Tucson Day 4 TBC Stage 2

Today was the last day of the Tucson Bicycle Classic, a 50mile circuit race only about 1 mile away from our house. Was awesome to sleep in a bit, and ride to the race. Thanks to TJ, I have a new favorite breakfast food. Some old-fashioned oats, raisins, honey, cinnamon, banana, like normal, but I never thought of mixing in some peanut butter as well. It was delicious! Adds a couple hundred calories, but not bad!

Anyway, rode to the course and signed in, and rode with the guys in the reverse of the course. We had 8 laps of a 5.6 mile course, with a 2.5mile climb through the feed zone that was a long grinder. Right from the gun, the pace was pretty high up the climb, but my legs have been getting better and it wasn't to bad to sit in. A break of 6 eventually rolled up the road with the #5, and #7 on GC. 1,2,3 all missed the break and had to chase the rest of the day. I thought Chad had gotten up the road, and so I just resigned to sit in and roll it. After 6 of the 8 laps, I saw him come up to the front of the field...DOH! Looks like we have some communication skills to work on :) The break was already 2minutes up the road and wasn't going to get away. Eventually the #1 guy on GC got away with 2 other guys, and stayed away. Over the course of the day, the wind picked up from about 5mph to a 20mph headwind up the finishing stretch. The final corner was hot, but I don't know why, we turned the corner and the wind hit, and slowed everyone down to about 12mph up the hill. Chad and I rolled the sprint and came in mid-pack, solidifying the finish of our first races in 2011.

Congrats to Michael Sencenbaugh (Zealous Racing) who actually won the overall, with a 2nd on the day. He is originally from Tucson, but now lives in Carroll, IA. I think he has been down in Tucson for most of the spring training, as he is rolling really well. Gonna be someone to watch this season. Chad finished a respectable 19th overall for the weekend and I moved up 15 spots in the last two days to finish 30th, out of 45 starters. Much better then 45/45 that I was sitting at the end of Day 1!!!!

I was very happy with how my legs responded today. Much better then the TT, and better then yesterday. Boosts the confidence, as I was able to set PR in power and hr two days in a row. Legs are coming around for sure, just took a large shock to open them up. Overall, this past week yielded the highest mileage, TSS, IF, KJ for the season!

Now spring break is over technically, but I am out here in Tucson for another week. Going to do Mt. Lemmon a couple days, which is a 100mile day, and the Shootout on Saturday before I leave. Hopefully another great week of training to get me ready for the April/May races! Finally got some batteries for my camera, so I will be posting some pictures over the course of the week!

Now on to some homework, it is hard to concentrate out here though. But grad school calls!

Big congrats to TJ Tollakson for winning the Cat 3 GC and getting his Cat 2 upgrade! Gonna be some serious HP added when he comes back in May!

Later!

Tucson Day 3 TBC Stage 1

Today was the big day of the three day stage race here in Tucson. 4 laps of a 20-mile loop with 10miles of climbing and descending each lap. Each lap was right around 1000ft of elevation gain. Woke up at 6:30 for the 35minute drive to Green Valley, Arizona. Had a great bowl of oatmeal, raisins and toast with peanut butter for breakfast. It is about 6ish miles away from the US-Mexico Border. After coming in dead last in the TT, today was a day where I just wanted to test myself to help my confidence and move up at least one spot.

Got down to the course, got all kited up with some great new sox from Mr. Waugaman! Filled bottles, got GU and ClifBar product ready, and then Chad and I set off with the other Cat 2 at 9:20am.

Started out quite fast, almost crit like. Settled into the group for the long haul of the next 3.5 hours. A break of 4 got away after 1 lap, and stayed away until about 10 miles to go. A crash in the first feed zone, attacks through the feed zone made it quite hard to feed and make sure to stay attached to the rest of the field. Tried to work on my pack presence, and not get slotted into the tailgunner seat as I so often have in the past. I found this space to be occupied by Chad for most of the day! With about 15 miles to go, my legs were pretty toast and I could feel myself losing contact with the field towards the end of the climb, before a 5 mile straight decent. I hung on and stayed in with a big effort to say the least. Chad was moving very well, and was playing around towards the front, and ended up with a great 20th on the day, and sits in 14th overall. If we can lose, 4 guys tomorrow he will be in the money! As for me, I popped with about 1k to go and rolled in 24sec down on the group. I didn't know what to think of this, but expected the worst. Results show that I did what I wanted to today, got a great workout in, and moved up 12 spots on the GC. So now I am in the top 75% of the field instead of tailgunner. Hopefully with the course tomorrow, I can move up into the top half.

Thank you so much to Wendy Waugaman and Jeff Lorenzen for their help out there today!!!

More to come after the circuit race tomorrow. Going to be a very hard circuit, and maybe I can put some good efforts in for a good placing!!

Tucson Day 2 TBC Prologue

Nothing much to report here today...

Raced the 3.3 mile TT on my stock bike, with a 1450gr powertap hub and no aero gear. Felt awful. Did set PR's with HR and Power.....

But needless to say my ego took a big hit, and starting the 80mile RR tomorrow, I can only go up on the results sheets, if you get my drift......

Tomorrows another day...

Tucson Day 1

Hey everyone, well I guess it has been since November since I last blogged...wow, oops! Still in grad school and working.

Today I flew down to Tucson for American Equity/ Velosports Spring Camp here for the next week. Lou Waugaman, Paul Deninger, Chad Bishop, TJ Tollakson will be riding and gaining some great fitness!!! We are actually participating in the Tucson Bicycle Classic over the next three days, so stay tuned for recaps/results!

Flew out of Minneapolis this morning, thanks to Tpow for his hospitality over the past 2 days! Also thank you to the Bike Fit Guru for his great bike fit and new custom insoles for my Bontrager RXL shoes! He was very knowledgeable and did a great job, my position feels great, and the insoles are very nice.

