLMBA is I want to invite you to their first official event. On November 6th and 7th SLMBA will be heading down to the Stone Valley Trails from 9-5pm to do trail work on the mountain biking trails. Several projects are lined up and the group can always use some extra help.

Feel free to meet us at Stone Valley or at Mark Simon's house (225 Lenny Rd, Colton, NY). For more information please email wearonearth@gmail.com or visit our facebook page.

SLMBA has many other great events planned for the rest of the year to get the trails in shape for the 2011 season. Several great events will also be held out on the trails in St Lawrence County so check back to see when Team Wear On Earth will be helping out this great organization.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Core Body

I came to some very important realizations today as I was sitting in Whole Foods over what might possibly be the worst cup of tomato basil soup I have ever had.  1) I am fat, 2) I am out of shape, 3) this soup really does suck, and lastly 4)  I have the weakest core body known to man kind.

Today, for me at least, the training has started up again.  As the above facts mentioned it will be starting with nutrition, gym work/core body, and once I get home lots of time on the trainer/rollers/skiing.  My nutrition plan is easy, dont eat foods with words on the ingredients list that 4 or more syllables long.  Workout wise I took a page out of Lance Armstrong's book and tweeted that I was going to workout...and needed core body routines.  To my surprise a response came with two routines.

I will share one with you now.  It is from beginner triathlete.com. I dont know much, but I know this kicked my butt so give it a try.  I did 15 reps of each.  Here they are...
  1. Standard Crunches
  2. Half Up Crunches
  3. Leg Lifts
  4. Side Crunches (left side)
  5. Side Planks with dips (left side)
  6. Leg extensions (left side)
  7. supermans
  8. Planks with leg extensions
  9. Push ups
  10. Side Crunches (right side)
  11. Side Plans with dips (right side)
  12. Leg extensions (right side)
  13. Heel touches
  14. Bicyles (fitting no?)
  15. Half ups with a twist
Well there it is.  With 15 each it is 325 various twisty turny crunch things.  I know this much, I wont be able to get out of bed in the morning.  As I said...weak core.  This will help.  Give it a try.  Have other good routines?  Share.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Little Birdy said WHAT?!!!!!

It truly is amazing how fast an action can cause a reaction. In this case the action was a simple 126 character tweet:

"Hey Vermont - let's ride!! 4pm in Waterbury. Corner of Main St & Warren Ct at what looks like a park to me (on Google Earth)."

The reaction, cycling enthusiast dropping anything and everything to pack their gear bags and get the bikes on the car ASAP. Any tri-athlete would have stood in awe to see the transition time it took Bruce, Ashton, and myself (Jeff), to unload two car and compile everything to one. Pretty sure I had to run after Bruce and Ashton with the rest of my stuff so we could catch the 1:30pm ferry.


*taking a moment to take a picture and come back to reality.*










Thinking of how well we know Waterbury, VT and all the times we've been there, we should have been able to find the meeting location pretty easily. But no. People saw three cycling hooligans wondering around parks, with their printed out Google maps, and pointing in all different directions. But we were also not expecting to be the first ones there either.


*After finally finding the correct intersection it's time to get ready*










I don't know if its because we were in kits, had bicycles, or looked like we were a big deal, but news reporters flocked to us. Immediately chaos ensued and only by a third part could this mayhem be caught on tape:



Okay, so pretty much the news reporters got along okay and started joking around with each other and the team. Bruce was interviewed by Fox 44 and a little later Channel 3 News interviewed Ashton.


We were hoping to be the only three to show up, but people soon started to roll in. Even a locale day care brought out a bunch of kids and riders from all over were showing up. Saw a couple riders from Dartmouth. Soon the crowed had to be near 200, from kids all the way up to cat-1 racers. As 4pm rolled around...no Lance....4:15pm no lance. I think this was the time a kid thought it was a good idea to yell out "THERE HE IS!!!!" And like a pack of alpaca, heads turned and eyes widened, to nothing but passing cars. 4:30pm...no lance.....


*the anticipation of lance's arrival is nail biting*









4:40pm LANCE!!!!!!!!! okay so he was 40 minutes late, but come on the guy was in NYC at 2pm. Like any popular figure, he was swarmed by media and adoring fans. Within minutes of his arrival we were off, and on the GMSR stage 2 course, except going backwards on it. The group was shaky seeing there were riders of all abilities and people were just to eager to see lance, crossing the yellow lines when there was oncoming traffic. I think about 1/2 way into the ride there was a crash and other times people were riding in ditches because they were pushed off the road. But even with all the distractions in the world, WOE riders found themselves around lance.


*Bruce and myself riding next to lance, while Ashton shows off his photography skills*

It seemed like as soon as the ride started it was over. Lance had a commitment at a cancer fundraiser at 7pm. So all in all we only got to ride 8 miles with him. Nevertheless a once in a life time opportunity. That's right can you say you have ridden next to a 7 time Tour de France winner. I can!

After the ride it was off to our favorite watering hole in Waterbury. And as always, we were on our best behavior. Our waiters again must have thought we were crazy, especially with Bruce stabbed me with his fork as i was going for a nacho. To our amazement the staff also didn't know who lance armstrong was! To say the least they soon found out.


*Thanks for coming Lance!"

"Thanks to the 100's of Vermonters (that's correct, right??) who came out for the #twitterride. What a beautiful part of the world!" ~Lance armstrong via twitter

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

New look

Jeff and I have been hard at work today finishing up the final touches on the new website.  We still have some gaps to fill in like an accurate 2010 schedule.  Plus we are in the middle of lining up sponsors for the 2011 season which is why you will notice the sponsorship section is a bit blank. 

All and all I think the new site looks pretty hot!  Let us know what you think and what other areas you might be interested in seeing.  That is it for now, keep checking in for more updates.

MassenaCross and my hero Doug Osborne

MassenaCross is still on and will be held October 2nd!

Forms have been submitted, the town park is being prepped, and the barriers being constructed. MassenaCross is in its first year and will be a non-competitive fun ride sanctioned through USA-Cycling. We wanted to introduce the sport to the community in a fun laid back setting with hopes of building it into a fully sanctioned event for points, prizes, and bragging rights.

Registration is just $20 and includes a free T-shirt to go with your day of fun. Register here!

I also wanted to let you know of my hero, Doug Osborne. Jeff K and I went down to Lake Placid to cheer on Doug. Doug is a freshman at UNH and has joined their cycling team. Doug in his first mtb race ever (as far as I know) took 3rd in the XC and 4th in the STCX. Not bad huh? Results can be found here. The XC was a pretty crazy course that was just crazy technical. Half the field actually missed a turn and cut the course short.

Team Wear On Earth plans on tackling more of the mountain biking scene next year with a second half transition to the trails. This will really help out riders like Doug who will then be hitting the collegiate season in full swing already racing/training on the trails. This doesnt mean we are neglecting the road as I plan to still be hitting up crits in the later part of the year, maybe I will actually race Thater (dear friends, please no more wedding on that weekend).

-akers

Sunday, September 12, 2010

A Great Season, Hopefully More to Come.

I had some extra time on my hands today, so I thought I would share some thoughts that have come across my mind these past weeks.

