Collegiate Track Nationals: Days 1 and 2

DAY: 1
The sinus congestion continued into race day; however, I didn't think it would hinder me too much since most of the events are anaerobic. It sure wasn't going to stop me from trying.

Storm moving in over Pike's Peak.

We (My mom and grandmother drove out to Colorado to watch the races and make a vacation out of it. It was really great having them there with me and to support me.) got to the velodrome in good time Thursday morning so I had plenty of warm-up for the flying 200 meter time trial. The flying 200 is used to seed riders in the sprint tournament and not technically a race in itself. The top 18 riders would advance to the sprint tournament and the other 40 or so riders were eliminated. I had ambitions of going sub 11 seconds. My PR at Dick Lane in Atlanta was an 11.65s and my PR at Giordana in Rock Hill was an 11.55s. I ran an 11.48s good enough for 13th place and into the tournament. But, I was disappointed. I ran it terribly. I think I had so much speed down the home stretch (with a tailwind) that when I went to stand in between corners 1 & 2, there wasn't enough resistance to push against. The bike started wobbling and I didn't feel like I had control. I had to sit back down. Then I really screwed it when I tried to stand again as I came out of corner 2 and into the wind. Still no more power or leg speed. I completed it feeling pretty frustrated and like I had really blown my chance. I would now be starting in the bottom of the sprinters bracket which meant I would be facing stronger, faster guys earlier in the tournament than I had planned. Oh well, at least I made it.

Sprint round one was that morning too. I was facing a guy from MIT. Thankfully, I had a friend in Marian Team Mechanic and Dick Lane Velodrome manager Jeff Hopkins who came over and gave me a few pointers for racing this guy. While it didn't end up actually playing out as described, I still really appreciated the advice and would return many times to ask Jeff for advice or help. He was a great asset for me being out there by myself.

Anyway, I started from the back in the first sprint so I could see what my opponent was doing. He jumped coming out of corner 4 into the bell lap. I responded with a reduced jump and got into the slip steam on the home stretch. Rounding out of corner two, I turned on the speed and started running up on him for a nice clean pass on the back straight. I dropped into the lane in corner 3 and carried it on around to the finish line. I had won my round one match! I was very pleased with how that race went. It was a textbook run up and pass. It felt good.

During the break between morning and evening sessions, we went to tour the Garden of the Gods at the base of the mountains. It was a pretty cool attraction, but my mind was still primarily on the racing.

I got back for the evening session prepared to race a guy from Colorado State for the 1/8 final. I was told this rider would be a more pure sprinter with lots of tactical games compared to my first round guy. I got to start from the back again. We starred at each other for the entire first 1.25 laps and then I started to try and run up on him as we both accelerated down the back straight. I was beside him as we headed into turn 3. Midway between turn 3 and 4, he moved up track with both wheels crossing over the red line, the sprinter's lane. I had to dart further up track and lost more ground. He carried it away on the home stretch for the win. I appealed to the head judge for the illegal move of coming out of the sprinter's lane once the sprint had been engaged. The judge said he definitely saw it, but he didn't feel like it changed the outcome of the race. I lost.

So next I was to race in the 1/8 rep which is a 3 person race giving the winner a pass back into the tournament for the quarter finals later that night. The two losers in each rep would go to the 9-12 finals later that night. I tried my same move pretty much on the back straight and easily made it around the first guy, but coming around two guys in 200 meters and travelling further distance by riding high in the corner proved too much for me to accomplish. I finished second in the rep and would be going to the 9-12 finals.

A 4 person match sprint, even the 3 person match sprint, is something I have never done before and the tactics are very different from the standard two person sprint. The 4 up 9-12 finals was a fast race from the start as I was expecting. It almost became two races within the race. One rider from Air Force was trying to pin me up high while the other two guys were racing each other in the sprinter's lane. I finally backed off in corner 3 on the first lap so I could drop behind the air force guy. Heading into corner one, I decided I had to go. About that same time the 2nd rider also pulled out and made an attack. I was coming from the back and had to move over the top of all the riders. I quickly got around the Air Force rider and the rider who had been leading the whole time in the sprinter's lane, but the lead rider had a decent gap from his acceleration out of the draft. He went on to take 9th place and I held on strong to the finish line to edge out the Air Force guy for 10th place in the match sprint tournament. Definitely not how I expected the whole thing to go down and really wish I could get another shot at it. Oh well, so it goes. I definitely learned some things though, so that's always good.

