Cycling Blog Turns Political Blog... only one... promise...

Yes this is a cycling blog, but it also seems to be my only avenue to vent publicly (however small the readership might be) on this issue...

It is hard for me not to react to Obama's comment last night on Jay Leno about the Special Olympics... my son has Down Syndrome and I am also an athlete and look forward to my son following in my footsteps. If it is not bad enough that I don't agree with most of what Obama is doing right now nor do I respect his abandonment of all pro-life programs and his celebration of all pro-choice campaigns, now he is actually making fun of the Special Olympics on national television. This is a third grade, school yard comment... it is really hard to believe that our commander in chief could say this at all... but especially in public... and on public television for all to see...

To cross-reference our brilliant president, here is an article written about a true athlete...

The top bowler for the Special Olympics looks forward to meeting President Barack Obama in an alley.

"He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily," Michigan's Kolan McConiughey told The Associated Press in an interview Friday.

The athletic-minded president made an offhand remark Thursday on "The Tonight Show" comparing his weak bowling to "the Special Olympics or something." He quickly apologized and told the Special Olympics chairman he wants to have some of its athletes visit the White House to bowl or play basketball.

McConiughey, who is mentally disabled, is just the bowler for the job. He's bowled five perfect games since 2005.

The 35-year-old McConiughey has been bowling since he was 8 or 9. His advice for Obama? Practice every day.

Thanks, Obama... thanks for invitation to come bowl with you at the White House... that makes it all better...

Albany Recap...

Great weekend in Albany... some weirdness, but generally a great weekend.

We were warming up in the cold and fog the morning of the prologue... the race route was not well barricaded and people were riding both ways in both lanes of the course. At some point, the racing started... Robert and some others were still on the course when a girl came barreling around the corner and hit him head-on... aerobars to aerobars... both ended up in the hospital and both ended up OK... but it was crazy to say the least...

Obviously, Robert’s wreck threw us all off, but I went ahead with my start time. I barely made it to the house in time and started the run. I paced it well and almost died at the line just in time for the final sprint. It took me an hour to get my wind back and feel normal. My time was slower than last year but with very difficult conditions (fog, moisture), but enough for 2nd place in our category. This is my first Cat 4 podium... I catted up a year ago after racing a few races the year before as a Cat 5... last season, I only had a few races before the broken hip incident. I was pretty stoked and what made it better, my mom, mom's friends (Chesh and DeHart), my wife and kids, and the Speils were all there to see me on the podium... talk about timing...

Crit

I had planned to stay in the pack and think about the sprint finish. I was convinced that I could win this race if I didn’t hurt myself too much before the end. The strategy was perfect and I knew it. BUT!!!!! I got in my head that I couldn’t let the 3rd place guy go anywhere… I knew he would be trying to take away my 2nd place overall, and I knew I would finish there overall because there was no way I would get dropped from the crit or the RR. Wrong! He attacked almost immediately and I jumped on his wheel. The guy was heavy, but had some major power and could corner really tight… I have no idea how he didn’t beat me in the TT to be honest… he was a beast from my perspective. He started yelling that we had a split and that we had to work together and I started pulling… I looked at my ergomo and quickly looked away… I was embarrassed to be pulling with that much power in a breakaway that I knew would fail that early in the race… but there I was. I don’t know what happened next… we got reeled back pretty quick, and I was in the red zone. I retreated back in the group to get myself together which worked well until they announced a prem and I went for it. I went pretty early and stayed out around a few corners and sprinted easily to take it. But… I blew completely to pieces. I remember Drew coming by me at least 5 mph faster than I was going and screaming at me to speed up. I sprinted onto the back and hung out there for a lot of laps. The guy in front of me let a gap form as he was getting dropped and I kept hoping he would bridge back up… the gap got wider… I tried to make it on the back and just didn’t have the legs… so I got dropped from the group and lost a half minute…

RR

Drew went in a breakaway from word go. I blocked for Drew for the first half. It was a thing of beauty… me and Davies screwing up any form of a chase for as long as we could. I fought like heck for perfect position in the sprint. I was second wheel coming up to 200 meters but the group was spread across the road a little. Everyone broke at the same time except for the guy in front of me. He decided to sit on the sprint. By the time I realized it, we were going 3 mph slower than anyone and people were zipping by us on both sides. Drew told me later that the guy was racing for third in the overall and just wanted to hold his position. I didn’t know that, but who knows if it could have made a difference. I was very disappointed afterwards, because I really thought I could win it and really had great position and it was really hard to get and hold at the end and I was able to do it… I took a lot of risks with absolutely no payout and that is what angered me. Anyway… I learned a lot and am still not sure how to do it better. I think we have got to get more than one guy on our team in the top 5-7 coming into any sprint… sure we don’t have a sprinter, but most of the guys racing with us are not sprinters either…

Race Week!

It has been a while since I have blogged (AGAIN!). So much has happened since my last note, that it is hard to figure out where to start... I think I will just ramble over the happenings of the last two months and then get to present and think about the race this weekend...

• Made it through the 5 minute interval stage of training... VO2 max intervals... without any major happening. They hurt... a lot... and that was good...
• Completed a few epic rides over the last 5-6 weeks... the Pine Mountain Challenge (130 mile ride to Pine Mountain and back). Got dropped on the way home, but salvaged the day with some hard efforts on the way in. I felt surprisingly good after 130 miles in the saddle and really felt like I could have gone a while longer. We also had our team camp in Dahlonega... no single ride was epic by itself, but three days in the mountains were epic when grouped together. I broke my shifter cable and was stuck with two gears to get through the long day in the mountains. It turned out to be a cadence workout that I would rather not talk about... we did the backside of hogpen... again, I would rather not talk about it. Suffice to say that I considered quiting cycling at the top... a 25 tooth easy gear on that side of hogpen is not a good idea...
• Thanks to these efforts and a steady diet of lunch rides, two-a-days when possible, and long, hard rides on Saturday and Sunday, I have built my CTL over 100 for the first time. It has pulled back a little since I started anaerobic intervals, but I was glad to hit that milestone that I had set for myself last year. Does CTL translate to winning races? Probably not, but watching that number keeps me riding my bike when others are sitting by the fire...
• I have been doing anaerobic intervals for a few weeks. I am on top of my training for the first time since winter started and I feel really great.
• I raced in Greenville, SC weekend before last. I did the Masters 35+ race and the Cat 4 race, back to back. This is a training series, but everyone shows up to test their legs. We were riding the 35+ race with a lot of higher category riders, but I think most of those guys were saving their legs for later in the day. I rode hard in the first race and dropped out half way though the second... legs were absolutely fried, but it was a great day and helped to build my race form.
• Albany is this weekend... I am very interested in placing well in this race, but it is still very difficult to know what my form is this year. Besides the injury from last year, my power meter cannot be trusted when comparing the numbers to last year. Maybe it is better not to know. Either way, I will know this weekend for sure and it will be great to be back.
• I finished out my set of Zipp 404s... they are really sweet and feel very fast on the road. I am trying to decide whether I will race them in crits...
• I have gotten my weight down to 176 lbs (low weigh in for last week) and am steady around 177 lbs throughout. This is 11 lbs down from year before last and 4-5 lbs down from my low last year. Every little bit counts...