This summer has been one of the best experiences of my life; the amazing friends, amazing trips, amazing riding, etc etc. I couldn't had imagined this summer going any better, and hearing all the things everyone has been talking about with the possible direction of this team gets me really wanting it to be late February so we can get out racing soon! All of you guys are awesome, and I couldn't imagine being in a better group of guys; Bruce, Doug, Tim, Mike, Jeff, Eric, et al. (And possibly the addition of a nameless Cat3 rider) You guys rock. I appreciate and understand what Mike, Tim, and Bruce are putting into me with being on this team, as there are also better riders out there, but I know I'm completely dedicated to making the dream of having an all-cat 3 team a reality.

I'm excited to hear about the direction of the team, with having the middle of the season turned to focus on mountain bike racing (which is AWESOME). And apparently we're all going to have to try out Downhill riding. I hope we can get some guys to do cyclocross this year!

Not sure what else to write about, but I figured with the ending of GMSR, now would be a good time to show my appreciation and to say how impatient I am for next season with all of my friends.


~Ashton

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

That’s All She Wrote: A GMSR Story

Four days of racing, one hundred and forty-four miles ridden, seven hours ten minutes and fifty-nine seconds of my life over with and GMSR has been completed!



Going into GMSR I really wanted to do well and incorporate everything I have learned throughout the year. In my mind I did just that. As we all know GMSR is no joke and for being a first year racer, finishing 30th in a strong 4/5 field I think was a pretty good showing. I was in the top 20, in the standings, until about half way between Middlebury Gap and Bristol Notch (stage 3), that is when the legs just couldn’t take it anymore. Well they took it, but they sure didn’t like it.


*The feeling my legs had after Stage 3 (Illustration by Jeff Mallett from "Roadie"*

My plan for the race was to go into it as a GC contender and race appropriately. The sprinters and KOM jersey sounded nice as well, but I wanted to see how things were playing out and those really depend on perfect positioning during a race with little error to pick up points.

Day 1 ITT:

I really didn’t know how I was going to do, seeing it was an “up-hill” TT, never done one before. All I knew was that once I hit the flat section of the course I was going to drop the hammer. It could have started off better, I flatted 15 min from my start during my warm-up ride. I begged the neutral SRAM crew for a zipp 404 rear wheel, but they were having none of it and only changed my tube. Probably the only mistake I made was on the finally climb out of the “dip” I was in too big of gear and probably lost about 10-15 seconds. After sprinting across the finish line, I had to take a small journey back to my car, because the course could not be ridden backwards..I must have ridden a million miles back!

So after I packed up my gear it was time to try to find something to eat. Turns out that if you don’t really know VT all that well, you’ll have a hard time finding places to eat. You kind of have to know the local eateries to find something good, my mistake for looking for a chain restaurant. Finally I found an Applebee’s, weirdest feeling ever eating alone at a family restaurant! Then it was off to check into the hotel. Apparently there are two Marriott’s in Williston and I just happened to go to the wrong one.

Day 2 Circuit Race:

Rolling out at 8:45am only meant one thing. Waking up early, 5am to be exact. I threw down three bagels, a banana, and two cups of coffee before we hit the road. Having warmed up for about 30-45 min I was ready to roll out. The 1st lap went well and I stayed with the main pack. At the beginning of the 2nd lap, it was the 1st KOM, so the pace picked up and I got left behind a little bit from the better climbers. Two other riders and myself pulled the lead group back. Once back on good position I found out there was a solo breakaway, which some riders were freaking out about, but I told them “look, it’s windy and we have plenty of time,” I think they were sprinters. Staying with the field again I knew if I could survive the last KOM I would be all right. So I worked hard on the KOM and stayed with the lead group for the last 3/4 of a lap. I think nerves picked up a bit for there were a lot of close calls. I myself hit the chain stay of the rider in front of me because of the yo-yo affect and people taking chances moving about the pack. There was a crash and I tried to find out from the riders next to me if it was the yellow jersey, little did i know one of them was wearing it. I seriously was going to go pro and tell everyone to sit up. With two miles to go, I moved to the front of the group to be in position for the sprint, but was soon left in the front due to riders pulling off. With a strong head wind this is not where I wanted to be so I slowed the pack down to 18mph and no one went around, until one guy did, whose wheel I caught, but then he soon too died off. Eventually a train flew by me and all I could really do was stay in contact and lose no time, which I did. Turns out that during our bunch sprint, the field got so spread out that riders went across the road and ran into a parked car.

I guess the only real humor from this race was during the second time around to the feed zone. I had an empty water bottle and as we all know those are unnecessary grams to be carrying around. So I decided to get rid of it. The thing that Tim didn’t know was Jeff was bad a physics. I threw my bottle and its momentum carried it right into Tim’s stomach. SOOOORRRRRYYYYY Tim!

Day 3 Road Race:

Middelbury Gap, Bristol Notch, Baby Gap, App Gap. Enough said. This was an extremely hard race, with a lot of climbing. I did well on Middlebury Gap, but still was left behind by the better climbers. I was caught in no mans land, but eventually was caught by two strong riders, one of which I chased back on with the day before, and then picked up two more by the end of the decent. Eventually we caught back on to the lead group and I was there for a little while, but soon fell off the back. The pace increased, due to the KOM climb I think, and I was at the merci of the wind. I keep chugging along catching riders one at a time and eventually there was no one in front or behind me. I eventually made it to Baby Gap were I had to stop for a moment and check my tires to see if one of them had gone flat, nope I was just going up at 8-10mph. At the feed zone there I picked up a Pepsi, without stopping. Some Riders had pulled off and were resting there before the big climb. After conquering Baby Gap and re-energized by my few sips of Pepsi, it was time to kick App Gap’s butt. I shifted back and forth from 39/26 to 39/23 and eventually made my way up passing quite a few riders. However the climb was not epic because of the length or toughness of the climb it was epic because of these guys….


*Ashton, Bruce, and Mark in their appropriate supporting attire (Tim took the pic)*


*Bruce, Ashton, and Mark disregarding oncoming traffic to give me a Tour de France feeling*

Day 4 Crit:

The Crit for the GMSR was quite interesting for it ran threw the streets of Downtown Burlington and actually was on Church St. for a little while. I really wanted to do well in this race and finish my season on a high note. I knew I needed to be near the front during the start and would have to pick some good wheels and stay near the front at all times. Unfortunately I did not get the good wheels part right. I found out after the race I got stuck behind an inexperienced rider, who was not comfortable in the corners. This caused me to move towards the back of the pack. Once around him, I tried hard to move up, but the legs soon gave way. I was off the back and pulled with 10 laps to go. Fortunately I did make it pass the ½ way mark so I was given a result and GC time. I finished watching the race from the side lines and talked to some Team Placid Planet members, who I Thank for cheering me on all weekend when they could.

Link to all Stage results!!!!!

So now my season is done and it is time to get some much needed rest. Perhaps buy a Mtn. Bike and do some recreational ridding. But I have to enjoy it now, for there are only a few more month before the 2011 season begins…..see you there!!!!!!!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Prepping for Green Mountain Stage Race

Well all of our hope lies on one person for GMSR, Jeff.  For one reason or another the rest of us cannot attend this great race.  GMSR is a four day event including a road race, circuit race, time trial, and crit.  Our team has done well in the past with various top 10's overall and in different stages. 