Race gear from VOmax powered by HUB Endurance and BRL Sports

DAY 2:
Since I was out of the sprint tournament and wasn't racing the points race, I only had one race on Friday and it was the individual pursuit. It's a solo time trial race around the track for 12 laps or 4 kilometers as fast as you can go starting from standing still. I didn't have high expectations for my finish in this event, but definitely wanted to set a nice PR. While I did set a PR of 5:18, it wasn't nearly as fast as I was expecting to go. Looking back at the splits, I had a perfectly mirrored race. My kilometer times were: 1:13, 1:22, 1:22, 1:13. My first and 4th kilometer times of 1:13 were the 4th fastest times on the day. My middle two kilometers are what killed me though. I guess I took it too easy on those fearing burnout in the last few laps of the race. Should have turned it up sooner, but the burning in my hamstrings and glutes were telling me not to. I don't think I had been that low and flexed on the bike since I raced the state championship track event.

My time put me in 41st place for the pursuit which meant I still scored some points. Since the pursuit counts as an endurance event, I know had scored points in both a sprint event and an endurance event which qualifies me for the overall individual omnium. By the end of the day Saturday I was in 18th place for the overall.

A Plan Coming Together

So, for the first time ever in my career, I have established a yearly training plan. In years past, I would schedule, haphazardly, the 2 or 3 weeks leading up to my most important race of the year, but that's it. This year is different. I have done my research and created a structured, purposeful plan to tackle the 2013 season. I have 3 big races I am focusing on with many others along the way. The first race of the season is March 10th with the first major race being in late April. The last race isn't until late September. It's going to be a long season.

As mentioned previously, the first half of the season will focus solely on cycling events with a gradual transition to triathlons in the summer. How am I going to integrate the two other sports and make everything work? No clue yet. I am really excited about the cycling though. I am using my new power meter to guide my training as I progress through the different training cycles. This weekend I completed my baseline power profile testing. It was a rainy few days and I didn't quite get the numbers I was expecting: timing, weather, big week as possible causes. Just means more room for improvement and I'll try again in 4 weeks.

I will be cycling more per week than I ever have as part of this cycling focused training. Come race time I should find out what my true potential is. I have the tools, I have the plan, and I have the perfect city to do it in. Time to execute.

The famous river gorge

The scenic city: a great place to train

Views from power testing

Another nice view from a long day of testing

Going Under

Well I thought I had it bad at ITU Worlds when I flatted twice and lost my first place standing. It was the worst experience I've had in the sport so far. That is until June 9th. I've waited for a while to write about this for many reasons: it was hard for me to face it for one, I didn't want to write details on the internet before the driver's insurance company accepted responsibility, and I was just feeling down and out about the whole situation without much motivation to do anything.

Most people probably already know about what happened to me, but for those that do not, or don't really know the details, here it is.

I was coming off a terrible race at Roan Groan and knew that I needed more practice at climbing, especially at the end of a race. I wanted to do well at River Gorge later in August, so I set out on Saturday June 9th, from my apartment in East Brainerd. I had mapped out a course that would take me over Missionary Ridge and the toe of Lookout before jumping into the River Gorge RR course. Things were going well and I was having fun playing out in my mind how the race would turn out this year and how things happened last year. I climbed Raccoon, stopping at the overlook to refill my bottles, eat some snacks, and take in the scenery. I started my descent from the mountain to head back home to get ready to head out to River Bend that night. Once I got off the steep slopes of Raccoon and made the hard 90 degree left hand turn, I saw a truck stopped at a stop sign on a side street to my right. He began to pull out to make a left hand turn and come up the mountain towards me. I was getting nervous and applying the brakes. As the truck got further out into the intersection, I was horrified to realize he was carrying a boat. His truck and boat were covering the entire intersection leaving me no place to go. I am grabbing as much brake as I can by this point. My wheels begin to lock up and my rear wheel starts fishtailing out from under me to the left. I was in shock and utter disbelief as I covered those last 3 meters before contact. I couldn't believe this was really about to happen. Skidding out placed me in a more parallel position to the boat so that my left shoulder and knee hit the boat first. I bounced off and swung around the back of the boat as the driver continued to pull away. I hit the ground and my bike went bouncing. I rolled around on the ground in intense pain in my left knee. It wouldn't straighten out and I knew I was injured pretty badly.

