Multisport Report: May Madness Triathlon

This weekend I made the trip south on I-57 to Effingham for their annual May Madness Triathlon. This is a sprint distance event, and is used mostly as early season gauge for measuring fitness. I wasn't sure what to expect since my swim and run training has been spotty at best. I have been riding consistently, but have only been able to run and swim 1-2 times per week with my current schedule.

Once again I did not listen to Seeg's advice and made adjustments to the bike two days before the race... although this time the tinkering was performed by a professional bike fitter. It felt good in the fit shop, but this would be the first time I would ride it on the road.

I also used an unprecedented swim warm-up technique that I am hesitant to share.... it will certainly be used by all the top finishers in Kona this year...

On to the race... since it was a sprint distance I wanted to get in front of the pack during the swim. I do not like swimming in close quarters with others, bumping and kicking. I was able to get towards the front, leaving the water in 3rd place, but it took going into oxygen debt to do so. Although I wasn't really able to recover fully from going out too hard in the swim, I was able to PR on the bike averaging about 24 mph and was only about a minute off where I wanted to be on the run. I finished 4th overall. It was a fun event and the weather was perfect! Big thanks to Beverly Bike and the team for supporting triathlon!

"I Love Goshen" Twilight Crit P123

The town of Goshen, Indiana has "First Friday" festivals.  They shut down the streets, and local businesses set up tents.  There's food, drink, merriment and happiness.  This month, there was a bike race.  

The vendors and crowd at the race

At first I was all like, "hey, that girl is staring at me pretty hardcore...could you be more obvious, honey?"  Then I realized she's a model who's been hired by Jules Boutique to be a human mannequin and is being paid to stare in the exact direction I was standing.   That made much more sense.

The crowd was 3 or 4 deep along the finishing straight and the first corner.

Last year I did this one and really blew it...I bridged to the winning break, and right when I was on the tail end of it I freaked out because I was crosseyed from the effort and thought I saw something in the road because it was already dark out.  I overcooked it around a turn, crashed (solo) and had to take a free lap and ended up back in the main field.  This year I was looking for a good result.    I'm in the middle of finals, which is a 2 week period where I cant ride much, so it's important to get in a good race so my legs don't turn to spaghetti.  The field was somewhat substantial and had some fast riders this year.

Basically, the pace stayed pretty high with only like 10 minutes of "slow" dispersed throughout the race.  I spent a lot of energy closing gaps down from riders that couldn't handle the pace, but a lot of guys seemed to catch back on.  Some guys just can't corner I think.  I got sort of annoyed with some team tactics people were doing, like "blocking" at the front when they're really letting a 20 rider break go (that's called being off the back, dude), and blocking, but then trying to bridge solo to the break and bringing the field up to the break.  Didn't really hurt me any but I just thought it was weird.  

A few times, promising groups split off the front.  I made it in to about half of the more dangerous splits, but nobody had the legs to take advantage by attacking once the rubberband broke so guys kept catching back on.  With 3 to go it was all together.  I moved up into the top five assuming that one of the teams would start a leadout, but these teams aren't exactly Team Sky so the field kept churning and I ended up 20 spots back.  Then a crash happened right in front of me, but I got around it (I think I was the last guy to do so).  There was a split and I was on the tail end of the lead group.  I tried to punch it a few times but somebody who is competent was at the front so I couldn't make up ground in the turns like I usually do.  So I rolled in for what was apparently 14th on the provisional results, but I could have sworn there were more guys in that group.  I definitely would have been more aggressive if I knew that was it. 

Anyway thanks again to the town of Goshen.  It really is a nice place.  I'd HIGHLY recommend Chicago riders make the 2 hour drive out.  There are lower category races with the same crowds.  Rarely do Cat 5s through 3s get to race among crowds three deep (rarely do Pro riders too come to think of it) so it's worth the experience.  

Cobb Park Crit P/1/2/3

It looked like rain in Kankakee.  We had a field of about 35 riders, with a good combo of Chicago guys plus downstate guys like the riders from Enzo's and Sammy's.  We also had some riders from over the border in Indiana for team Upland Brewing.  I had Tony with me.  Last year I came 200 meters short of taking the win in a field of a dozen after a last-lap solo effort, so this year I was looking for redemption.  Today, I was going to try.