The team is picking up the bill for the hotel rooms for the trip.  I will be there the entire time helping Jeff with feeds and getting him to the races so he doesnt need to worry about a thing.  Ashton and Bruce will be present on Sunday for the finish on top of App Gap.  Now Jeff has done his thing as far as preparations go, it is now our turn to prepare as fans. 
http://www.ecrater.com/p/8144891/n005-green-costumes-party-clown

You might ask how one prepares to be a fan at GMSR?  Well it starts with some amazing team apparel that just arrived in the form of team hoodies and polos.  We have one other vital aspect to the team apparel, green wigs.  Other parts of our cheering arsenal might include vuvuzela, cowbells, chalk, and what not.

Stay tuned for updates from the peanut gallery as Jeff tackles his first ever GMSR.  Pictures, videos, and blog post will be frequent!

Gearing up for GMSR


*GMSR celebrates 10 years*

Sense the beginning of the season I've heard a lot about GMSR and this climb called APP Gap and rightfully so. GMSR is like the Tour de France of New England, with classic top of the mountain finishes, such as in stage three (App Gap). And now it is finally here Sept 3rd-6th.

Green Mountain Stage Race Website!!!!!!!

It defiantly has been a long season, with nonstop training and racing sense probably Jan. It has played a toll on many of the WOE racers and would be an epic finish with GMSR. Unfortunately with the long season and misfortunes, GMSR has slowly evaded the team. With individuals going to college, family commitments, burnouts, or simply just not having a bike to use. Out of a core of 7 to 8 races, only one remains to compete….myself (Jeff K). Tim is going to make the trip as well and run support for me and be in feed zones and help out when he can. Pretty much making the trip possible for me!

Getting ready for GMSR has been a little less than ideal seeing, I lost a few days to sickness after participating in a cold a rainy century and a colder TT. Not to mention having mechanical issues with my bike as well to throw in some extra stress. However, that has been cleaned up. So it’s been pretty much easy to moderate riding to get the legs back and hopefully go into the race with fresh and well-rested legs. I do have some concerns, but we will see how they play out during the races. For example descending Middlebury Gap with inexperienced riders and not being 100% comfortable on fast descents myself.

Race Schedule:
Stage 1 (TT) – 4/5 starts departing at 3:25pm (personal start time unknown)
Stage 2 (Circuit race) – 8:45am
Stage 3 (RR) – 9:30am
Stage 4 (Crit) – 8:30am

Distances:
Stage 1 – 5.7 miles
Stage 2 – 53 miles
Stage 3 – 70 miles
Stage 4 – 15.5 miles
Total – 144.2 miles

Even though I am now racing alone, the thought of racing by myself has given me a little extra motivation. Before I have gone into races thinking okay, this is going to be a learning experience and if I do well, I do well. Not this time. This time I will not only be racing for WOE, but for all the racers that weren’t able to make the race. I will be participating in the category 4/5 field and I am sure there will be some sandbaggers going for the win this year, so given that I may not be the most experience or strongest rider out there, but it doesn’t mean I can’t give them hell.






Tim, recently posted…..a post, on motivation. Well these are the things that motivate me. Being able to look back on a day, whip the dirt of my face, look at my colleges and say “I gave it everything for ya.”

Let’s just hope this guy doesn’t beat me to the top of App Gap!!!!


*Young Moose going for the Finish line!*

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Overtraining, Motivation, and Goals

After my race weekend in Albany I did not want to touch a bike.  I was burnt out, overtrained, and work was piling up.  I knew I was doing this to myself as I trained like a fool the week before.  Lets put it this way, it included lots of high intensity riding and zero to no recovery.  One would think I would know better, and I do, I just didnt really care.

Either way after the weekend I was pretty fried.  Didnt help that I almost crashed on the monday night ride when I cracked my cleat in half during a townline sprint (note to self:  replace cleats more often).  The broken cleat was my excuse for not riding but not the reason.  I had simply overtrained and needed a break.

It comes down to the fact that cycling is a lonely ass activity.  It is a lot of training by yourself and a lot of time being alone.  Jeff posted a great quote on fb...
Cars are parked up and down the street. the smell of the grill and the sound of laughter wafting out to the road conspire to remind a cyclist of just how alone he is. - Roadie
 The thing that we need as cyclist is support, in many ways.  We need support of the shop to fix bikes when they break.  Support of the doctors to fix US when WE break (happens to some more than others).  Support of sponsors to help us get out and race (Thank you Pepsi Cola Ogdensburg).  Support from a coach or a mentor to give riders training advice and race advice.  More importantly we need emotional support.  It sounds stupid but the later is the most important.

We get emotional support from all sorts of places.  This week Shannon, from Wear On Earth, was just chatting with me about the season and how it didnt pan out the way I had hoped.  I guess being in the hospital three times in a season will do that too you.  I don't know if Shannon was doing this purposefully but she did it masterfully,  she brought up goals.  She was asking me what my goals for the season were.  She started asking about goals for the 2011 season and how I intended to accomplish them.

I have my goals for cycling.  I want to be a cat 2 rider.  Is it a long term goal?  Yes.  Do I think I can get there?  Yes.  It is good to have long range goals.  Think of a stone path.  Your long term goal is at the end of the stone path.  Each stone on the path is a short term goal.  You need to set these goals so you can achieve them along the way as you head down the path.  A bunch of little goals on the way to the big one. 

Here is my question to you.  What are your goals for 2011?  What are your goals for cycling?   How do you keep the end, long term goal in mind?  I am looking for ideas of how to keep the long term goal in mind.  I have thoughts of putting a giant "2" on my wall so I see it every day.  Might even make it out of bib numbers.

Thoughts?

-akers

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Altamont Crit

Well this is a follow up to Jeff’s post on the New York Capital Region Road Race.  I know it is a bit delayed but it has been one hell of a week for me.  Quick recap...  In the last week I have raced twice, gotten sick, found a roommate, lost a roommate, found a new roommate, then gained two roommates, talked with iPhone vendors, looked at way to much code,  gone through new tour guide training, researched QR codes, sold my bike, sold a car, bought new bike, talked with google about maps, gained a mouse, and…yeah I think that is it.  I guess not to bad of a week, considering I did most of this on top of my regular 45hr/wk job.    
Steve and I chasing...TPP on our wheels

            So back on track.  At first Jeff was not going to race on Sunday however was talked into it.  I then looked at the times and we didn’t go off until 2:10pm…what BS!  Now I don’t typically mind racing later in the day however I was staying at a hosts house and still had a 4+hr drive ahead of me after the race.  This was one day where I really just wanted to get back home after the race. 
            Jeff and I showed up to the race on time however spent a little too much time chatting with a friend of mine who lived on the course.  We towed the line with zero warm up, not exactly the best of plans.  I maintained pretty good position throughout the race staying up near the front, covering moves, ended up in a short lived break with a farm team rider, and yeah, pretty happy. 
            Eventually Allen Rego (now a cat 2 rider) and Jim Walker (TPP) make it off the front.  Jim had some good blocking in the small field and half the riders apparently had never seen blocking before and were too dumb to notice what was going on.  Steve Wells and I did a lot of work trading pulls with TPP members sitting on our wheels not letting anyone pull through.  Long story short, break stuck and I was too spent to do anything in the sprint and finished 9th overall and 2nd of the Cat 4’s.  Jeff was pulled with a few laps to go but rode well in a strong field of mostly 3’s.  I was pretty impressed with TPP's performance.  One of the reasons I left besides proximity was the lack of a team feel, this obviously has changed some this year within TPP.
            I have not really done much riding since this race and my season is mostly over with work picking up.  What to expect from my future of cycling?  Well one more race in Portsmouth, NH, working with a mountain biking advocacy group, and also possibly maybe considering coaching a few athletes.  We shall see about the later of the three. 