The driver and passenger got out of the truck after they pulled over to the shoulder. I laid in the middle of the intersection as they called 911 and asked if I was okay. I think the screaming and writhing in pain should have indicated I was not. Thankfully, I had just seen fellow teammate Jim Farmer at the top of Raccoon. He was packing his bike up and was about to come down. He drove up on the scene shortly after the accident happened. Another woman who had been running on Raccoon also stopped on her way down. These folks helped out a ton (Chattanooga obviously has an amazing outdoor community that cares for each other). My teammate was able to collect my bike and belongings and the other lady was able to call my parents back to let them know what was going on. The paramedics and fire truck arrived a little while later. They put me on the board and we were headed off for Erlanger ER.

Several radiographs and a CT scan later, they determined I had no broken bones and would have to follow up with an orthopedic surgeon the following week. The first visit with the surgeon was terrifying. The laxity in knee from the clinical examination pointed to several tears and disruptions in the tissue. The MRI ruled some of them out, but I was still going to need surgery. Thankfully, I didn't need immediate surgery which would have caused me to miss my first clinical rotation and be forced to sit out of the PT program for one year. Glad I avoided that disaster.

After much hassle with the police report, the driver, and the driver's insurance company, his insurance company finally accepted fault. They are collecting my medical bills and already reimbursed me for my bike minus depreciation.

I've had ups and downs over this time period. Times I would feel super energized about training for next season and all I will be able to do. Other times I was depressed and could only think about all the stuff I was missing out on and how hard it would be to come back after surgery. I missed several races including the Crit State Championship, which I was favored to win, the rest of the TBRA races, which now means I lost my Best Area Rider qualification, two Xterra races, which means I will probably lose my regional champion status and bid to nationals, as well as the Georgia Gran Prix stage race, the Huntsville race weekend, and two more crits in Atlanta. No defending my crit title at River Gorge this year. I also feel bad about letting my team down. This is the first time I've ever raced for a team and it ended with a terrible showing for myself. I wanted to do well to validate my spot on the team. I will have to settle for next year.

I got robbed, and I hate it. I've been so angry. But this is just the year I've been having with several broken pieces of equipment that required replacing and the bad finish at ITU. I have great plans for coming back next year with a more focused training plan, better knowledge of how to train, better equipment to train with, and a burning desire to come back strong and dominate the Cat 4 field. I'm trying to construct a detailed training plan without the help from a coach since I can't afford one. That being said, I would gladly take advice or suggestions from people out there that have had coaches or might be coaches just to make sure I am going in the right direction and I am interpreting my data correctly.

Surgery was yesterday (I meant to write this earlier in the week), so I have started the path to recovery and my journey back to sport. However, I guess I underestimated this surgery because of how easy my last surgery was on my right knee in 2007. I had my ACL reconstructed with a cadaver graft that time and I was able to get a full quad contraction the morning following surgery and was up ambulating without much pain at all the next day. That is not how this surgery has gone so far. I am in a lot more pain than I remembered or expected. I hope that it subsides before classes begin on the 20th. The first day of physical therapy as a patient on Monday the 13th. Should be a good experience. Just have to organize a way to get all my stuff moved to my new apartment while on crutches.

My bike got a little jacked, technically speaking

The culprits 

No big deal

No clue what this leg hit to get bruised 

America

America: The first team to ever pick me up.

