2009 Frostbite TT

Ushering in a new year the first event is the Frostbite Time trial in Everett. Flat, 9 miles along a river road, weather was rainy but not dramatic.

CycleU had a ballpark of 10 team members there and several people from the friday night race training whether from CycleU or others (date conflict with Chilly Hilly didn't help). Thanks to Lang for getting a great tent spot right in front of the start line. Made for easy prep based for ones start time and nice watching everyone take off from the line.

This was my first ITT but I think the friday nights at CycleU were a major help! Pacing/time/distance from the indoor course to this course was pretty similar. There was still some guess work for me but I can typically hold around 272 watts on friday nights with a standard road setup (shorter course). I tried my TT setup one night and averaged a little over 250 but I seemed to be really fighting the machine .... so some question about what I should target as an average wattage (plus just came off a break and posted better wattage last thursday than normal).
End result, I think I went as good as could be expected. In a do-over I think I could have gone a little harder on the first half (it was uphill) and suffered it in to the finish with the same 2nd half effort. I think I will also try to lower my clip-on bars/stem even moreso; I have about 1/4" of spacer left and I will try to drop to see if I can get more aero without losing too many watts. The flat course made tapering out the power pretty easy and I thought the event was run nicely:

overall
time 24:29 (unofficially from my PT interval)
avg power 273 watts
speed 22.6 mph

1st half
time 13:15 'ish
avg power 276 watts
speed 21.0 mph

2nd half (downhill, lite wind aid)
time 11:15'ish
avg power 269 watts
speed 24.4 mph

I am no gift to TT's but had a great time and look forward to Icebreaker. Parting thoughts:

Even though I thought I had packed perfectly the night before it was still pretty hectic getting dressed with no chair. I could have also used some more water and stretched better. I switched out my trainer skewer while TT prepping my road bike which made no sense when I got there to warm-up

I now know the difference in sound between Adrian passing me and a 747 at lift-off. Adrian makes a whew,whew,whew noise and is somewhat more quiet. When you read the start sheet and see Adrian a minute behind you and some other really fit tri guy posing as a Cat 4/5 ... know you will be passed by some folks. Some will pass you in the first km :)

Nice work by Alex T (former content provider here), and Coach Adrian and Lang!

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

On the eve of the Cycle U Team meeting (which is tonight I believe), I wanted to make a final post to this blog.

I returned to racing in '08 thanks to the supreme organization, motivation and humor of the Cycle U staff, from the Dean Craig Undem to Toby, Kristi, Heather, Dan and that paragon of serious contemplation, Coach Ed Ewing.

Fondest memory? Hanging out with the large group that made the trek to Wenatchee for the Omnium. Followed closely by the metronome-like regularity of the Tuesday am ride crowd - props to Evan B, Sabrina H and Bill S.

I have heard it said and believe it, that Cycle U considers itself proud when students matriculate on to other teams. Imagine my excitement when my new team indicated that it wanted to create an ongoing relationship with the U - sweet!

So for all you wily veterans and nubile rookies, heading in tonight for your words of wisdom and counsel, I wish you the best and will look for your wheels come Spring. Listen to the coaches, ride hard and bring some W's to the squad in '09!

Alex T, Nelson J and I look forward to living the dream at www.thumbprintracing.org.

Cheers

Ryan

ps - anyone want to buy a pair of ripped Cycle U bibshorts, size L? No extra charge for the stripe.

Bye Bye Bottecchia (always ride new gear)

Riding in to work today, leisurely, I turned onto Wall street downtown and began to apply a little power in order to make it up the slight incline and through the intersection.

I was rewarded with a strange sensation and the bike shifting gears. It felt really strange. I was convinced a wheel or something had broken. Tried to triage it from the saddle while rolling along.

Then, wisely, I dismounted and tried to figure out what was up....

SNAP!

I've now broken two bikes in my life - and both in the same spot! The former was a pedigreed Trek purchased through a local shop. It had a happy ending as I got into my Litespeed as a result.

In this case the frame was given to me and its provenance is unknown. I have relied on it heavily as primary commuter/rain bike for two years now and had just spun hard with the new team yesterday around Mercer Island.

I'm getting to a moral here - and that is life is too short to trust gear you can't have 100% confidence in. The way to get that confidence is to buy it NEW or if used via a reputable shop who put their reputation on the line. I realize this is contradictory to the Trek story but I'm only riding bikes I buy new from now on.

Discuss.

Crystal Mtn Pain-fest

The rumours are true. We actually paid $28 each for the privilege of riding our bicycles one way up 6.2 miles at 1,600 ft elevation gain in 90+ degree heat. Ideally at a faster speed than everyone else. Are we messed up or what?

Some of us who shall remain nameless [Evan B] paid for this privilege, drove to the start, kitted up and then missed the start time, but still had to ride back up to get to our cars and drive away.

Nelson and I shrewdly analyzed last years results for this uphill TT and the data was incontravertable: Master C's times were signifcantly slower than Cat 4's. http://www.wsbaracing.com/results.asp So for two old men with dreams of glory and medals, the smart move was to ride Masters. But as they say in the stock market, past performance is no guarantee of future results.