Monday, August 16, 2010

NYS Capital Region RR

The Albany weekend for WOE consisted of two races. The NYS Capital Region Road Race and the Altamont Criterium. Three racers showed up to represent WOE: Tim A, Eric G, and myself (Jeff K).


*WOE Racers Jeff, Tim, and Eric pose during warm-up for the NYS Capital Region RR.*

So once again the trip started with a long car ride to Albany, NY to spend the night at a teammates relatives house. We were happily greeted and shown a tour of the house, only to be instructed to make ourselves at home. The rest of the night, was spent talking about the upcoming race and to help Mark, our host, understand a little better how the day would play out. Mark kindly volunteered to work the feed zone for us. Then it was time to fight over who got the extra bed and who got the couch. Which was easily resolved by a quote from “The Mis-Understood World of a Bike Racer.” More or less, he who got the bed the 1st night down not get it the second night.

Well rested and fed we headed to Ravena, NY. All your normal pre-race routines took pace and a little surprise happened to me as well. I was pinning my number onto my jersey, when all of a sudden there was a PFTTSSSSssssssssssssssssssss. The guy in the car next to me immediately went “ut-Oh,” and I soon found out my rear tube decided to pop. Good start to the race, right. Just glad it happened before and not during the race. So in record tube changing time, my bike was good to go again. Finally after anxiously waiting 2 hours, it was time for staging.


*Loop profile of the Race*




The 4/5 race involving Tim and myself, Eric was in the straight cat 5 race. It started off to a 3 mile neutral start;however, it didn’t seem that way. At times my computer would tell me we were going about 20mph. Once the race officially started the pace was very moderate and the field stayed together, with people talking to one another. Upon coming to the first big climb of the day, the front of the field thought it would be a good idea to set the pace at 8mph going into it, with a decent leading into it. With the yo-yo affect in play the field broke up by the end of the climb.

I just missed out on the led group and was kind of caught in no mans land, when all of a sudden…dunt dunt da daaaa….Tim appears out of the corner of my eye leading a pace line to catch the led group. I caught on and immediately was not happy. People do not know how to pace line!!!!! Apparently when it is their turn to pull, that meant sprint and cause hell for everyone else. This killed me seeing I am not very good or use to the continuous short power burst. Never the less we made it to the second big climb and the led group was in site. I took off from the chase group and almost made contact; however, my legs did not want to chase after the climb. Again Tim and his chase group found me and I tried to hang on, but soon was dropped. Caught in no mans land....AGAIN. I eventually found some other members of our race to work with and started pace lining with them.

Coming around for lap two, it was Mark and my big moment......a water bottle hand off. I desperately kept looking for him amongst the large crowed. But once I had found find I through my water bottle, hopefully not hitting him or anyone else, and successfully grabbed a fresh one. See WOE is ready for water bottle exchanges, just not from a moving cars.

Turned out Tim’s group never made contact with the led group, but Tim manage to take second in his group and I managed to solo away from my group to the finish. Overall it was not a very good day, in terms of standings, but a good effort put in by all.

After the race we met up with some of Tim’s friends from Buffalo and talked about the race at Panera Breads. The rest of the afternoon and evening was strictly recovery time and very little was done, except veg on the couch in front of the tele. THEN IT WAS DINNAH TIME!! Mark spoiled us we some awesome home cooking and recordings of the Tour de France.

Altamont Criterium post Coming Soon!!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Concord 30th Annual Criterium



The Concord trip brought some excitement to the WOE racers this past weekend, seeing it meant the void of races was no more (several races already on the schedule for the upcoming weeks). However, they were not to excited about the 4 hour drive to get to Concord, NH. So naturally they planned around this and went down the night before, in two different groups. Jeff/Tim to Tim’s brother’s and Bruce/Ashton to a hotel in Concord. Each group had it’s own little excitement, with Jeff and Tim getting lost on some dirt roads (at 10:30pm) which pretty much led to no mans land, but through the use of 2 GPS’s they were able to make it to their destination okay. Ashton and Bruce didn’t leave Plattsburgh until late in the evening and made it to Concord around 2am, only to be quickly awakened by a fire alarm at their hotel at 4am. Needless to say they were both a little tired the next morning, at least Ashton was fashionable in slippers.

Tim and Jeff were the first at the course and quickly picked out a strategic parking location for the team, near a parking lot and pretty much in front of a café. Things got interesting quickly as Jeff saw a car going backwards on the course almost wiping out a few cat 55+ members, while Ashton and Bruce saw a car back over someone’s bike.

Concord Criterium map and profile. (20 laps, 56ft elevation gain/lap)

Cat. 4 Race

After warming up by the cars Tim, Ashton, and Jeff spun around a little more and got acquainted for a few other racers and individuals working the race. Soon they were called for staging, but found out that all the other racers were there already. Tim soon pointed out a whole and got the team in a better position for the start. On the first lap there was almost a crash simply because the back of the field could not see the narrowing of the road and a few riders almost crashed, Jeff included.


*our pace car, lasted all day without having to fill up once!!*


Thing were going pretty smoothly until we had to move up in the field. Jeff didn't realize he was in his small ring and spun himself to death trying to catch move up. He was soon dropped on the 8th lap or so, but then followed the motto "never quite, never stop trying." Ashton and Tim took on the rest of the race pretty well staying near the front. Everything was going prefect. Ashton was riding like a champ and Tim was helping him by coaching him into positions and giving him some room to move around. Unfortunately the last lap ended this perfect day. A most likely inexperienced rider, or just a reckless one, took a line that wasn't there and caused Ashton to crash. Ashton himself made it out alright, but his front wheel just will never be the same. Tim luckily made it around the crash and represented WOE well with a 10th place finish.

Cat 3 Race


*Bruce at the starting line, for the first time in a long time*


Bruce went into the race with a game plan and that is what he stuck to. He knew what wheel he needed to be on and that where he was for most of the race, with his opponents marking him as well. It was a fast pass race and everything seemed to be going smoothie with no crashes and no one really causing too much trouble on the course.


*Bruce holding his position around turn 6*

There was a small break away of at the most two riders for a very short time due to prim laps causing the field to bring them back. For the most part about 90% of the time the field was together, the pace just causing the field to stretch out. With about 5 laps to go the announcer of the race predicted a final bunch sprint and that is exactly what happened. The field came around the final turn and racers started sprinting away. However, some started to early and died off, while toward the finish line three racers remained in the hunt. Bruce was among them, in 2nd/3rd position. The winner came in a second or two before Bruce, but with an epic throw of the bike, Bruce was able to take second. Not bad for his 1st race back sense Syracuse.

*Bruce just sneaking in there for 2nd place*

After the race the team went to a well-known Mexican restaurant “Margaritas.”. The restaurant historically was a prison, but now serves amazing food (pretty sure the team gave it 5 stars). They piled into their little 6ftx6ft jail cell, reminisced about the race, ate some great food, and probably made their waitress think they were crazy.




