A lot has happened since July.

First, due to a convergence of the stars, a ton of help from awesome teammates, and some serious focus, I finally got that upgrade to Cat 2. It's been a goal for so long, I'm having trouble even thinking about another goal.

Second, a few things have stopped whatever goal musings have crossed my mind:

(a) Cross season. For many, road season goals are subsumed by cross season goals. Cross season means no racing at all for me - I spend all my weekend free time making waffles for those cross racers and for their friends, spouses and kids who cheer them on. Check this past Sunday's Oregonian for an article by Heidi Swift - I gave her some crazy stats on how much waffle batter and Nutella I go throug in a season. Cyclocross keeps getting bigger and bigger here in the Northwest, and waffle demands have increased proportionately. On average, I'm selling twice as many waffles per race as I did three years ago when this silly hobby started. And the response to this year's kit has been absolutely amazing - sightings everywhere on the road and 'cross races. Thanks to everyone for liking it so much!

(b) Left quad/hip. Much worse than cross season, it appears that last year was in part a Pyrrhic victory - the latest diagnosis is that my left femoral head is "interioralized" in my hip socket. That means it shifted to the front of the socket, and it explains why my left leg moves like a drunken monkey compared to my right leg. The shifted head may be putting pressure from the back on my iliopsoas, the top of my quad, and my iliac artery and vein. Most of the time it feels like a rubber band is stretched tight over the left side of my pelvis - that's the muscle and artery pushing against the inguinal ligament. Feels pretty weird, but worse is the damage it may have done to my quad and artery. I'm pretty vascular - a needle-tester's dream, but my left leg is ridiculous when I do any sort of workout. A spider web of huge ropes all over my leg. Most people think it means I have awesome circulation, but unfortunately the opposite is true. Those swollen veins and arteries indicate blood pooling and poor circulation. I'm taking six weeks off the bike to figure out if a long rest will help at all. If not, I'll go for MRI's and CT scans to confirm the diagnosis and try the least invasive procedures to fix it. Or become a runner.

That's right. I may not even get to do a race as a Cat 2. Bending over on the bike compresses and pinches the quad and arteries and veins in my left leg and continuing to ride seems to make it worse. Possibly permanently. So I'm running. And trying not to get too depressed. And trying not to eat as if I put in big rides!

Ok, that was a lot of serious information. I'm hoping someone out there has a great recovery story for the same affliction. If not, a good joke will do. Or a running partner.

Keep in touch,

Joshua/CycloSportif

I used to be the eighth. Somehow I would manage to get eighth in races all the time. Didn't really matter how big the field was - due to forces completely within my control, I would fight to be in the top ten at the end of the race, but then always lacked the confidence, aggressiveness and maybe fitness to scratch, claw and dig to get up into the podium circle.

Well, I'm still trying to figure out how to get onto the podium, but it finally seems like I've got one foot lifting towards the steps. I've become the fourth.

Cirque du Cycling Criterium - 4th. Salem Fairview Circuit Race - 4th. Vancouver Courthouse Criterium - 4th.

Some non-fourths do exist - add in some Cat 1/2's and I wind up 5th at the weekly circuit race. Take those 1/2's away, add in some Cat 4's (and amazing work by my teammates Eric and Steven) and I wind up winning a weekly circuit race. It seems as though I've figured some things out and done some good training, but I still have much learn (and fitness to get) in order to contest that top spot.

Typical Cat 3 that I am, I really would like to upgrade. Also typical, I'm 35, with a job, wife and child. On my current trajectory, I should make it by the end of the season. I'm doing it the hard way, though, since you need 25 upgrade points and those 4th place finishes are worth up to 3 upgrade points each depending on the size of the field. Yep, consistent 4th places require just that - lots of consistency. In lots of races. But if that's my destiny, I'll take it.

But what will I do if and when I make it to the 2's? I can't imagine training (or recovering) more than I currently do, and that's not enough to really do damage in the 1/2 races. My Cat 2 buddies who are fast ride 15-20 hours a week (or are genetic freaks). If I ride 12 hours, that's a big week. And eight of those hours are commuting - I do try and use that time wisely, but the commute is in the end a commute. I've spent the past four days demolishing my kitchen as part of a remodel. Crowbar and sawzall. I was doing it all morning before the Vancouver Courthouse Criterium this afternoon. No one needs to tell me that it's bad for my racing, but it's got to be done and I'm the one that has to do it (unless we win the lottery).

Well, I guess I will suffer in those 1/2 races. Really suffer. And I'll keep doing the Cat 1/2/3 weekly series I enjoy so much. Yep, you don't have to be a 1/2 to race with them for some races.