I guess I can deal with that. Hopefully, it won't be the last team though. I'm honored to get to wear the Team USA kit in a race. It should be an amazing experience. I've also bumped up training ever since I got the news in order to better represent; and you know, kick ass for myself. I took a camping trip to Pelham last weekend to do some training on the course. The run course has changed to eliminate the last of the death march hills. That's good for me and my running game, but it helps everyone else too. The trip was two days of ups and downs. I planned on doing two laps of the bike course and then a full run through of the run course for a solid brick workout. Two-thirds of the way through the first bike lap I noticed my crankset was loose; therefore, sliding back and forth on my $220 ceramic bottom bracket. The trail included a few creek crossings too which is great for it I hear. So I found a road out and back to the car where I got out my tools in an attempt to fix the issue. Satisfied with my work, I headed back to finish the course. Once complete, I wasn't really feeling another lap since I was still a bit tired from road intervals the day before and still needed to set up camp and get wood before it got completely dark. The post-ride run went decently well and I could tell some of my weight training was paying off on the short, steep hills.

Rain during the night made for a muddier trail system the next day which was topped off by rain at the beginning of my run and the end of my bike. I swapped up the order to get a better quality run on the course. Overall, I wasn't really thrilled with the trip or my performance. I expected more and was a little down about not living up to it. It made me question my training and progression towards my goal. It made me question my ability, skills, speed, and the qualifications for making Team USA. I wondered why I go through all of it if it's not ever going to really amount to anything; why I sacrifice the things I do in pursuit of this dream. I know I am doing damage to my joints, especially the ones I've already damaged and continue to hurt. These are some of the things I think about on long rides and runs. They get emotional and have extreme highs and lows. Not emotional in the way that I'm going to break down and cry, but that feelings towards people and objects come from nowhere and I feel I must express them and talk to people about it. Thoughts race through my head more during those long rides than any other aspect of my life. It's one of the reasons I do it, and love it. Then once I step off the bike or out of the shoes, the conviction fades. Things go unsaid and feelings just sink back down; the words that say the ideas and feelings so perfectly simply disappear. If I could dictate my thoughts during my rides, I'm sure most people would think I'm crazy, but in an oh so eloquent way. On the other hand, some rides I feel awesome and think I'm flying through the trail or on the road. I think I could win any race and am practically uncatchable on the bike, especially in a sprint. Those are good rides.

So coming off this low, I looked through my book of notes and saw some stats from last year's training trip in Pelham. This year my average speed on the bike was up over 1 mph and the max speed was up over 5 mph. I also saw a note saying that my shoulder didn't bother me when I swam down there. I didn't remember having any shoulder problems last year and was now curious if it was the same issue I've been having this year. I couldn't find any other notes in last year's training log though. When I was scrolling through the log, I saw some impressive runs. I was running much faster last year posting a 46 minute 10K after a 26 mile road ride and a 44 minute 10K during an 8 mile run. I also weighed 178 four days before the Southeastern Championship race. I am nowhere near those times or that weight, which might not be a bad thing since I am still so far out from the race and last year's runs pretty much all sucked except for the one Casey Fannin and I did head-to-head the whole way at Xterra Lock 4 Blast. Plus my weight is different this year. I've been hitting the weights like I never have before. I've put up some serious numbers and feel stronger than ever. Ultrasound analysis says my body fat is only at 9.2%, making 178 almost unachievable. I'll get further testing done over the next few months since I'm signed up for some research studies that include BodPod body composition testing and several VO2 max testings in various environmental and hydration conditions.

So, some positives and some negatives. Overall I'm going to assume it's a positive, which could be reassured with a dominating and definitive win this upcoming weekend. It will be the first race of the season and will be a collegiate cycling race at Dalton State. So I'll take advice and perspective from a more seasoned veteran in the ups and downs, Andrea Wilson, and "cheer up emo kid." I mean it's not all bad.

The technical section of the course: Blood Rock. Crazy fun to rock on the 29er.

I now have a way to make coffee when I go camping at races.

Great scenery. Unfortunately to see most of the good stuff, you have to actually go yourself.

Albino Turkey Vulture

Red-Tailed Hawk. I think he wants to eat me.

Turkey vulture eating food court Chinese, I mean chopped rat. Sorry

I don't know how this came out so well. At the campsite as I was packing up.

4 Day Weekend

It's 30 degrees outside. Might as well go mountain biking. A quarter of a mile into the ride, mostly uphill, I could tell my legs were still pretty shot from the 100 miles Thursday and Friday and the all day snowboarding Saturday. So, what do I do? Put in a two and a half hour brick workout. First one of the year. That will show that scar tissue in my foot who's boss.