DAY 2 APP. GAP TRAINING!

Do to some busy schedules and recent lack of sleep, the team decided to sleep in...until 7:30am. After meeting up they ran around White River Junction for a while looking for a good place for breakfast, and oh did they find the mother load. The Farmers Diner in Quechee, VT (another 5 star experience). Everything pretty much homemade and serving sizes out of the world. To say the least everyone was full.

Once the team arrived at the base of App. Gap, the ride planning took place. Originally it was suppose to be a 60 mile ride, but with individuals having to get back, it was shortened to just 25. But the 25 miles were no joke, it was pretty much climb the back side and then turn around and climb the front side (side GMSR will be going up).

APP GAP Training Course and Profile!

Jeff took his time going down the decent and checked the roads and profile a little bit, before he climbed it, only to find himself left behind. So once again Jeff almost screwed up the ride because there was a "T" intersection and he had no idea which way his teammates had gone. Eventually he found a man mowing his lawn and asked if he had seen a few riders, the man kindly said yes and pointed him in the right direction. Soon after Tim, Bruce, and Ashton came back to see where the heck Jeff was. Reunited they pedaled a little further into Jerusalem and then decided to make the trip back up the mountain.

They chilled out at the top for a minute or two and talked about the climb, then started our final decent. Mainly due to the fact that someone somewhere was enjoying the view from the top with a little wacky tabacy. The decent was fast and probably wore out a few break pad, but all in all it was a great ride and an important one. Back at the cars team WOE celebrated the only way team WOE knows how to celebrate. With a six pack!!!!!!!





Next stop the NY Capital Region RR (Saturday Aug. 14)!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Tri-Town Bike Race a Success!!!!!!!



Team WOE leads out the peloton for the 33.3 mile charity race!

*photo provided by North Country Now*


This event was organized to help raise money for the local Tri-Town Summer Festival (Brasher Falls, NY) and with over 60 individuals participating in either the 33.3 or 6 mile races, they were able to make over $1,300.

WOE had 6 members representing the team that day and finished 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 respectfully. However, it was not about winning, it was about showing that WOE is not just a bunch of racers, but a group of people that care about the community and would like to support it any way we can.

We look forward to future community events and hope to see you out there as well!!!!!!!!!

Also noteworthy for this post is team member Ashton Momot's participation in the Tour de Cure, choosing the 100 mile course, and raising a good amount of money to help support diabetes research earlier this year.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Two great local events- Tri Town Bike Race and Norwood Tri

Hey everyone,
Thought I would toss out two great local racing opportunities.  Team Wear On Earth will be representing both in force.  The first is this upcoming weekend, the Tri-Town Bike Race, in Brasher Falls NY.  So far we have Mike, Jeff, Bruce, and myself making the trek up.  Although it is not an official USA-C race we are happy to be supporting cycling in any way here in the North Country.  You never know who might show up!  The race is to benefit the Tri-Town Summer Festival which is going to be held the following week.  Registration starts at 10am at the Tri Town Community Center, race starts at 11am.  For more info contact michelle2@yahoo.com.

The second of our local events would be the Norwood Triathlon which is on Aug 21st in Norwood, NY!  Norwood already hosts a very successful  duathlon series and this is another event to add to the mix. Last week at the duathlon series we had a good showing for WOE team members including myself, Scott, Mike, and new member Ben.  We congregated around the Pepsi Car that was giving out water and ice tea after the race before heading to Little Italy for pizza.  Pepsi-Cola Ogdensburg does a great job supporting local fitness activities. 

Team Wear On Earth has two main groups of athletes, cyclists and triathletes.  It is great to have these local events and I personally hope to see the events continue to grow as more people get into cycling and multi-sport activities. 

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Determination

What I do is not hard, I honestly believe that so many people out there have the physical capacity to go far beyond what they do now.  The majority of people have the physical ability to be a cat 3 racer.  The majority of people have the physical ability to run a marathon.  Now of course to go pro or qualify for Boston Marathon takes a bit more physical ability.  So what is the missing ingredient?  What is holding people back?

Determination.  Yep, that is it.   Maybe I think this because I focused my studies as an undergrad on sports psychology and exercise science.  So what brought on this post today?  I was talking with a friend, Winnie, who used to coach soccer at the collegiate level.   She asked how my cycling season was going and gave her a quick update.  To be honest, it has been rough.  I have landed in the hospital three times this year.  I told Winnie I was about to head out for a 3.5 hour ride and she called me crazy, I corrected her and said I was determined.  And the rest is history.

I mentioned this article I read a couple weeks back on determination and Winnie wanted to read it so I did some searching.  First place I looked was my RSS feed which includes this awesome website called Peak Performance.  I stumbled upon a great article which I thought might be what I was looking for, not exactly.  Don't get me wrong, this is an amazing article and I highly recommend you to read it, just not the one I was looking for.  This article talks about the various theories of motivation.  After reading it is pretty obvious I agree with Edward Deci and Richard Ryan theory known as self-determination theory.

I was lost for a bit so wandered around my apartment, cleaned up some, was mid-dishes when I had that aha moment, the NY Times!  Yes that is where I saw the article.  With the power of my droid phone I found it here.  Now the main idea of this article is that determination is what sets successful athletes apart from others.  It is the athlete that is determined to be on the bike every day, to do those long runs, and get in those 6 hour rides on the saddle.  It is the athlete that dedicated their life (or a good chunk of it) to an activity that will succeed.

Are you determined?  Do you agree with my views on motivation and determination?  Am I way off here?  Either way today's workout kicked my butt and I am pretty tired.  Was a hot humid day making training even harder.  My training buddies and I climbed the biggest climb around (which is not that big).  They turned around at the top to head back home, I went down the back side, climbed it again, and then chased like hell for 20mins to catch them.  Yeah in case you were wondering that effort hurt. 

Monday, July 19, 2010

Back in the saddle

Well I am back at it, after a couple weeks off from a fairly good size crash in Fitchburg I am racing once again.  A brief recap of the crash, was mid pack descending after the main climb in the course. Two guys a few roads ahead of me crash and legit knocked out the entire field.  I ended up just hitting the pile of bikes and went down myself with a nice little concussion.

So I guess it effected me more then I thought.  I called home and I guess was pretty out of it.  Same with friends in the Cape I was trying to meet up with.  Also when driving back I got into my back seat of the car, not really sure why.  Other stupid things, I found out I put lemonaid in the cupboard, I dont remember this but it was pretty moldy and gross when discovered a few weeks later by someone else.  I did the same with milk however my cereal was nice and cold.  However this could also all be chalked up to me being an idiot, I like to blame the knock on the head. 

Fast forward two weeks to this past weekend.  I decided to enter the BBC Championship.  It is essentially a training race for me as I am not eligible for the championship not being a member of BBC.  Plus I had been on the bike twice since the crash.  It was a stupidly small field of 16.  A few guys fell off and it ended up being a team of 5 (we shall call Team A), team of 3 (Team B), myself and a two other guys on there own, really only 10 of us.  Going into the event I had a few goals, 1) stay up and 2) get into a break.  I didnt really care about the win because it meant nothing to me.

