5-26-06 A new season has begun, and I feel pretty out of shape! I had my first race last weekend in RIb Falls, which hurt, and this weekend I have a TT in Blue Mounds, which is going to hurt a lot. It ends with something like 950 ft. of climing over 2.5 miles or so, and seeing that I'm a big, out-of-shape dude, I'm not counting on too much. Mentally, I don't mind the big climbs though, so I think I'll have fun trying.

Two weeks after that is Bellin, and while I had every intention of running a few days a week and doing well at that, my knees didn't cooperate. So now I'll do it slowly and enjoy the event. Beyond that I hope to actually be in shape for some events later in the year, so I'll have to quit whineing about how out-of-shape I am and get in shape.

6-28-05 The High Cliff Triathlon was pretty fun. Overall I finished 138th out of the 282 men who finished the sprint distance, so considering that I've never done a triathlon before, I'm quite pleased with that. As you will see, my bike segment was the key to the result.

To begin the race, I was in the first wave out for the sprint distance. Each wave contained up to 50 people, and started at approximatly two minute intervals.

I'm not a good swimmer. I mean, I can do various strokes well, but I'm not fast so when it comes to racing I'm pretty bad. At the triathlon, the swim started and I don't know what it was but I wasn't taking in enough air so I began to hyperventilate. Eventually I switched over to the back stroke which allowed me to swim at a more normal pace (for me) until the water was shallow enough to walk in. There were some rocks that we had to swim around, and I cut myself up a bit getting around those, but once I was past them the water became shallow and I walked in most of the last 1/8th of a mile. Overall, my swim was the 236th fastest out of the 282 finishers with a time of 11:53 for the approximatly quarter mile.

My transition between swim and bike went well, and I was 88th fastest in that phase (2 minutes and 26 seconds).

The bike was pretty good to me. I took it really easy up the big hill at the start, and then settled in to a good pace. I passed a lot of folks along the way, which was kind of fun, and ended up with the 20th fastest bike split. My time was 54:02 for just over 20 miles.

Transition two wasn't so smooth, it took me a little too long to find where my stuff was, and then I had to tie my shoes which I don't think most triathletes have to do. Anyway, it still only took 2:05, which was 219th fastest.

The run was hard. I had biked pretty hard, and it took a mile or so to loosen up, and even then I wasn't going too fast. I ran the 5k in 32:25, which is pretty bad, and was the 255th fastest time, so I only ran faster than 17 people... oops. So that was the end of that. Like I said, it was good the the bike was a major part of things, as that allowed me to have a decent finishing place.

Up next is the TT in Stanley, my first target for the year. So I have just less than two weeks to finish preparing for that. I feel pretty good, so I'm optimistic for a good result there.

6-23-05 Well, there've been a few races since the last entry, so here goes. On the weekend of June 4th and 5th I went out to do the Big Ring Flyers TT in Hudson, and since that was on Sunday I also did the Cascade Classic Road Race on Saturday in nearby Osceola. Road racing isn't my thing, as I don't have enough experience at it and I don't have the fitness for the repeaded accelerations/decelerations. It was however a good 33 mile or so workout. Problem is that the effort on Saturday left me pretty dead for Sunday. To make things worse, at the TT on Sunday I missed my start time by 3:15 which just gets added to my time, so that race was ruined before it started. Well, it's my own dumb fault and at least it wasn't a big event for me so I'm not very upset about it... good training.

I decided to skip Bellin on June 11, I hadn't done any running and felt that the 10k would probably injure me more than anything. It was kind of fun to see the whole thing as a spectator for once though.

On Sunday, June 19 I did the Badger State Games Time Trial, and did fairly well. The course was just about 15 miles (two laps of over 7 miles plus a little extra at the start and finish) with several reasonably short but pretty steep hills. I am quite poor going up the hills, but did well on the descents and flats, and managed to finish 2nd out of 12 in the 18-29 age group, and first in my WISport age group.

Next I have the High Cliff Triathlon this Sunday, which should be fun. I'm not expecting to do well, just try something new and see how it goes. The following week is the TT in Stanley, which is one of the two races in July that I've been trying to peak for this spring. I feel like I'm coming into pretty good shape, so hopefully I'll be fast for my target races.

5-17-05 Raced in Rib Falls this weekend, and it wasn't too much fun. Considering that I hadn't done any speed work leading up to the race, I shouldn't have been too dissappointed that things didn't go so well. That said, it's frustrating when you feel like you ought to be able to ride 24 mph and you can only ride 19. Add to that a rolling/hilly course, cold temps, and intermediate drizzle and you can see why it wasn't the most enthusing time. However, it really was a glorified training ride for me and the beginning of my hard training for the summer, so if all goes well and I'm flyin' in July, it will all have been worth it.

On the plus side, my new TT frame has arrived. It isn't quite ready to be ridden yet, but I should be able to get out on it this weekend. I'll post a photo of it when it is completed.

