Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The woman sitting at Cafe Hollander's corner table was glancing over at me. The restaurant was packed with racers and fans coming to watch the Pros race on Downer Ave and the air was filled with noise.

I looked back down at my glass of water. Chills ran like currents through my body; my face was white and I was sure the cafe goer in the corner thought I was an addict of some kind in serious withdrawal.

Earlier in the day I felt like the luckiest guy in the race, bunny-hopping someone's carbon wheel as it slid across my path in the category 3 race. On lap two. It was a large field, more than a hundred riders, many bandaged from earlier crashes the day before in Kenosha. Our race had been delayed. First by the now regular lack of organization of the Super Week organization, which led to a full hour and a half of standing around for the first race. Then we were delayed by the bratwurst fire alarm and the firetruck responding to the neighbor's automatic fire alarm. The neighbor had left his window open, brat smoke filled his apartment and the Masters 123 race was delayed. We were delayed by the kiddie races that were moved ahead of our race in order to placate the waiting moms and dads. I don't blame them, but I do blame the race organizers for not getting their act together.

So we're standing at the start line, me in row two, feeling a bit iffy after a day of multiple trips to the bathroom. The gun goes off and we're rolling. After the first turn, the road disintegrates into a series of running cracks in the concrete running down the middle of the road and radiating out every five feet or so. The organizers hadn't thought of filling them in. My teammate skips his rear wheel over a manhole cover and promptly cracks his rim. As we round through the finish line after one lap, I'm still feeling OK and my teammate is five hundred dollars poorer. I hear my family shouting after turn one, "Go, Dad!" and the stomach bug is forgotten.

Turn two and then some guys discover there is a crack in the middle of the road by riding into it and jumping over it. We're going 32mph. I move to the outside to give myself an out but we round turn four and come down the straight to the finish line. The peloton is together when someone falls into someone else about 6 wheels from the front. Like dominoes, riders fall towards each side, sliding and creating a pile of bodies and bikes from behind. I accelerate towards the gates on the side and watch the rider and bike slide towards me. I pull up and jump onto his wheels and ride over, expecting to hit some snag and be pulled down, but I'm rolling on pavement again, free. I look back and see I'm the last one through and a pile of more than thirty riders on the deck behind me.

A delay as the race is stopped for 20 minutes to fix the bikes and clean up the riders. Most come back into the race. The ref lectures us about keeping our heads up. I look at the other riders and my stomach is not so good anymore. We're off, but I'm not into this anymore and hang at the back before dropping out. My teammate stays in, crashes (ruining his other wheel, seat and surgically repaired shoulder) and then gets 8th place.

An hour later I'm shivering and feeling ill.

No results during this Super Week for me. There are many reasons, most tied to me, my training, my limitations, my luck, my lack of wisdom. Things learned? I shouldn't race in extreme heat when I'm not ready. That, combined with my limited intensity miles earlier in the season due to first snow and then concussion, was all I needed for a complete breakdown the past two weeks.

No results, but it was worth it to meet new people who share my passion for bikes and racing, to rekindle old friendships with Super Week friends from all over the US and to spend time with my mom and dad. Got mom to a bike shop for a fitting and we'll be getting a new Trek 2.1T when she comes to Grandparents' Day in Colesburg in the fall.

It's five days later and I'm feeling pretty good now. Think I'll go the races this weekend in Elk Grove Village...

Saturday, July 19, 2008

More Heat

What do you do when the racing isn't going well? Look for an explanation and try to fix it.

The big explanation for my crappy performance so far can be summed up with one word: heat. Not good with it and not smart enough to avoid racing in it, I still feel the effects of doing five races in hot temps and high humidity and I'm sitting in a cool basement. Oh well, as my wife said this morning on the phone, you're getting out there and getting a decent workout in. And I do enjoy racing!

Today's race in Waukesha is promising to be wet and/or humid. I like the course a lot; lots of accelerations, power climbs and a long descent into the final corner leading to a long finishing straight. It's scheduled for forty miles, but at this Super Week that can mean anything at all. If it's raining, the warm-up might be problematic, but c'est la vie, n'est ce pas?

After the race, it's back to Iowa to see the family and rest before returning to Cedarburg on Tuesday. Hopefully with fresher legs and fresher spirit.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Fear and Loathing in Richton Park

After getting dropped 12 laps into a fifty lap race, due to no reason other than an inability to hold the 30mph pace, my head is a flurry of conflicting emotions, thoughts, and rationalizations. I'm certainly not fit enough to actually race Cat 3 races right now, I nearly survived the furious attacking and high pace on a course that I was suited for; two more laps and I would have been OK.

I used the inhaler and my lungs were fine.

On the plus side, the racing is better, smoother, faster, more challenging than Cat 4. I think this year's 3 races are faster than last year's as well. After I dropped on lap 12, I heard an official remark that the riders were averaging 30mph per lap, kind of surprised at the speed.

This is good for me, I'm going to respond to this by becoming a better rider. I know part of my problem is a lack of early season racing, hard to get your race legs all at once at Super Week, but that couldn't be helped. Not the 7 foot snow drifts in early March, or the concussion due to equipment failure in May. And this is another thing that is wonderful about bike racing. To do well, everything must come together in a balance. I do my part to train and plan, for each race, for each training ride, for the year. Then things happen and the dance and the balancing begins again.

Today I'm off to Bensenville for my last Chicago race of the Super Week series. Next up will be Humboldt Park on Thursday and maybe a spin with my little guy tomorrow. Sometimes balancing is not such an unpleasant thing after all.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Spasm

Seems like the older my body gets, the more difficult it is to hold everything in balance for a decent race performance.