I went on one attack early on but no one came with so went back into the field.  The team A sent someone up and they were doing a great job of blocking.   I ended up bridging up to the solo break and we worked well together for a bit before being caught.  At this time they launched another guy off the front.  I recovered for a bit then tried to bridge up but it failed, came back.  3rd time was a charm and I got into another break with both of the teams represented, I thought it was going to stick but a 4th rider from Team A bridged up and attacked right away, I couldnt match and slowly drifted back into the remaining group.  I was simply gassed.  And I use the term "break" in a liberal way do to field size. 

At this time I got a nice little verbal lashing for letting the break happen by the Team B.  To the lines of "if you ever f'in do that again and put our team in a bad spot" so on so on.  At this moment I decided not to help Team B one bit on the chase.  I sat on the bike and chatted with the other team.  I put in another mini attack, really just wanting to hit the corner hard because it is fun to do.  Get another verbal lashing from Team B, given well deserved.

Overall great to ride again however I think it will probably be my last race with BBC.  They are only training races, dont count for anything, small fields, just not worth the extra effort to head to them.  Maybe I just have a bitter taste in my mouth.  I know I still have a lot to learn about racing myself so maybe I am just reading the entire situation wrong.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Le Tour de Rand Hill

The Tour de Rand Hill is put on by the Plattsburgh YMCA to help raise money for scholarships to give children the opportunity to attend Camp Jericho (local camp). There was both a race and a recreational division, not really sure how many were in each, but there was a good showing of some where in the forties I want to say.

Tour de Rand Hill Course Map

So the day started off well…..well at least not for our bikes. There apparently was a tree next to the road just looking to scratch or damage any bike that apparently wanted to drive through it. Yes Jeff accidentally drove his bike through a tree and then Ashton’s mom did the same thing with his bike (bikes on roof rack). All in all the bikes turned out okay and where good to go with a few turns of a hex wrench.

There was a nice little roll out led by a trooper and then once we were out of town it was on. Immediately I turned on the throttle and picked the pace up to 25mph and separated the racers from recreational riders. We formed a pretty good pace line; however, with strong head to crosswinds, everyone felt it. By the time we reached the Rand Hill Rd. there was still a pretty good pack, but soon to be smaller and smaller.

The pace was pretty high and a small group broke away, included Ashton and I. I keep sneaking to the front to keep the pace up a few times, as a group of riders were trying to bring us back. As most us know we went up and up some more. At the little decent of the climb, I raced to the front and started pulling at 36mph, with Ashton right on my wheel yelling “Hi-Yah, Faster Faster!” We had a small gap but were soon brought back, because downhill attacks never really work. Nothing else to major happening until about ¼ mile from the finish line. Two riders pulled us back, and I thought one was a pretty strong rider, so I immediately attacked up the last kicker, dropping those two riders. As soon as I got to the top I was like “Crap,” but in a more non-acceptable re-quoting kind of way. Because I could see the finish line and realized I attacked to soon. But my attack did not go in vain, for it allowed Ashton to only have to fight against two riders instead of six. Unfortunately Ashton was taken at the line and came in second. Pretty sure if he would have thrown a few head-butts he would have won.

After the event’s award ceremony we went to Zuke’s for a recovery lunch…were we had the Zuke’s special and a tuna melt….Jeff had a PEPSI and yelled at Ashton for having an iced tea!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Gatorade Prime 01




What’s in it:

Calories – 100
Total fat – 0g
Cholest – 0 mg
Potassium 35mg
Sodium – 110mg
Total Carb – 25g
Fiber – 0g
Protein 0g
Sugars – 23g
Vitamin A – 0% DV
Vitamin C – 0% DV
Vitamin B6 – 10% DV
Calcium – 0% DV
Iron – 0% DV
Niacin – 10% DV
Pantothenic acid – 10% DV

Caffeine free

*Use 15 minutes prior to exercise or competition

Cost $1.50 ish (what I paid at Price-Chopper)


Tried this out the other day cause we've all been talking about it and I thought I would see what it was all about. It's not a gel, but a drink that could be compared to a more concentrated Gatorade. Overall it tasted pretty good and didn't give me any cramps. I did what no athlete should do and used a new product right before a competition. Might be worth your while to try it out and see if it works for you.

Gatorade Prime 01 Website

Friday, July 2, 2010

Fitchburg Stage Race, the trip plus Stage 1

It has been one heck of a week!  Well there is a lot going on.  Helping friends move, racing in one of the most storied cycling races in the US, working one job, potsdam street fest, and then travel for another job!  So yes, things have been busy for sure.  I first want to say that I have taken some great pictures along the way, I just dont have my cables with me so cannot upload them yet.  They will be with time!

I made the trip down to Fitchburg, MA on  July 1st.  Only took a couple 6 hours to drive down which was not bad.  Race HQ is at the Courtyard Marriott in Fitchburg, great hotel.  I have stayed there a few times before and actually hang out in the lobby post race stealing free coffee, internet and watching world cup soccer.   Better then starbucks, coffee is a lot worse though.






The best part of the drive down was stopping at Noon Mark Diner.  Noonmark is located in Keene Valley, NY.  I was introduced to the wonderful diner through Camp Dudley.  Essentially every hike I went on through Dudley ended at Noon Mark.  Great camp for boys and girls, check it out.  Either way I made it safely to to Fitchburg and then back up to Rindge, NH where I will be staying for the week.  I am staying with a friends family from college.  Pictures to come of the lake soon too!



The race bike



Stage 1 was pretty boring and uneventful.  Essentially a 3 mile loop that we went around a ton of time.  Not technical what so ever, one good size climb and thats it.  I made it over just fine every time on the climb, went for a few intermediate sprints (didnt win any), went with moves, tried to race smart.  Racing smart is something that I do not do very well so trying to turn a new page in the book here.  Either way was a pack finish for me.  Technically I am sitting in 7th place, just tied for 7th with roughly 60 other guys too.



Recovery meal of champions


Tomorrow is the RR so we shall see how that goes.  Find out if I can climb or not.  I am leaning towards no.  As for the rest of the week, races here are finished on Monday afternoon.  I am floating around Boston and NH till wed when I will be doing college fairs Wed and Thursday.  I quickly jump into the car and head back to Canton.  I will be working at the shop friday and over the weekend during the Potsdam Street Festival.  I am in town for the week before heading off to Rochester, NY for more college fairs.  I am just everywhere this summer!

On an unrelated note, does anyone have opinions on cell phones?  I kinda want the Droid.  Do I get the original Droid now because it is in stock, wait for the Droid Incredible, or wait for the new Droid Moto X?  Oh the choices.

More updates to come tomorrow!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Point au Roche TTs

Usually when you talk to the WOE Plattsburgh, NY crew we brag about our riding and some of the awesome courses we have near us, like the Tour de Peru. However, there is also another event many of us look forward to each week to test our strength and gauge where we are at. This event is the Point au Roche TT. Individuals of all abilities come to participate in either the 5, 10, or 25 mile courses (an out and back), along Lake Champlain. From first timers all the way to hardened veterans. Those with absolutely no aero-equipment to individuals decked out with it. Either way it is a lot of fun and a good way to build up your strength. So if you thinks that this might be your cup of tea. Join us every Wednesday night at 6pm at the Point au Roche firehouse.

10 mile course
25 mile course

However, if the course is to far away for you to join us, you can keep tabs on us via the following link. It is usually updated weekly and you can see previous results to see how people are improving. TT results

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Training Weekend

So after it was all said and done, I had rode approximately 201 miles (including my prologue) and climbed around 12,418 ft. However, these figures are under protest by Tim and his legs saying they did more. But, no my friend we all know that Training Peaks and Map My Ride are 100% accurate in all their calculations (.)