But I will be so happy if I am.

Joshua/CycloSportif

I have spent a lot of time riding a bike this weekend. 4-5 hrs. each day. Nothing really remarkable about that, except I wasn't pedaling. I was on a motorcycle.

I've always wanted to learn how to ride a moto. Just one of those skills you should have in your quiver, like simple house repairs and replacing a car battery. My wife and daughter are away for a few weeks, so I'm living the bachelor lifestyle - what could be more appropriate than motorcycle lessons?

Oregon has an awesome program - if you take (and pass) a 15-hour basic riding course, they waive the written and driving tests required for your motorcycle endorsement. I just finished the class this afternoon. It was perfect. They give you a helmet and a small bike (200 to 250cc) to use and set you up in a big parking lot with lots of cones, and then slowly build your skills and confidence with lots and lots of instruction and little drills. That's the first half of each day. The second half of the day (and the prior Friday evening) is spent in the classroom. Yep, there's a manual and reading homework each night. I took my manual and studied and re-read everything each day, underlining everywhere and muttering mnemonic devices to myself in Starbucks. This was school, and that's how I study!

The weekend wasn't devoid of real riding. I went for a ride after the class on Saturday. Planned on 3-4 hours. Started late. Flatted twice. The second flat occurred somewhere along a 3-mile climb, but of course I didn't realize it until we were at the top. All I knew was that my buddies where chatting side by side the whole time while my heart rate was through the roof as I tried to hang on. I was pretty tired from the long day on a moto. Once I saw the flat and thought about all that extra work, I really just wanted to give up and go home. Two guys on motorcycles kept on going back and forth along that same stretch of road while we slowly made our way and then fixed the flat. Maybe it was a sign!

A motorcycle certainly won't replace my love of bicycles and there is still much family discussion to be had about me getting a bike. But I've definitely got the fever and now I can get the license. I can't wait to moto again and I dream of a small sport tourer with a bike tray and hard cases (like a few lucky guys have here in Portland). Perfect for my rest days and for getting to summer races!

I'm guessing it will be a bit of time before I get a moto. Until then, I'll be earning that wind in my face the usual way. Now if you see me out there with a big smile it could be the endorphins, but it just might be a daydream of that same stretch road on a different two-wheeled machine!

joshua/cyclosportif

I admit, I've slowly been building quite a tolerance for wearing my compression tights.

First, I wore them a few times at night before races or after hard workouts. It really felt like they helped.

Then I started wearing them in the morning before races and then afterward. Yep, the results were promising.

And then I would bike to work and wear them underneath my work clothes - no one the wiser unless they noticed the bright turquoise flat stitching near my ankles! I mean, isn't that where these tights originated - anti-embolism tights for people who sat all day, like on planes?

So tonight was the final frontier. I wore them in a race. Just the weekly training race at Portland International Raceway. They looked pretty normal underneath my bibs, although I've never had anything come between me and my chamois except for chamois cream. First I wore them on the bike ride home before the race, just to make sure it wasn't too weird. A tiny bit weird, but it seemed to feel pretty good. Good for recovery, maybe good for racing.

NO. NOT GOOD FOR RACING. Maybe it was due to something else, but I started cramping very early in the race. I found myself in a solid four-man break after a few laps - two guys from the same team, then me and one other guy. The teammates were riding hard. Pace was good - fast but not totally killing it. And then the soreness and cramping started after a lap of being away. I started skipping pulls. The teammates were my buddies, and there was no way I would sit on while these guys worked and then sprint them for the hot spot. Hot spots go three deep. Four of us. So rather than waste what few matches I seemed to have just hanging on, I drifted back to the pack. And it didn't get better as the race went on. I felt like I had done some hard weightlifting. As is my curse, I stayed near the front and held position for the rest of the race. But the big power was missing and at the end I just rode in behind the sprint. Too bad, I think it would have been a decent sprint for me based on how it played out.

Lesson learned - my legs need more blood flow during hard efforts than compression tights allow. I knew that was a possibility, but I figure you have to roll the dice now and again. I wasn't expecting Fabian Cancellara results all of a sudden because of some tight tights, but racing is all about the margins. One small improvement may not do much unless there is a lot of time for its benefits to accumulate. However, add up a bunch of marginal energy savings and it can be the difference between having the energy at the end of a race for 5th, 3rd or 1st in a sprint. Or making that breakaway last just long enough.