Since I had deleted my iHeartRadio app, the ride was done in complete silence. Not originally how I wanted to do it, but I think it was better for it. I got to pay more attention to the trail and immerse myself in it. I've noticed that sometimes when I get going, my vision blurs and I have to back off the power. I wish my eyes could see and process the trail as quickly as my legs and bike want to ride it. Come on Brodman 18 and 19. Can't you work a little faster back there?

On the last leg of the ride, I dropped into the pump track. I made it around 8 times without pedaling before my arms started to get tired. Pump track for the win! A lot of the trail has big humps and jumps like that so integrating it on the trail was fun. I felt like a moto-cross or a downhill rider. It sure was a lot of fun, and of course some of them I just launched for air to have even more fun. Overall, it was a wonderful ride. It was great to get back on the mountain bike and fly by trees, roll over rocks, splatter mud, catch air, and fish tail in some corners.

It's sad to say that I enjoyed the 2 hours of riding on Sunday more than the day of snowboarding on Saturday. Although, I guess if it were the other way around, then I've been investing all my time and money into the wrong sport. It's fun to mix it up though. It's not often that you get frostbite on your face or the chance to put on snow chains for a commercial van.

After the ride, I went to walmart to get this week's lunch meat and nutella. Can't function without that. To entertain the people, and just because I didn't want to get my sweat pants dirty with the mud from the trail, I went in with my Under Armour tights on over my chamois. I got some looks, but they got the show.

So this nice four day weekend left me with 13 hours of training for the week. It's a nice little precursor for what I have planned for spring break. The chance of being on Team USA is motivating me even more right. I hope they make the right choice and I get the chance to wear those stars and stripes in Alabama this May.

And as always, P.E.M.D.A.S.

A Typical Ride

A caravan of five Porsches pass by and interrupt my few of hogs grazing on the hilly countryside. I also saw a dead deer, multiple opossums, and a raccoon. I saw Shetland ponies and donkeys. I'm not positive, but I think I saw a baby buffalo too. He was wrenching and squeezing his neck between two strands of barbed wire fencing to reach the grass on the other side. Of course, I saw the usual horses and cows, hawks and crows, goats and sheep, streams and ponds.

I saw the land still devastated by the tornadoes that swept through in April. I saw the work that had been done, the work being done, and the work that needs to be done. The countryside is still a mess even though many homes have been rebuilt already.

I explored new roads and revisited old ones. I climbed mountains and got to overlook valleys for miles and miles. I got chased by three dogs and avoided attacks on all three accounts. The sun warmed by back and the wind chilled my face as it swept through the sparsely placed hairs of my beard. I shot snot rockets and ran stop signs. The wind slowed me down to single digit speeds at times and I cruised down descents at 48 mph.

It was a pretty typical ride. It was an amazing ride. It was why I ride.
The saddle, it is probably my favorite place in the world and where I am most at peace.

Some Spare Time

I haven't had as much time to ride as I would like since school has started. I hadn't ridden at all in a week and a half and it had been 2 weeks since I had ridden hard when I went for a nice Sunday stroll a week ago. The temperature was great and it was awesome exploring east Tennessee. I ventured through Georgia to get to an area I've biked previously. When I came to the "familiar" turn signalling the escape from traffic, I didn't recognize the place. I have ridden this route several times last year when I was preparing for Ironman Louisville. When I got to the T intersection, it looked completely different. The area was still devastated from the tornado that struck this past April. Fields were cleared and tree tops stripped, houses mangled and new ones under construction. It was strange to see so many things still destroyed and the lack of progress that has been made over the past few months. It was sad. Not nearly as bad as the places I saw in Alabama though.

The ride went well though. I turned around at a small church where I got water from a well. The cows were mooing really loudly too and I think they were talking to the cows in the pasture across the street. The sun was starting to go down and my legs were getting really tired. I kept pushing on to make it back home. My legs began cramping and the pain grew stronger. I was so happy when I finally made it home. I laid down in the floor under the fan while my legs still throbbed. They felt like they were still cramping as I got up and got into the shower. The pain lingered. It was as if my body couldn't flush the lactic acid out of my legs. I laid in the tub for a while and the painful sensation finally left about thirty minutes after the ride ended. It was a weird phenomenon that I can't recall ever having experienced. I think that means it was a good ride though.