The training weekend really started at Ashton’s birthday party, where we started planning which rides we wanted to do. Not to mention also plotted out a wicked fun cyclocross course around his horse farm, just not sure how the electric fence is going to play into all of it. But I imagine it would be a good way to get back at someone that really pisses you off.

Bruce, I believe discussed how he wanted to be reasonable with our riding and not hammer away for the entire weekend. One because he was just getting back on the bike and two our courses were no joke. Better to do all the riding then, blow up and not be able to ride the next day. Unfortunately, Mr. Tim Akers did not receive this memo!!

Our first ride started from the Candyman candy shop in Wilmington, NY and was going to follow some of the Lake Placid Iron Man Course. There were tons of cyclists out training and we left with a simple motto of “let’s get us some triathletes” and we did. We past numerous riders and for those being past it must have been a site to see four guys with matching uniforms fly by. A van actually slowed down to take our picture and then gave us a thumbs up. But the fun would soon end as Tim attacked picking up the pace. Tim would continue to attack throughout the rest of the ride and be checked by at least one of his fellow teammates. I held myself back until we reached our final climb of the day. Bruce pulled me back, but what he didn’t know is that I waited for him to catch up. We still had Whiteface to tackle.

Probably the most memorable quote from the ride came back at the parking lot from Ashton. “ Then out of the heavens....Angels appeared wearing white and green. Descending through the light and yelling..."let's go eat"...taking away all the pain and anguish of 52 hard miles.” We cut the climb of white face a little short seeing it was getting late and we still had a brutal ride the next day.

Saturday started off with us going on a short mountain bike ride, but really I think it was the team trying to kill me. How you might say? Let’s just say the brakes on my bike were not 100% functional. So add that into the mix of me not being comfortable on a mountain bike to begin with…equals one scary ride. At least I wasn’t the one to fall on their backside trying to pop a wheelie…….Bruce.

Afterwards we went back to Ashton’s house to spend the afternoon by the lake and just relax before the Tour de Peru. Tim found this time useful for crushing a huge nap and was lucky we didn’t pull any pranks on him…..or did we.


So at 4pm the Tour de Peru was under way. We set an easy pace at the beginning to get the legs warmed up and then with about a quarter mile to Arnold Hill….it was on. I literally turned to Bruce, smiled, and attacked. Showing Arnold Hill no respect and making sure Tim went into it at a pretty good pace. It was Tim’s first time up Arnold. The rest of the ride was pretty straight forward….attacks, Bruce up every hill first, and just plan old hard riding. But what soon came into play was the new yellow sign sprint. For at every yellow sign someone would gun for it. Ashton probably had the biggest victory tallying up about 6 points in one sprint…..there were like four caution sharp turn signs. And then there was my glorious victory of winning the double arrow T intersection road sign. Meaning if you went straight at the intersection you would be driving into the woods and off the road…yeah figure that one out. Everyone rode well and put in a good effort, I still think Ashton had an aero advantage of only wearing an under armor (he forgot his jersey).

Our final ride was a 70 mile loop. I soon found out that this was not going to be the endurance ride I was planning for. Up on the Rand Hill Road, a fellow rider took off and set the pace around 30 mph, quickly splitting the group. We came back together and continuing the slow climb to the Chazy Lake area. On Chazy Lake road, the attacks came again, and again the group was split. Some of us just didn’t have the legs to check an attack. I know I didn’t. Then came the confusion. I carried my momentum down a fast decent, past the attackers, and completely went by our turn. Meanwhile, Charlie had flatted and things got a little confusing. In the end I stayed behind to wait for Ashton and Charlie and did Dannemora Hill twice looking to see if I could find them. I never did and ended up riding home alone, only to find out that Ashton had made his way back to Beekmantown, via another route, and caught up to Bruce and Tim. So that was my big Opps of the day.

Finally I would like to extend our appreciation to the Momot family for allowing us to use their home as a home base between rides and Kelly for making us breakfast and putting up with us to early in the morning. Thanks again!!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Training Weekend Stats

Day 1:
Distance: 46 miles
Elevation Gain: 4646 ft
(Course map)

Day 2 Morning:
1 hour and 20 minute mountain bike ride around Point au Roche

Day 2 Afternoon:
Distance: 48 miles
Elevation Gain: 3802 ft
(course map)
* I think Training Peaks was missing a few roads we took to get back Peru HS after Burnt Hill, but I think the Mileage and elevation a pretty close to actual ride.

Day 3:
Distance: 67 miles
Elevation Gain: 3970 ft
(Course Map)


Write Up to the training weekend to come...just a little pooped out right now to sit down and write a full length blog post.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

IT HAS BEGUN!!!!!

Yes i know i used the cheesy catch phrase from the Mortal Combat games, but it is about the best title I can come up with for a weekend of such epic proportions. This weekend is the WOE training weekend, which will consist of at least 200 miles of riding and a ridiculous number of feet ascended. There may not be enough food in the Plattsburgh area to replace all the calories in which we are going to burn.

Day 1: A 50 mile or so ride around Wilmington, NY with the epic end of the ride Whiteface Mountain climb at the end...all 8 miles of it.

Day 2: Will consist of a morning recovery ride where we will most likely invade a local diner and fest on pancakes, filling our glycogen stores, and prepping ourselves for the classic Tour de Peru. We will be doing all 70 miles or so of it including: Arnold Hill, Burnt Hill, Big Hill, and Mother Cabrini.

Day 3: There is still a little confusion on to which exact course we want to take on this day, but it may lead us around Chazy Lake and possibly into the Lyon Mountain area.

We also have some fun ideas for shorter rides, such as a TTT, or a mtn bike ride around Point au Roch.

I am sure we will keep everyone posted...like a stamp....on our adventures this weekend and i promise we will try not to get into to much trouble. I already got yelled at today by some lady to get out of the road, during my 40 mile prologue ride.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

It Never Rains, But it Pours

I could go on and on about how this past weekends NYS road and crit championships went. Tell you the play by play of the Saturday ¾ race or Mike and Tim’s races on Sunday. However, I feel as if this post could be made more useful by focusing on another matter.

As we all know Lady Luck has not shined on some of us over these past few months, with crashes during big races, untimely flats, broken frames, seat posts, bones, and mechanical issues. For me this is a concern seeing WOE is not only just a young program, but also a young team in general. Being a leader on many of the teams I have participated on I have seen the discouragement that can be brought about by these circumstances. The feeling of I’m not good enough or why am I not performing as well as everyone else, or just plain old....why me?

But we have to remember we are all, mostly all, young racers, and for some of us our racing careers have only consisted of three months. So naturally we are going to lack experience, the endurance, and some of the know how to win and stay in races. That is just the natural way of the sporting world, unless you are a Peter Sagan.

Most of us are still trying to find out the things that work for us, for example warming-up pre-race, and how we need to handle our bodies during extensive training. So in time it will come. We have some good knowledgeable veterans that are going to led the way and have some very good young talent. A mixture in any sporting world to be considered a dangerous combination. We just need to keep riding and having fun!!!