Things have been on an uptick, so I won't get too upset that this wasn't the ticket. Hope my legs recover for Wednesday, though. So what should I do? Wear the tights to recover from wearing the tights? Very tempting. Just a little bit should help, right?

My last blog sought to find some positives in what has been a tough season. Well, I've got some straight-up good news since then: Two top-5 finishes!

Why? How? The criteriums have started. I'm the worst 135-lb. climber I know, but a decent sprinter for my weight. If the sprint is pretty open and it's not a long dragstrip, that is. Being smaller (and of a more cautious sensibility), it's tough to fight for position against the big guys and I don't have a long, high-speed sprint. Give me 150 meters and a slight uphill or headwind!

My first good finish was the Mississippi Criterium. 4th. This year they took the race up a notch and had some great primes and prizes (thanks especially to Rapha, www.rapha.cc - so nice). Our field was about 60 guys or so and they shortened the course by a block. Eight turns, maybe 1k for the loop. It made for some tight, hectic racing. My teammate was an absolute rock star, keeping me in good position and putting in huge attacks to keep the other guys working. I think I could have even managed a place or two higher if I had picked a smaller gear coming out of the final corner. No complaints, though!

Just two days later was Monday PIR. It's the weekly racing series out at our local raceway. 1.9-mile flat oval with a chicane on one end and a sweeping 180 on the other. Two long straights connecting them. It's a points race with intermediate sprint laps. Put 60-100 guys out there all lots of horsepower, and it's an amazing workout. Just sitting in all race at 28-30 mph is good motorpacing! Anyway, I had been working all race for another buddy, but to no avail. The race that night was too slow with unpredictable accelerations and I found myself on the wrong side or too far back when things actually happened. I was cramping by the end, but found myself near the front going into the final sprint. Luckily, my buddy was right in front of me and had a good sprint for 4th. And I managed to stay behind him for 5th.

I guess that means all the work I've done is starting to pay off. Don't want to read too much into it, though. Being a sprinter is always a roll of the dice. Good sprinters often find themselves way out of the contention due to last minute surges and re-shuffling. Having a teammate who knows how to help makes dealing with those variables exponentially easier!

Anyway, just thought I'd share the good news. I hope your racing and riding is going well, and that I've got more good news to come!

The best-laid blogging plans so often go awry - blogging is so easy, but now it's like carving hieroglyphics in stone compared to facebook and twitter one-liners. Communication seams to be more and more refined sugar and less roasted meat (or protein substitute, as the case may be). Sugar is just so quick and easy. Tastes great, instantly accessible and you never feel full. It takes time and planning for a roast. And you aren't jumping off the couch afterwards - you've got to let it sit a while. No, I'm not saying that my blog is some deep, complex thought-roast. But believe it or not, I take time to write. I re-read and proofread. Rarely do you see the first thing I actually wrote. I'm not trying to hide anything - just the more interesting and honest thoughts seem to come after the initial sentences have marinated a bit. Now we can leave this rationalization for sporadic blogging and the strained metaphor...

So, how's my season going? If we look at the scorecard, not so good.

Top 5 results? Zero. Top 10 results? Zero. Is there anything good to take away from the prior period of racing and training? Well, I do think there are a few good things:

(1) I've been doing 20-minute TT-level intervals pretty consistently now. I get bored or cave in easily during extended efforts - I'd rather sprint for 30 seconds. But, I committed to these long intervals as part of my plan and I've been able to stay focused for more and more of the efforts. (2) Those long intervals should help keep me fresher at the end of a race, but they don't help me with the hard, repeated surging the 3k leading up to the final sprint. I've got a decent sprint, but often I'm wasted from the pre-finale surging. So, I've been doing workouts winding up in a big gear, then staying in it seated and then winding up again out of the saddle, repeating for a number of rotations. I'm pretty wiped at the end, but they are getting easier. Well see if it helps. (3) I feel really good about the help I've been giving my teammates. It's been awesome to race with team tactics and cooperation instead of a bunch of guys with the same jersey riding "not against" each other. I mean full-on lead-out trains and setting up attacks for counterattacks, and blocking. The lead-outs have been great workouts - often harder than sprinting for the line. And my teammates have been delivered into the points. Such an awesome feeling. Almost makes up for my own lack of upgrade success. Almost.

Current thoughts going into the next phase of my racing schedule? Well, I hurt my lower back and hip and have pretty much been off the bike for over a week. I'm pretty much ok now, but it was definitely a bit of a mental and physical setback. I hope that I'll get back up to speed quickly and all the other stuff I've been doing translates into some good results in the upcoming criterium races. Yep, positive thinking continues!