I didn't get back out on the road again until yesterday. It was a scrambled ride. I had planned on getting up early Saturday morning and getting a good ride in. Even after my 3.5 hour nap on Friday after school, I slept for 10.5 hours Friday night. I ended up not getting on the bike until almost 1 so the ride was going to have to be shorter than I wanted. It was really nice weather though and I was determined to enjoy a nice ride before settling in to watch Tennessee play Florida.

The first cool thing that happened was the staring contest I had with a beaver on East Brainerd. He was right at the edge of the road and it surprised me at how close we were. I couldn't believe how calm he was. When I finally broke my gaze and turned back to the road, I had already run off the first two layers of the shoulder. I stayed calm, went all the way off the road and managed to get back on it with the bike still upright and no flats. Winning.

Later, I found a different road that takes me into Georgia for some good riding. I plan to make several trips back to this area. I also found an arena that has barrel racing ever first Saturday of the month with free admission. I know what I'll be doing October 1st. I'll fit in wearing my cowboy boots, wrangler jeans, chewing Redman, and pounding a 6-pack of PBR tallboys. It's going to be a good time at the Heartland Ranch. Soon after this I found an entrance to a neighborhood off this main road that has the steepest incline I've ridden in quite some time. I tried attacking it and it kicked my butt. I barely made it up and then was still out of breath the whole way back down. All in all it was a good ride. Too bad Tennessee didn't win later on in the day. That would have made it great.

The passageway to Georgia

The hill of death

Race Report: River Gorge Omnium

What a weekend it was. Obviously, the highlight of the weekend was my crit win, but other exciting parts included catching my 30 sec guy in the time trial, my left crank arm ripping out of the bottom bracket of my TT bike, the 22 year-old stud that solo'ed off the front and won the Pro/1/2 race, and the brief time that I lead the cat 4 road race leading up to the Raccoon Mountain climb.

Saturday morning I headed up to the TT start on top of Raccoon mountain. Quickly grabbing a parking spot, I set up my trainer and got about 8 minutes of warm-up. Not exactly ideal, but I got a little distracted talking to some other guys and did not have as much time as I though I was going to. Thankfully, I made it to the start line on time and took off as planned. The first few corners didn't seem as bad as they were during the pre-ride. It might have been because I was used to the stiffness in the wheels by this point or the wind might not have been blowing as much. I was feeling good until I really got into the little climb before mile 2. I was right on my 30 second guy at this point, but the poor performance here kept me from catching him until almost the very end. Being pretty winded from the climb, it took me a bit to gear back up on top and start my descent. I didn't hit 47 mph like I did in my pre-ride. I stayed steady over the dam and then was ready to push once I made the right hand turn. I felt really good making the right hand turn and heading for the finish. Once I got to the curves I caught my guy and passed on the inside. After I crossed the line, I checked the clock and it was just after 8:50. Pretty good since I was expecting to go around 9:10 to 9:20 for the four mile time trial. My trip back to the car was not as pleasant. This is where my crank arm fell off. I knew it was loose and coming off, but I was hoping to make it back to the car where I could find some tools to tighten it down. Well, when I got to the first incline to ripped out and jacked up the drive side crank arm. I haven't been able to get it completely off yet, but I'm thinking I crushed the bearing, broke the c-clip and will need a whole new bottom bracket. Oh well.

