Blerg

I suppose this should technically be a race report, so here's what happened at the Shenandoah Speedway Points Race:

Got a poor start and spent the first five laps making up for it. Positioned poorly going into first sprint, came across line out of the points. Flatted before the next sprint. Didn't bring spare wheels. The end.

I probably could have found a spare front wheel, but I didn't really want to. I didn't want to do the race at all, actually. I paid $30 and drove 2 hours each way to do 8 laps on a race track. At least there was beer.

This post is really about me being burned out. In previous years, I would either get sick or hurt when I overtrained. I guess cycling affects me differently, because I feel cranky and unmotivated instead of sick.

Point is that I've pushed my body (and mind) too far, and now I need a break. Emily has orders not to let me sign up for any races for at least 2 weeks. I'll see how I feel after that. It may be that I lay off until cyclocross season starts. In the meantime, I plan to do a little running, do a little swimming, watch a lot of rugby, and ignore cycling.

See you in a couple weeks.

Race Report: Tour of Washington County TT and Crit

In which I redeem myself and then hang on by the skin of my teeth.

I elected not to stay overnight in Hagerstown. Emily didn't want to travel for the weekend. She spent the first week of June in Seattle, I spent the second week in Wichita, and she's in San Francisco this week. So she was (understandably) not feeling the weekend trip vibe. I caught a little bit of flack for signing up for a weekend stage race. So I elected to drive up and back on Saturday, then up again on Sunday morning. It takes a little over an hour to drive up there, and my TT starting time was 7:19:30. I woke up at 4:40 and left at 5:05 to get to Boonsboro in plenty of time to warm up for my TT.

Also, the drive to Washington County is about an hour and ten minutes. I've learned that I have about 45 minutes from the time I start drinking coffee to the time I have to go the bathroom in an emergency kind of way. Fortunately, I made it to the port-a-johns in time to avoid humiliation.

The 10-mile TT went well for me. I started 30 seconds after the GC leader (reverse alphabetical order by last name, not by road race placement) and one minute after one of the few athletes who finished behind me in Saturday's race. I saw them both at the turn-around, passed my one-minute rabbit at around the 8 mile point, but never saw Angela (who ended up getting first in the GC) again. The time trial was hilly, and I did it in 2:13.1, with an average speed of 21.3 MPH. Not bad, considering the terrain. I got third place and moved up to fourth overall in the GC.

My car has been leaking oil since I came back from Wichita, so I stopped between the TT and the crit to buy a couple of quarts of oil. Put them in the car, bought some food, drove to the next race venue with the intention of taking a nap. As I turned off my car, I thought I saw the oil light come on. And I thought, "Oh crap." So I got out and peeked under the car and it was spewing oil. Okay, not spewing, but dripping pretty steadily. And I was so worried about it! What if it was going to mess up the car to drive it home? What if I got stranded in Hagerstown and couldn't get home EVER? What if I ruined my car and had to buy a new one? Basically, my recovery sucked and I hadn't eaten enough food and I was really tired and stressed from all the racing . . . I couldn't sit still so I started riding the course, thinking the whole time about how I was going to get home . . . I literally made myself sick with stress over the stupid car thing. By the time we started staging for the crit, I thought I was going to throw up. I'm usually pretty mellow about stuff like this, but for some reason I could not get out of my own head going into the last race. I lined up wanting to fall off and get pulled and be done with it.

Then the racing started.

As I mentioned in the road race report, the cat 4 women raced with the 1/2/3s. Same thing in the crit, and there were some really strong women entered. Tour of Washington County offers a yellow jersey, a sprinter's jersey, and a QOM jersey, in addition to pretty good prize money. There was a good 1/2/3 field at this race. Before the crit, several of the girls were talking about Clarendon and Philly. Clarendon is on the domestic pro calendar and Philly is a women's World Tour race. These girls were good.

They took the pace off hot from the whistle. From the second turn, I was already thinking, "Oh no, I'm never going to be able to hang on for this." I needed to finish within about a minute of the 5th-place cat 4 girl to maintain my GC standing, and I thought I saw her in among the 1/2/3s, so I hung on to the back of the peloton for dear life, dangling on every turn. I lost track of time and space. My only thought was to stay in touch with the group for as long as possible. Angela and Theresa, who were in first and third in the GC, were in front of me within view. I looked back after a time--no idea how long--and the only thing behind me was the moto. There were several times where I dropped off the back of the pack and fought my way back on. There was even one time when the moto passed me, but I took a few corners well and accelerated enough to come back into touch with the main group. I was hanging--just barely--but hanging. It was the hardest racing I've ever done.

Theresa, Angela, and I all fell off and got gapped at one point. I was hanging onto their wheels as they fought back up to the group. I was so gassed that I couldn't help them--it was all I could do to hang on! Then (and, based on what happened next, I can only assume that everyone slowed up significantly) we came around the final turn on the course and I somehow managed to slingshot around Angela and Theresa and pulled back up to the main group! I even shot up the side a little bit and got back into the pack!