And now some perspective on CycloSportif. I love this stuff. Bikes, bike racing culture, fashion, clothing, and Belgian waffles with Nutella. I keep putting off the next steps to get this little business really anchored, even though I've received such positive feedback and great support. Time to burn some midnight oil and see how viable this is. And, if you're still reading, I have a request: let me know, goad me, heckle me to continue. I'm an extrovert by nature, which means the presence of others gives me energy. I think you'll like the return on your small investment.

Cheers,

Joshua/CycloSportif

It's been a while since we last chatted. Sorry, I've been very busy, and when not very busy, I've been very out of town or very tired.

As far as bike racing is concerned, I'm not tired from more exotic training camps (see Oahu blog) or awesome training. Whatever, you do what you can. For me, during March it's meant six hours of commuting during the week, one hour with short intervals on Saturday and four hours with longer intervals on Sunday. I've been hoping that would translate into some good fitness and top 5 or top 10 results. I figure the best way to be honest with myself and track this stuff in real time is to share it with you. Maybe you can help! Here's a short summary after three races:

Training begins: Ride fix gear to work a lot and for weekend rides

Race 1, Cherry Pie (February): 20th place, lame. Comment: Felt pretty good, but did a futile attempt a bridging to a doomed breakaway late in the game and cooked myself for the finish.

Post-race strategy: Skip most March races and train hard, but then take unstrategic but awesome 10 day trip.

Race 2, Independence Valley (Late March): DNF, lame. Comment: Hard course with rollers and one real climb. Stayed in top ten first time over the climb, although hurting. Sure, let's say I could have done well. But I flatted and had no wheels in the wheel car and that was it.

Post-race strategy: Change tires to something I know and trust. East. Rest.

Race 3, Piece of Cake (Next Day): Midpack, lame. Comment: Flat course with tons of wind. I definitely did not have the same flatland big power that a number of guys had. I've been working on it, but I see that I'm not there yet. And my hamstrings were twinging as we came towards the finish - new position feels better on the quads, but hamstrings are still not stretched or fully adapted. And there were at least 40 or so guys left in a messy pack sprint which makes me nervous and give up spots and then give up. That said, in the past this course was raced pretty negatively by the 3's. Not so this year. Lots of time spent being lined out in the wind chasing while teams threw down at the front. Kudos to Ironclad and to Portland Velo for actually trying to make the race and racing like teams. Half Fast also did what they could with less numbers, and Team Oregon was there some of the time.

Post-race strategy: Leaving for five days next Friday, so I hope I can ride enough to call it a rest week. Stretch every day, especially the days I'm gone. Hope for the best when I come back and Kings Valley is a few days later!

That's my report. Now that I'm back in the swing I'll be a bit better about letting you know what is going on.

Joshua/Cyclosportif

Ok, so it wasn't really a training camp. But I did bring my bike and rode four of the seven days we were there. There was a cold front, so it was only 80 degrees! What is riding on Oahu like? Beautiful, but windy. Those gentle trade winds they talk about weren't so gentle the week we were there. We were on the north side of the island (otherwise known by all surfers as the North Shore) - the waves were absolutely amazing. I'm not much for being in the ocean, but I love being next to it. It was tough not to stop every few minutes for a perfect photo opportunity.

When you're on the North Shore, you have two choices: east or west. There really aren't any inland roads. East is the more scenic route - mostly flat and hugging the ocean, it slowly curves around to the south and brings you to some of Oahu's most famous bathing beaches. And aside from the wind it's a quick trip. If you head west, you can either go out and back to the far northwestern tip of the island, or head south towards Honolulu. Of course, the north-south coastal road and the east-west coastal road make a rainbow's effort at meeting - they come close, but there is a five-mile gap which prevents the roads from connecting and prevents you from a straight circumnavigation of the island. To hit the west coast you'd have to go all the way south towards Honolulu, then go west before you can take the road along the coast as an out-and-back (maybe 30 miles each way - we never made it over there). Having limited ride routes was no bother though - tough to imagine getting sick of the view!

We went east for most rides, but did take the west route once. There is one road that takes you to the west coast without going all the way to Honolulu, but it was closed while we were there. Too bad, because it took you over this beautiful range that would have been sweet to climb back up. We did get to cruise through Schofeild Barracks, though. I mention it because of the sign we saw as we first entered: "30 Days Since Last Fatality. Safety First!" Whoa. No enemy combatants in this neck of the Pacific. That's soldiers accidentally blowing up themselves or others. Needless to say, we rode through that area pretty quickly. We got to the top of a pass with hope of descending to the west side, but we came to a gate with any number of ominous statements regarding restricted passage without authorization and use of cameras or cell phones. Didn't take much for us to decide to turn around.