The race started off nice and relaxed, which is a welcome change from the collegiate stuff I'd been doing. A few moves went but guys were pretty good about not letting them get too much room.  Halfway through the race we started getting a mild mist.  Moves started to stretch the rubber band a bit so I started to go with them.  A promising one with a Sammy guy and Nick Ramirez in it got a few seconds, so I tried to bridge to it.  Unfortunately my breakaway power isn't there yet so I couldn't get a gap on the field.  So I accidentally killed the break (and violated my policy against not chasing guys I know well...sorry dudes).

Eventually a few riders rolled off the front and it stuck.  What made it stick was successful blocking from some Enzo's guys and maybe some Bicycle Heaven guys during the narrow part of the course.  All 15 seconds the move got came from blocking in just that one part of the course.  A few guys like Doug Ansel from Upland bridged up so that the break ballooned to like 7 or 8 guys.  When a third of the field is up the road, you can't really call it a break anymore...now you're off the back.  Thus, I told Tony that we would need to do something about this, and we would shut it down if we needed to.  But first, we would wait to see if other riders would do so.  Much to my surprise, guys were pretty cooperative up front, and gradually reeled the move in.  By now it was pouring rain.  I spent the last three laps biding my time in the front of the group, ready to pounce when the time came.  I expected the break to disintegrate once we caught them, but somebody up front in the break kept it stretched out so, in an unusual turn of events, the break became the first 7 or so guys for the last lap.  The result was I went from being 6th or so in the field to 15th when we caught the break.  Unexpectedly, the pace stayed high enough that I couldn't really make a move on the last lap when things slowed down.  So I rolled in for 14th and Tony came in at 20th (in his second race of the day).  Like Bob Murray signs on his emails, "if you don't risk losing you never win."

Thanks to the Wheelmen for once again putting on a great race.  Good to see Mike Kelly and the Feeherys and the rest of the SCW crew.  Thanks to Tony for sticking around for a second race.  It was good having a teammate in the race because it frees me up to do some work at the front.  When I'm racing solo and take a pull, I'm vulnerable to the attacks that come when I pull off.  It was also good to see all you guys from downstate.  I won't be going to Champaign next weekend because I have to take law school finals, but I'll see you all at Monsters.

Cheers
Boyle

The Beastons are Back on the Bike

...which means only one thing:  no getting dropped.

Cherry Valley TT

On Sunday I decided to pull out the time trial bike from the moth balls and head to Cherry Valley, just outside of Rockford, for their 20k. Fortunately the stormy weather that hit Hillsboro on Saturday missed us on Sunday, but what Sunday lacked in rain was made up for with wind! Since the race was only 20k, I decided to race twice; one in Cat 4/5 and in 30-34.

I could tell almost immediately that it had been quite some time since I had been on the TT bike. I could feel  my tris and shoulders from holding the aero position about five minutes into warming up... I'll probably be sore tomorrow.

About 15 minutes before my scheduled start I began riding the roughly 3 miles from registration to the start line. About half way there I see a freight train on the horizon crossing the road. Now I'm at the tracks with a growing number of riders waiting for the train to pass, maybe 5 minutes from my start time, and still nearly a mile away. As the trains clears the road I push it to the start line and luckily made it with about two minutes to spare.

At the start the wind was cutting from the right side. A few minutes in I could see cones ahead signaling a right turn. Once I rounded the turn the "fun" began... 5 miles of 20-25 mph headwind! I played with a few different gears and cadences trying to find the one that made the wind stop and/or got me over 17-18 mph. After that failed I just kept my head down with my eyes glued to the distance counter on my Cateye watching it slowing tick toward 10k. Somewhere during this stretch I had made up my mind that there was no way I was putting myself through this again... once was enough for today. Finally the turn-around came and along with it the tailwind. 17-18 mph was replaced with 32-33 mph! I clicked down for my highest gear but nothing happened... probably another reason I should have taken it for a test spin before today! I did my best to keep up my cadence and speed with the tailwind, but really could've used that last gear. Before too long the finish line came. My time of 31:00 and change was disappointingly slow. I'm not sure how much of that can be blamed on the windy conditions or if this is an accurate measure of where I am...

After I had a few minutes to recover, I decided to at least get a good workout from the day and race again, even if my results were less than expected. I was up again about 10 minutes later, not leaving enough time to get my other number, I was instructed by the official to "just yell out your number at the finish line". Good enough... The second go around was just as fun as the first one, and only a minute slower!

I wasn't sure if I wanted to check the results, but I eventually did. I finished 3rd in both categories, so maybe it wasn't as bad as I initially thought. Some of the times, especially of the 1/2/3 riders, were really impressive considering the wind! After comparing times and some reflection I can set better defined, challenging, yet realistic goals for this season. Less wind next time would help too...

Mike