It wasn't the three hour nightmare drive to the south side of Chicago, though that was unpleasant enough. Blue Island is what many Milwaukeans think of when they hear 'Chicago', old, crusty, lots of large people standing outside of bars, "Hey, whar ar you from?" "Dubuque." "Huh?" Another large person, maybe more sober, "That's in Iowa."

By our start at 3:20, the skies were threatening rain and the temps were getting close to 90. The thick air should have given me a clue to take a puff from the inhaler in my bag. I've had EIA, exercise induced asthma for a couple of years now, but hadn't had a full blown spasm for two years. But I'd had a nice warmup on the rollers, a few spins around the parking lots and now was in a nice position in the line for the start with 71 other, soon to be elbow to elbow close, friends.

Moving to cat 3 this year means that my races are no longer the first of the day, but often the last of the day. I've added more training in the heat to compensate, but this change doesn't really help a big guy like me at all. The race started fast and there were attacks early and often in the first laps of the one mile circuit. The backside of the course had a cross tailwind from the left, but coming onto the delapidated main street, the wind was hard and swirling between the buildings.

I was the only Wheaton fellow in the 3's race, so covering moves wasn't in my game plan, just positioning and identifying the strong riders. I moved up and surfed the group about 15 riders back, said 'hello' to a couple of familiar faces. "Haven't seen you since last year; how ya' doin'?" "That's my son on the front there, my 13yr old got 17th in the fours race."

About ten miles into the forty mile race, there was a hard acceleration and with no warning, I couldn't breathe much.

And that's it. One of the beauties of racing is that amidst all of the complexity, tactics, machines, relationships, the race comes down to a brutally simple reality in the end. I learned not to take breathing for granted... and to check the air quality reports before I head to Chicago again.

I'm also readjusting the schedule: no race Sunday in Olympia Fields, just a ride with my little guy Karl in the park. Perhaps I'll add Richton on Monday if the weather is OK.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Super Week Schedule

Racing starts tomorrow in Illinois and I'll be heading down to Blue Island for their second annual SW race. Last year was not an auspicious start: lots of crashes, dicey pavement and hot temps. Not sure what this year will bring, but as long as the thunderstorms hold off...

Here's my schedule for the next two weeks. I might add Downer's and/or Racine to the mix if I'm feeling great, otherwise I'm sticking to my rule of two or three races and an easy spin day. Nothing like having a 44 year old carcass to haul around! Like my friend/mentor Geoff in Le Boulou says, 'Racing as you get older is 60 percent mental and 40 percent physical.' He's still winning at 62, so there might be some truth in that. More later, off to the races!

7/12: St. Francis Hospital Blue Island ProAm [Men 3]
7/13: Olympia Club Criterium [Men 3]
7/15: Ray Basso Bensenville Criterium - Day 1 [Men 3]
7/17: Humboldt Park Criterium [Men 3]
7/18: Ripon Red Hawk Criterium [Men 3]
7/19: Carl Zach Cycling Classic presented by Couri Insurance Agency [Men 3]
7/22: WDSC Cedarburg Cycling Classic presented by Time Warner Cable [Men 3]
7/23: Whitnall Park Criterium [Men 3]
7/25: Chase Food Folks & Spokes [Men 3]
7/27: Time Warner Cable Whitefish Bay Classic [Men 3]

Here are some quick links for info:

Daily race info

Race Technical Guide

Results

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Some thoughts about joy

A few seasons ago, racing in the bunch at MGA Proving Grounds in Burlington, Wisconsin, I turned to a fellow next to me. Amid the chain whirr, the buzz of the tires, the sharp relief of shadow and sun on a downhill run, I was experiencing exhilaration in it's purest form, with a sheen of summer sweat, in a race during Super Week, with a group of nearly complete strangers I had been bonding with for several days of racing.

"Man, isn't this fantastic?"

"Huh?"

"Isn't this great, what it's all about?"

"Huh?"

I don't remember who I was talking to, just someone who happened to be next to me. I know I was smiling and the other fellow probably backed away a bit, but it was a moment I had to share with someone, and, like D.T. Suzuki said, in sharing I likely diminished it a bit. But these moments seem to come infrequently in life so sharing seemed like a great idea at the time.

Now a few years later, Super Week racing is about to start again. Postings on some of my friends' racing blogs are filled with variations of doom and gloom and a kind of weltschmerz dread of what is to come. There is a lot to be concerned about, big fields, the upgrade to a higher category, the crappy courses in Chicago, where pale riders with hairy legs mix it up badly in the last lap.

There is an essential reality about bike racing that transcends all of that. It brings us to the moment, the constant now from which the past spins off like a spool of thread. The past was real, the future is not real, only the moment exists and we are brought to this moment in the constant flux of a race. The sprint is essentially the roshi's stick cracking us in the back, the barrage of stimuli, of pain, sweat in the eyes, bumping elbows, grinding gears, offer the chance to live right now, balanced on twenty two millimeter tires, traveling 30 miles per hour, elbow to elbow with one hundred people you met for the first time minutes before.

Isn't this fantastic?

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Out with a friend





Robert is visiting with his family for a few days. We stayed with Robert and Nicole in Rejmerstock at the end of our French sabbatical a year ago (see http://99daysinfrance.blogspot.com). We did 50 tempo miles out to Backbone State Park, surveying the flood damage and spinning back with the 20mph tailwind. A beautiful day.