Looking at a map is a bit deceptive - 45 miles will take you pretty much from one end of the island to the other. There are bike lanes in places, but rarely full-width and mostly full of the island's red clay and some other gravel (see my post on Schwable Marathon tires - perfect for the conditions). Traffic is generally courteous and always slow. Slow because it's single lane roads everywhere except the expressways. Slow because even the highways are 50 mph at most. Slow because no one speeds. Or even approaches the speed limit. And why would they? It's Hawaii, man.

I generally want to keep this blog positive - I'm generally positive, and I do believe in the value of normative gestures. In other words, create positivity. And I love that Columbia Sportswear (a company based in Oregon) has seen the international value of sponsoring a team. But:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2009/features/columbia_launch09/18-teamColumbia

Why would you make women (or men) wear this kit design? Why would you bother to make the women's different than the men's in such a slight way, but still keep it so manly? That outline of chest and abdominals just doesn't work for me. Some pro teams have been doing kit designs that are like super hero armor. Sorry, but a physique with a big chest and bulging abs doesn't come to mind when I think of a super fast road racer. It looks a bit off for men's kit, and totally strange for women's kit.

Just my initial impression. Maybe it will grow on me, along with a big chest.

Training tires. Those words mean different things to different people. For some, it means old race tires. This makes the least amount of sense unless your training tires stay on the trainer or rollers. Otherwise, those tires are probably pretty thin to begin with and have no puncture protection. And since they've been raced on, they're even thinner. That might work in other areas of the country, but not here in the Pacific Northwest. The rain keeps the shoulders and bike lanes full of debris. No place for thin tires. And this winter has brought us something extra special - snow. Portland has no real infrastructure to handle snow removal. Its answer is gravel. Lots of gravel. Eventually that gravel gets swept from the roads to - guess where - the shoulders and bike lanes. Pretty much making them unrideable or a flat waiting to happen.

So, another option is a "training" tire. To me, that used to mean a cheap tire. One that was heavy, had a steel bead, and thick rubber. They ride terribly, though, and don't always last that long. And cheap means no puncture protection layer. Now training tires are super fancy, culminating in the current version of the Continental Gatorskin. Not that heavy, with decent ride quality and all sorts of puncture protection. All that technology is pretty expensive, though, and I still wind up flatting more than I'd like to. And I buy them in 23mm because they look like race tires and I want to feel fast when guys lay it down on training rides.

This year I decided all of this was silliness. Due to my work schedule and baby, much of my riding will be alone and I shouldn't worry about being super fast on a training ride - going hard is going hard, even if the mph doesn't reflect the effort! And my work commute is nice, but not exactly rural country roads. It's mostly a step down from a local highway. Good shoulders and bike lanes, but still lots of traffic kicking debris to the side. So I bought touring tires.

Touring tires are meant for high mileage, and for handling the worst roads, paved or unpaved. Mostly the purview of Rivendell and recumbent folks, but perfect for our current riding conditions. They are heavy. Very heavy. And supple as a brick. But the ones I got are supposedly unflattable. That's right - the Schwalbe Marathon Plus is advertised as unflattable. Most of the reviews I've read seem to agree. Did I mention they have a reflective sidewall? Yep - that cool. And a steel bead that is amazingly difficult to work with. But who cares? Once they're on, I hope to not change a tube for a very long time. Initially I put the 28mm one on my fixed gear/ss cross bike. It's been perfect. I steer towards the gravel just for fun and they haven't picked anything up yet. If you don't pump them to max psi they ride ok and you still don't have to worry about a puncture or pinch flat.

I was hooked and ready to make the switch on my fendered training/rain bike (training season and rain season are the same in Portland). A fat 28mm tire wouldn't fit with the fenders and even I would agree that it's a bit obnoxious on a road bike. Luckily, Schwalbe makes the Marathon Plus in a 25mm width, too. FYI, it's a very big 25mm - there is a tread, and it is tall, not just some weak, gimmicky siping. There is a tiny bit of rubbing on the front fender which I can't seem to fix, but I figure that a millimeter off the top of this tread isn't going to hurt me.

So, you might pass me when you are on the rivet during an interval this winter even though I try to keep up, but I might be passing you back as you fix another flat on the side of the road.

And of course, I'll have some silly thin and ultra-lightweight tires on for race day. I hope it helps!