Next up for me is the Big Ring Flyers Time Trial in Hudson on June 5. In theory, I should be going much faster by then, so it should be more fun. I hated the course they had last year... hopefully it'll be better but who knows? The Saturday after that is Bellin, so I'll need to be doing some running too, which will also be good with the High-Cliff Triathlon coming up June 24.

3-16-05 New Season The time has come to begin training in earnest for the 2005 season. Not that I have been sedentary until now, but I am pretty out of shape. This year I am just beginning my base training in March, finishing that up at the end of April, and focusing on being in peak form for late June into early July. This is later that the past couple of years, but I need to focus more on my base than in the past, and I have a lot of events in which I want to do well from June 26th to July 17th. Sadly, I'll not be in very good shape for the time trial in Willard this year, which is an event I really enjoy, but I should make up for it by flying in July.

If you head over to my schedule/results page, you can see the events I am planning to enter this year... a full slate! I've also included my current personal best for each event that I have competed in before... hopefully many of those will be beaten this season. The biggest change you'll see is my plan to add triathlons and duathlons to the mix. I haven't competed in any multi-sport events before, but have always wanted to, so I look forward to the challenge. That of course means I can't focus 100% on my cycling, and it will be interesting to see how that impacts my cycling results.

7-28-04 Ouch! - Tour Conclusion Well, first off, I crashed...hard. On Friday evening (7-23) I was riding down Scray's Hill going about 43 mph and my bike started shimmying badly. Bikes can shimmy at high speed when vibration from riding matches the frame's resonant frequency, causing the frame to wobble badly. If you've ever seen the famous footage of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsing, well, this is the same idea. Bikes with large frames like mine are more susceptible to shimmy than smaller ones. Now, I've ridden this bike at 43 mph before with no problems, but a few differences here were that I had just been pedaling into the hill pretty hard, I was turning, and the road was brand new asphalt and thus very grippy.

At any rate, the bike started wobbling, and due to this turning became very difficult. I should have clamped my knees to the top tube, which probably would have stopped the shimmy and saved me, but I didn't...oops. So as I was trying to save it (mind you this all took probably 2 or 3 seconds) I decided that if I was going to crash, that I'd choose to crash into the ditch rather than onto the road; this became my goal. I made it into the ditch, and from the track in the gravel made it pretty much to the end of the shoulder. The track ends at a nice little pile of gravel that I presume sent me over the handlebars. I remember seeing the gravel racing under me, then flipping over, feeling my feet come unclipped from the pedals, and seeing my bike go flying over me (at which point I thought, "I hope it doesn't break too bad").

After bouncing around a bit I came to a stop in the bottom of the ditch, feet first, on my back. I didn't move for a bit, stunned, and then felt to see if my collarbones were broken, they weren't. Then after lying there for about 30 seconds or so, I decided I have better try to get up. Standing up was weird, as though I almost shouldn't be able to do so after crashing like that. I looked down at my legs, not too bad, and then at my arms. My right arm was bleeding, and had two pretty big lumps on it. I'd say the skin was swollen by about 1/2 inch.

Then I looked and saw my bike lying about 20 feet farther down the ditch from where I had stopped. I walked over and remarkably, nothing was too bad. The handlebars were rotated down about 30 degrees from their normal position, but that was about it. I brought it up next to the road, and spun the wheels which were still true and the tires inflated. So I walked back down to get my water bottles, and realized that my helmet was kind of loose. So I took it off and found a pretty nice crack in it. It had done its job well, been ruined, but kept my head from being hurt at all. I put it back on, got my bottles and went back to my bike to ride home.

When I stood my bike up I heard the front tire begin to leak, so I decided to coast down the hill and get to Ledgeview Golf Course (formerly Mystery Hills), to call Julie. Nice how this is the one ride where I forgot my cell phone. At the bottom of the hill my tire had gone completely flat so I had to walk the rest of the way. I went into the clubhouse and asked to use a phone, and the bartender let me use his cell, which was nice. The lady working there looked pretty shocked when she saw my right side and asked if I wanted some ice for the swelling. I said yes but first went into the bathroom to clean up. While in there a guy walked in who happened to be a paramedic. He looked at me a bit, seemed to think I must have been knocked out at least for a short time based on how I looked (I am 100% sure I was never knocked out), and told me I should probably go to the hospital.

So I got done cleaning up, Julie got there, and we loaded the bike into her car, which promptly refused to go out of park. AAAAAARGH! I went back into the clubhouse and they were nice enough to let the bartender drive me home. The folks there really went above the call of duty for me, and I am very thankful.

I got home, took a very painful shower, and went to the hospital. In short, lots of road-rash, lots of bruising, but nothing broken. In the end I feel pretty lucky. As a biker I knew that one day or another I was going to crash, and I had just hoped that it wouldn't be too bad. A few days later my road-rash is healing nicely, and I feel pretty normal. I plan to get back on the bike today and be up in Grand View this weekend for the Firehouse 50. So as I said, I feel pretty lucky.

