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!