We joined Doug B in master ranks and started in order - more or less alphabetically. Which was very good as I would have been demoralized if Nelson passed me, even though I know he should be faster at 156lbs versus my 170lbs and 3 year old bike with borrowed front wheel [see Gig Harbor race]. Poor Doug went first and had few 'rabbits' to catch other than slower 'D's.

I enjoyed catching 5 guys - very motivating to see people on the road and inch your way up to them - and keeping one's tongue in check - no smart remarks as they will very likely be passing you by some other day. Nelson passed 4 men.

Before starting I wondered about mix-up juice v. water, small bottle v. big etc etc. In the end I took two bottles to be sure I was hydrated for warmup. Then just emptied one and carried onepart-full with water. Really glad I did as I drank 4-5 times, and doused the head 3 times. Heard some guys bemoaning their choice to go bottle-less later.

Favorite part had to be passing the guy in full aero bike/bars/helmet on the UPHILL TIME TRIAL.

Finished 9th in old men. 28:35, :15 slower than Nelson who was 7th. We'd have been 5th and 6th if we'd had the courage to join Alex in 4's.

Super hospitality by the Alpine Inn afterwards, green buns nothwithstanding. The Rainer was cold and refreshing and the team kept the bottomless water and lemonade flowing all afternoon.

See more - including my special facial hair preparation on Alex's own blog: http://dessat.blogspot.com/2008/08/crystal-mountain-hill-climb.html

Cougar Moutain Climb for Cancer, Take 3

Background & Training
Like Alex and Sabrina have already said, it was a great showing by Cycle U! We made a rainy slog up that hill, and everyone was better for it at the top.

Regarding training, I'd been preparing for this event for around eight weeks. I didn't have a plan per se, but revived the Tu/Tr morning (6a sharp @ the Husky) hill repeat ride that Ryan and Nelson had started in preparation for Wenatchee back in April. There was a consistent group of 3-4 Cycle U'ers, and each day we chose either Interlaken to Volunteer Park, Madrona, or Queen Anne via 3rd Ave from the North. We would do between 4 and 6 repeats, grab coffee, and go to work. On most of the workouts I did as much as I could in the big ring. I think this contributed to my climbing ability more than anything.

In addition to twice-weekly repeats, I continued my daily 15 mile RT commute, and threw in a few crits and medium-distance weekend rides for good measure. I also had the chance to ride the Zoo climb about 6 times this year; 4 of those rides were with the power meter I purchased a few months ago. I have a barely-functional understanding of training with power, but I was able to look at those 4 rides and have a reasonable idea of the power I could sustain on the climb (~400W for 14 minutes). This turned out to be invaluable: I started the TT feeling great, and riding at what I thought was a sustainable pace. I checked the power meter, saw that I was over 600W (a level I could not maintain for long), and backed off to my target wattage.

My other major training component was weight loss. I raced Wenatchee at around 210lb, and it was a lonely, painful trek up that 9 mile climb in the RR. At the Cougar TT I weighed in at 185lbs (204 with bike). I didn't have a power meter at Wenatchee, but I don't think there was an appreciable drop in power output. And I'm not much of a weight weenie when it comes to bike components, but 25lbs of body mass had a huge impact on uphill performance.

Results



The Emo Part
All donations for the race go straight to charity. This year, it's the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Things hit particularly close to home for me and my family: 4 years ago my younger sister Katie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was a long, hard fight, and she won. The operations and chemo made the possibility of her having children uncertain. On Saturday, when I was pouring my guts into that climb, Katie was in labor. She gave birth to Iris Tagan Wood - a healthy little girl - at 10:45a that morning, just a few minutes after I finished. To say that I was riding for my sister would be an understatement.

Cougar Mt. TT, another perspective...

(From L to R: Tina (tri-team), Sabrina Hirsch, Evan Brown)
This is my first season racing and this was my 4th Time Trial. I chose the Cougar Mountain TT as a target event a couple months ago and since then have been riding the group Tuesday/Thursday hill climb rides meeting at 6am (Husky Stadium). While it was not always easy to get my behind out of bed at 5am twice a week to face some of Seattle's toughest inner-city climbs, the noticeable increase in my ability kept me going.
In addition to weekly training I had been riding out to Cougar Mountain a few times to repeat the climb. Despite a crash two weeks ago, descending The Coug, where I broke my bike and face, I still managed to place 5th among the women with a time of 17:34.
Which brings me to my next point, I would love to see more ladies out there! Tina, from the tri team attended and finished very strongly, and it was such a pleasure to see another girl representing Cycle U. If it means me heading women only rides I am game, anyone interested email me, sabrinahirsch@gmail.com.

Cycle U at Cougar mountain TT

We had great showing at the Cougar mountain TT. It is 1000 feet climb Time Trial to support Seattle Cancer Care Society.

Evan captured 8th place overall beating many guys in higher categories. Hopefully we'll see his report on training for this.
Congratulations, Evan!