Some of you already know one of my favorite quotes from Lance Armstrong and not quitting, so let me pass on another. “But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Full Moon Vista Cycling Grand Prix

Memorial Day weekend had a common theme for most WOE riders taking some time to recover and to be with friends or family. However, I did see one WOE rider climb some long gradual hill in the Cranberry Lake region of NY. Kudos to you! But for some of us it was time to start warming up the legs and prepping for the Full Moon Vista Cycling Grand Prix, a three day event.

Three riders made their way down to the Rochester area: Tim, Jeff, and Mike. The trip started out well with me (Jeff) aimlessly running around the Postdam/Cantan area trying to find our beloved Tim Akers. Once I found Tim and everyone was together, we started the long trip. We knew we would be cutting it close, but would make it before the race started. Oh we did indeed make it before the race started. I believe the announcement "one minute to the start of the cat 4/5 race" was the signal for Tim and Mike to get registered in.

Being on time was not a very common theme for us this past weekend. At the second race we showed up 30 minutes to the start of the race, due to a slight GPS error that took us to the Full Moon bike shop and not the race site. So needless to say again our warm-up sucked. Tim did well placing 15th and I think i put in a pretty good effort for my 1st race involving mainly cat 4's placing 29th out of 60+ races. Mike, unfortunately was feeling the affects of a slight cold and a crappy nights sleep (HUGE storm rolled through), so decided to rest.

Probably the most interesting part of the weekend, besides being jumped in the night by a cat, we race #3. Why was it interesting? Well it was absolutely miserable weather. We finally got to a race with an hour before race time and quickly set up camp under a tent and an awning. The course was a little slick with a sketchy downhill that had a small lake at the bottom that could have caused some trouble, but I guess never did. Again Tim did very will placing 6th and I 25th out of 38 riders, because I rode like a scared little sissy girl and pulled up on the down hill portion of the race, causing me to get dropped. Again Mike chose wisely and decided to rest and not catch pneumonia. See we do learn from Tim's mistakes!

http://www.gvccracing.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/FMVGP_Men45_Omnium_2010.pdf

All in all it was a fun weekend racing, eating buffulo wings, and meeting the Akers. I can't remember the last time i sat in someone's back yard and did nothing for like 5 hours listing to music and nothing else....well one shenanigan...I think a few of you know what i am talking about...

Monday, May 24, 2010

Bring Back The Love for Cycling: Team Broccoli Style

If the Tour de Syracuse did not display some outstanding races and great performances, it may have shown the many clubs that participated the way a cycling team should be. Well managed, fit, glycogen full, and totally filled with shenanigans. Team Wear on Earth set a new bar for making racing events fun and more relaxing for everyone. The seriousness/nervous expressions from teams and individuals around us could not help but break down to laugh and smile. Wither it was from obscure comments, practical jokes, or straight explosive decompression Team Wear of Earth made everyone's day.

On numerous occasions people would come up to us and ask where we are from, how much they liked our kits, and at times some wanted to know if they could be on our team, probably jokingly but subconsciously they really wanted to be.

What really got peoples attention was during the final climb of the Road Race, which was a pretty respectable climb to the finish line. After the Cat. 3 and 5 races, Jeff (the Bold), Ashton (The Blind), Mike (the Squeaker), and Bruce (the Almighty) staged for a surprise to fellow teammates Doug and Tim. As Tim was on the finally climb, he soon found himself surrounded, not by competitors of the race, but by crazed teammates running besides him in bibs and socks. Tim, spectators, and racers, couldn't help but smile and laugh through the pain of the final climb. Yes I said spectators suffering from the pain of the climb. I think I got a cramp walking up it.

Even though we had our fun, our shenanigans did not affect anyone else. Wait! I take that back, it affected one guy. While warming up for the TT, Jeff finished his water and decided to throw the water bottle into the back of the WOE van. Jeff not knowing the power held within his Howitzers, thought he lightly tossed the bottle. However, the bottle flew hitting the top of the van, bounced over it, and hitting a racer in the head that was parked next to us. All I'm going to say is he shouldn't have been parked to close.

Even though this shenanigan filled team may have fooled around nonstop. It also showed that it could handle the road as well. The team finished with 7 top ten finishes (2 in the crit, 2 in the TT, and 3 in the road race) over the weekend. Bruce dropped the hammer during the TT and won it, passing at least 4 racers.

The trip ended with a stop to the famous Dinosaur restaurant. The team reminisced about the weekend while enjoy some awesome food. Everyone finished their plates, except for Jeff who couldn't man up to finish it. Also the bill showed that tired sleep deprived cyclist are not mathematicians. For it took probably as long to figure out the bill as it did for us to fest on our meals.

Team Wear on Earth, would also like to extend a HUGE "THANK YOU!!!!!!!" To Moe, who housed four members of the team and brought us to an excellent Italian restaurant, where we got a great meal and a pretty good show.


Official results from the Tour de Syracuse Omnium

Bruce B (Cat 3) - 6th overall
Tim A (Cat 4) - 12th overall
Jeff K (Cat 5 <35) - 5th overall
Ashton (Cat 5 < 35) - 8th overall also KOM
Mike K (Cat 5 < 35) - 17th overall
Eric G (Cat 5 35up) - 27th overall

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Race prep for Syracuse

Bike racers are anal, lets be honest.  The team is heading down to the Tour de Syracuse in a few days and we are all chatting about equipment, gearing choices, what wheels to use, if we should bring TT bikes for the massive 3 mile TT or just say f'it and do it on just one bike cause it is just 3 miles.  This doesn't mean we can't wear funny looking aero helmets.  Oh and how could I forget about hotel choices?  Cheaper hotel vs free breakfast?  Free breakfast won that battle. 

After swinging by the shop earlier to pick up my new wheel bag I did what any respectable bike racer does in preparation for a race, take apart the bike and put it back together.  This year I am riding a Specialized Tarmac which I LOVE.  I started my cycling career on a 2004 Specialized Allez while living in NH and am happy to get back to where I started after a brief hiatus with a crappy overseas no name bike which I ended up flexing out in a matter of weeks.  The Tarmac is a blast to ride, stiff, responsive, and looks awesome (last part might be the most important). 

The frame pre cleaning and spare wheels in the corner

 
So what is part of the pre race treatment on the bike?  Well it starts with a cleaning via pledge and lots of paper towels.  FD adjustments, RD adjustments, tossing the race wheels in there with the cassette I will be running for the crit (11-23), tighten every bolt that I can find and torque it to spec, checking brakes, switching out brake pads, cleaning the chain, cleaning the cassettes, cleaning the cassettes on the spare wheels, finding the spare wheels, making sure the spare wheels are still actually functioning, and then finally the brief test ride.  All in all not to much work, maybe 30 mins when all is said and done.

The race set up

Tomorrow I am off from work which is great for the reason, well, I dont have to work.  I have plans to meet up with Matt Russell for a ride and then get to help him with his swim at the St Lawrence pool.  Matt is fresh off of a great performance at Florida 70.3 this past weekend. 

Stayed tuned on race updates from the weekend, we will try and toss something up Saturday night and then if I am still alive Sunday night too.  Next week will be tricky training wise, all day meeting on Monday, Philly on Tuesday, and back home Wed.  Good times.  At least we have the weekend off from racing so can really get in some good miles before the CT Stage Race (crit, 10mile TT, and 91 mile RR).