Paul picked me up at the airport and we got back to TJ's house and got my bike all put together. Headed over to Lou's for a spin to Seguaro National Park and back. Ended up with 60miles for the day, and a good start to my tan with the 90degree temps and 20mph winds. On the way back we rode through the University of Arizona Campus, where the NCAA Regionals are going on. Stopped at a cool bakery place and had an awesome Mahi Mahi burrito, per Lou's advice. It was amazing!!!!! Now just hanging out at TJ's and trying to re cooperate for the time trial tomorrow evening. I am in the last 5 cat 2's to start and so hopefully Chad and I can put down a good showing. I am just out here for training and I am not expecting much, especially hauling a 1300gr powertap wheel around!! Gonna be a great time though.

Trying to get the camera up and running, forgot to get batteries.... Here are two links of our bikes in Seguaro Nat. Park and of the Mahi Mahi Burritos!!!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150120692530819&set=a.451685545818.255817.717325818&theater

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150120685070819&set=a.451685545818.255817.717325818&theater

I'll check in after the 5km TT tomorrow!

Life Update

Had my last class of first semester here at UNI in graduate school. I tell you, it went by extremely fast. I had originally thought it would have gone slow with no swimming. Life keeps you busy as I am trying to work 2 jobs, study and ride my bike, but it is all going and is fun!

Speaking of biking, first rest week of the season this week as I have had a good 3 weeks of base training before and some good weight training! It has been pretty cold here in the Cedar Valley and very windy to really get any long rides done, but luckily these temperatures fell during my rest week! Next week I will be starting my Base 2 training and incorporating some longer and more intense tempo and muscle force building rides.

Next year, I will be joining the ranks of VeloSportIowa Cycling Team. This team is based out of Davenport, but we will have riders from all over. Have known these guys for a few years and all have given me great advice and help towards training and being a better bike racer. Logistics are still falling into place, but we have a great schedule together and looking forward to some big time races!

2011 Race Team:
Jeff Bradley
Paul Deninger
Lou Waugaman
Chad Bishop
TJ Tollakson
Carson Christen

Also please to announce some great sponsors coming on board for next season!

Trek Bikes
American Equity Insurance (Thanks Wendy!)
Oakley (Thanks Rob V!)
Velocity Wheels (Personal Sponsorship)
Dunn Bros Coffee (Yum!)
Pharrels Extreme Bodyshapping
More to come...!

Just the suspense of what a great team we will have next season is giving me the motivation to ride, ride, ride and work hard!

Now I have about a month off before classes resume again. Looking to put in some great miles and work.

JingleCross

Been forever since I updated, sorry!

Did the second two days of Jingle cross this weekend. My 3rd and 4th cyclocross races ever. I won and got 2nd in the first two I did this season, but as with Memorial Day weekend racing, I knew it was going to be much harder. Finished in the top half both days, but I tell ya, I need some serious work on technical riding skills. Nothing some mountain biking won't take care of.

The one thing with cyclocross, is that I have been hooked. It is a different kind of racing, but lots of fun. Next season, I am going to get into it, with proper training and racing more than a few times. Really a fun time! Was awesome to see Amanda Miller win two of three, she is going to be on fire for HTC Columbia this next season.

My first Thanksgiving Break in 8 years was pretty awesome, no swimming or early morning practices, now I see what I missed! Only two weeks until finals and another first. A winter break of almost a month. With swimming, I would have about 3 days off for a break, and at Luther we started a J-Term class January 3rd.

Long-Overdue Update!

Hey blogger world!

Sitting here taking some time to update my life. While racing has been over since the state road race, I have taken some time off the bike to get into my graduate program here at UNI. It is going pretty well, I only have two tests the whole semester, but 3x15 page papers or so. Pretty much as though I am writing my senior paper all over again. This if fine with me as I get to choose the topics to research! My class schedule is as follows:

Adv. Exercise Physiology
Topics in Strength and Conditioning
Sport Psychology
Lab Instrumentation

Each class has its set of work to be done, but each also ties in with one another, and makes it better than four differing classes at a liberal arts school such as Luther. I do miss Luther though, and it has been tough not having a swim team for support. It has also been hard to be away from my family and friends in Decorah. But enough of the negatives, there aren't many!

I came to UNI with the idea of creating a cycling club in order to race next spring in the NCCCC conference. Well a few weeks have passed and I am pleased to announce the UNI Cycling Club. We are going to have a racing faction, but also have ideas/plans to increase bicycle advocacy around Cedar Falls. This will include "Share the Road" stuff, Bike Garages, Bike Lanes and trying to reduce the number of cars on the roads driving less than 5 miles to places! Will keep updates on here and the cycling website! Stay tuned, and if anyone is interested in sponsorship, please contact me!

Cycling has been hit or miss, and I took a week off the bike last week for a post-season break. Now I have my cyclocross bike built up and will be starting to ride my gravels and such with the gang here and do some cross racing. Never have done it, but I am looking forward to it! Have watched Jingle Cross a few times in the past. Here is bike: pretty cheap frame (Scattante) with better than average components (105).

Also since my last post, I did end up getting a new car towards the end of summer. Thank you to my Dad for locating such a great deal! This Saturn LW300 had only 66,000 miles on it, for being a 2002. Looked brand new on outside, and when you looked under the hood, it was as though it had never been driven. We are thinking it was a professors car, who didn't end up driving to campus or an older couple who didn't drive much! Has worked amazing so far. No 4x4, but much better gas mileage and still the storage for my bikes!

I will hopefully update a little bit more now that I have my classes under way and will be riding more for fitness than nose-saddle training as during the summer! Pictures of bikes and friends!

Hope all is well!