The Tour de France is over and my predictions were pretty bad. Lance won, and I had him as my #1 favorite, but I really didn't think he'd win this year, and for sure I wouldn't have thought he'd be as dominant as he was, so I can't take any credit there. Here is what I had correctly forecast: I prediceted Richard Virenque would finish 15th and win the King of the Mountains competiton, and he did both of those things! So I am a master at predicting how Richard will do in the Tour, and not much else!

7-19-04 Had a race in Tilden on the 11th, a 15 mile Time Trial. I finished 30th out of 97, but got beat in may age group which basically ends any hope I had of winning my age group this year. Oh well, maybe next year. The best thing about this race was that Julie went and rode it with me. She finished 12th of 19 among the women, but considering that she had only ridden 5 times before the race, and that she didn't exactly have an aerodynamic set up, was really good (that's an average speed of 18.5 mph!)

Tour de France Update - This year is the most boring Tour in recent memory. Lance should win again, but all of the major contenders stink this year, except Ivan Basso who has the only chance of pulling the upset. I only gave Basso a 4% chance of winning before the Tour, but I'll bump that up to 10% now. One more week and hopefully it will become exciting.

6-25-04 Tour Preview - Well, I don't have my next race until July 11, so I'm just training right now. The July 11 race is perfect for me, I think, so I'm pretty motivated to to well there. Until then, it's time for my 2004 Tour de France preview!

The 2004 Tour is shaping up to be the best in years, with a seemingly vulnerable Lance Armstrong, and a host of contenders that could rise up to the challenge. I don't think Lance is going to win, but I think he has the best chance of any one person. On to my TDF list of potential winners and the chance they have to win:

Lance Armstrong (USA) - 25%
Jan Ullrich (Germany) - 20%
Iban Mayo (Spain) - 20%
Tyler Hamilton (USA) - 15%
Reberto Heras (Spain) - 5%
Ivan Basso (Italy) - 4%
Levi Leipheimer (USA) - 3.5%
Haimar Zubeldia (Spain) - 3%
Oscar Sevilla (Spain) - 2%
Francisco Mancebo (Spain) - 1%
Gilberto Simoni (Italy) - .5%
Carlos Sastre (Spain) - .5%
Christophe Moreau (France) - .5%

Now, what follows is my prediction for the top 20 placings in the Tour, note that some people who I give no chance to win I place above some with a small chance, and I re-order the list above a bit based on some people who I think can win, but have a lower down-side.

1. Lance Armstrong
2. Jan Ullrich
3. Tyler Hamilton
4. Iban Mayo
5. Ivan Basso
6. Reberto Heras
7. Levi Leipheimer
8. Oscar Sevilla
9. Francisco Mancebo
10. Haimar Zubeldia
11. Carlos Sastre
12. Denis Menchov (Russia)
13. Christophe Moreau
14. Manual Beltran (Spain)
15. Richard Virenque (France)
16. Bobby Julich (USA)
17. Michael Rasmussen (Denmark)
18. Gilberto Simoni
19. Floyd Landis (USA)
20. Bradley McGee (Australia)

NOTE - I had originally predicted Jorg Jaksche to finish 20th, but he broke his elbow yesterday (6-29), and thus will not start the tour.

Predictions for the top 5 in the Green Jersey (sprinters) competition:

1. Alessandro Petacchi
2. Robby McEwen
3. Stuart O'Grady
4. Eric Zabel
5. Baden Cooke

Predictions for the top 5 in the Polka-Dot Jersey (climbers) competition:

1. Richard Virenque
2. Iban Mayo
3. Lance Armstrong
4. Roberto Heras
5. Francisco Mancebo

Okay, now that I've predicted everything under the sun, we'll just have to wait and see how it really comes out. I'll post the actual results after the Tour, and take all the credit for every little thing I've predicted right!

6-11-04 - The race in Husdon this past weekend was tough. I had to get up in Wausau at 4:00am, drive to Hudson and ride a challenging 14.2 mile course. The course had 19 turns (two of them turn-arounds) plus a few reasonable hills. This all made it tough for me to get into a good rhythm. I'm the kind of rider who does best on courses where I can really settle into a steady tempo, and this race never let me do that. Fortunatly I won my age group, thanks to the fact that Jeff Elsner, who's beaten my in the previous two time trials this year, wasn't there. Still, a win means maximum series points which can't hurt.

So now I have no more races until July 11, which is a big target for me as that's a course that I had better do well on. From there its to the Firehouse 50, which is a 50 mile Time Trial, so I have no idea what to expect from that.

Check back in a couple of weeks though and I'll put up my very interesting Tour de France preview and picks!

5-17-04 - Had a race in Cambria this weekend, a 26 mile Time Trial that was pretty hilly to boot. Tyler Hamilton (see the links page) would describe the race as a suffer-fest...fun! I took over 8 minutes off my time from last year, although that's a bit misleading as I did REALLY bad in this race last year. Overall I was happy with the result. Then I rode 50 miles Sunday, which was only the second 50 miler I've done this year and now that the weather is getting warmer I need to do more of them. Finished that in 2:59:29, which is good as I try to do the 50 milers in under 3 hours. That seems to be a good pace for me to get in a good workout over that distance.