So I came back home and switched wheels and brake pads to get ready for the crit race later that evening. I must say, I think the Tarmac looked awesome with the 808's on it. I, on the other hand, was quite nervous. The crit was going to be a field of 84 guys racing around a .8 mile loop in downtown Chattanooga. I had never ridden with a field this big let alone race in one. I lined up middle of the pack and was determined to do my best. I was told that the field would probably go really hard the first 5 to 6 laps and then back down. They did. It was fun zipping around the corners at such high speeds so close to each. Fun here equals exciting, daring, and dangerous. There was one crash behind me, I could hear the carnage but didn't see it until the next lap around. I did rub wheels with someone. I did get shoulder bumped and helmet tapped. I did get yelled at for my cornering at one point. Screw that guy. Anyway, I tried to go off the front for one of the primes and realized that was a bad idea before even half way through the lap. So at this point I decided to not try going for any of those and just focus on positioning for the finish and saving my legs for that. Coming around one lap to go I was still sitting nicely in the front of the group, probably about 12 to 15 riders back. We made the turn to the slight uphill and I jumped up a couple riders and moved to the outside. We began to take the slight left hand bend and I'm not sure if I was speeding up or if the field was slowing down, but I quickly found myself at the front of the group on the inside. About 25 meters later, I crossed through and intersection and expected to see the field right on my wheel. They were not. At this point I knew I had to go for. I cranked down and headed for corner four fast. I took it wide and barely braked. I ended up almost in the opposite side gutter once I came out of the corner. Before I could even really get the bike under control, I stood up to start my sprint. The bike was flying all over the place and I still don't know exactly how I made it all come together so perfectly. Cresting the slight rise in the finish chute, I looked back and the field was way down the road. I turned back and gave a few more sprints and checked again. I was about to win. It was awesome. I threw my hands up and enjoyed the moment across the line with the field quickly closing in. Once again, it was AWESOME. As I settled down, I began to get passed by other riders as I was taking my cool down lap. Talk about building up an oxygen debt. I was sucking for air so hard and it took about the whole lap to just get my breathing back. I then stopped and hugged all my friends that had come to watch including my mom. First cat 4 crit was a huge success.

I wish I could say the same thing for the road race on Sunday, but I am not a climber. Why did I enter the only two races in Tennessee that have climbing in them then? I have no idea. Maybe I'll plan my races better next year. I can say I did stay with the lead group the whole way and did make a jump on the descent into Raccoon Mountain hoping to go off the front and start the climb by myself. I went a little too early and didn't reach the speeds I anticipated. Therefore, I started the climb with the pack and quickly went to the back. I was getting in my groove and then started picking a bunch of people off that had obviously started too hard. Ended up finishing 28th for the road race which got me 4th place overall for the omnium. Not a bad showing.

Overall results can be found as links underneath the race information here

Here is a video of the part of the finish. I guess I sat up to celebrate a little sooner than I thought. You can just see me sit up and throw my hands to the helmet.

I guess I wasn't as close to the front as I thought I was during most of the race.

Take Two

It was a great first Friday in Chattanooga. After orientation was over, I met up with my best friend Brandon Wright and took another spin on the River Gorge road course. The course didn't seem nearly as hard or long as it did on Wednesday. Not sure if it was just because I had seen it once now or if my legs were shot from my 4 hours in Memphis on Monday. The climbs passed a lot easier and I knew where to get water this time. On the steep descent into Raccoon mountain, I was able to hit 53.5 mph this time. That's pretty close to my all time high speed I set back in 2007 in Colorado. It sure is fun descending these mountains. I also managed to make the last climb to the finish in 21:30. That's the cat 3 and the cat 5 climb to the lookout. I wasn't killing myself, but I wasn't taking it easy. Hopefully that bodes well for next Sunday's race.

I did run into some mechanical issues though. For some reason my Sram Red front shifter has been freezing up. It doesn't seem to be catching and gets stuck in the big ring. This happened twice and after enough fiddling with it and pushing on it I got it to drop back down. If that happens in the race and I have to do some of those climbs in the big ring it sure will hurt. Let's hope things go smoothly.

Now it's back to preparing for the first week of classes. The physical therapy department has already put the fear of God in us here and it's kinda unnerving. On top of the regular classes I have to prepare for, I am having to study 22 chapters of medical terminology. I never took a course in undergrad, so now they are giving us the option to clep out of it by taking the final exam this upcoming Friday. I finally found the book online yesterday and started going through some it. It's going to be one heck of a week. I really hope I don't start out behind, but I also really hope I don't have to add another 3 hour undergraduate course in the spring because I fail this final exam.

So, I might not be able to get as much playing done here as I thought I would be able to. Kinda disappointing.  I thought I was coming here to bike and learn how to climb...

East Overlook on Raccoon; R.G. RR finish

Views from the visitor center on Raccoon