Then we turned the first corner on the course. By chance, I looked down at my Garmin. 7.85, it said. Halfway through the race. At that point, my mind broke. I could not overcome the thought that I hurt so badly and it was only halfway through. My brain told me that I couldn't do the second half of the race, and I listened.

The gap opened. Angela and Theresa came around me and chased back on. I gave up.

I drifted off the back, gasping for breath, but knew that I would have to keep pedaling at least enough to get back to the start/finish line, and probably past that before the officials would pull me. So I kept pedaling, taking the turns as quickly and smoothly as I could, trying to recover through the straight aways.

On one of those straight aways--this was probably two laps later--I noticed that Angela and Theresa had popped off the back of the 1/2/3s. They were within sight. I'd like to say that I decided then to chase back on, but really I just wanted it to be over. The officials left me in, though, so I figured I could at least try to bridge up to them; I wouldn't have objected to being pulled from the race, but there was no way I was going to quit without the officials making me. Spectators--not just people from my team, but from EVERY team--were cheering me on, calling my name, shouting out time gaps . . . But they couldn't see me slumping over my handlebars on the backside of every lap, gasping for breath like a chain smoker on an autumn walk.

The officials finally pulled me at four laps to go. Theresa and Angela hung on until two to go. Angela got first, Theresa got second, and I got third. None of the cat 4 women finished all 21 laps of that crit with the 1/2/3s. They drilled us good. I'm so glad that bike racing isn't my job. Makes me want to be a cat 4 FOR LIFE.

Hanging in the crit for as long as I did vaulted me into third place overall, with Theresa in second and Angela taking the win. It's cool to place well in the race, but it was a real bummer to have supplanted my teammate, Kim, who kicked so much butt in the road race. She had an extra 15 miles in her legs from finishing the road race, while I got pulled after the third lap. We talked after about how it might be a legitimate strategy in future years to drop off the back in the road race and make up the time in the TT and crit . . . But you never know. Bike racing takes fitness, but even with the best fitness, it's a gamble. Lots of fit riders never win a race. Sometimes it comes down to luck.

Overall, it was a good weekend. I'm glad I could represent my team, Veloworks-Spokes, Etc., and that we had someone on the podium. And I got a trophy! Even though the courses were tough and the racing tougher, I plan to be back on the starting line at Tour of Washington County next year with my fitness, recovery, and mental fortitude dialed in.

Race Report: Smithsburg Road Race

In which I try something risky/stupid and it doesn't pay off.

The race was 5 laps for a total of 41 miles. The tech guide described it as "a bit faster than in the past years . . . best described as rolling with some short but significant hills." I would call the hills a little more than significant. There was also a sprinter's jersey, which I had my eye on, and a climber's jersey, which I did not. The day was beautiful--perfect for racing with no wind and mild temperatures/humidity for this area and season.

Field was relatively small for the women's open and 4 fields combined, probably 30-35 women total, and we had the whole road to play with! I got a decent start and positioned well through the first lap. I felt strong. Kept pace with the pack pretty well. Came across for 4th in the first sprint for points. I had great feelings about the race.

Maybe I felt a little too great about my prospects. On the back third of the first lap, I was sitting third wheel in the peloton bringing back a lone rider who got maaaaybe 5 seconds on the pack. The pace slowed as we made the catch and the time felt right to counter, so I did. I got one other girl away with me and the pack was sitting up, so I buried myself to make some time. Little did I realize that the pack was sitting up because we were coming to the first big hill on the course. I hit the base of that hill already gassed. The entire peloton passed me and pooped me out the back. Two significant hills followed that first one, and I couldn't recover enough to catch back on.

I got well and truly dropped.

Passed three other women on the way through the first three laps. At the end of the third lap, the officials asked me if I wanted to be pulled. I asked how far ahead the main group was. "About 10 minutes," they told me. "Yeah, I'd like to be pulled." So I did 25 miles instead of 41 and I'm still having trouble going down stairs now. My three laps were good enough for 6th place, apparently, so yay? People make up 10 minutes in 10-mile time trials all the time, right?

If I hadn't made that attack in the first lap, I'm not sure I could have hung on to the pack anyway. There was carnage, from what I saw watching laps 4 and 5. Two of my teammates hung with the second group and got third and fourth out of the 4s though! My third teammate had a rough day: dropped, then lost, then flatted. She finished 9th and will still be eligible for GC awards, which means she can still start the TT and crit tomorrow!

I've given myself permission to make lots of mistakes this season. I'm happy as a 4, at least for now. I've decided to focus more on experience than on results (although results are awesome too). So I don't feel bad about my performance today. Although I felt pretty stupid going up those backside hills by myself for the third time.

Tomorrow, time trial and crit! Stay tuned!

Quick Update

I spent last week in Wichita, so I haven't been online much. I raced Ride Sally Ride in both the women's open and the women's 4. It was my first time doubling up with two races in the same day! I ended in the top 10 in the 4 and managed to finish with the pack in the open (although it was so painful I wish I would have been dropped).

Last Saturday I rode with some old buddies in Wichita and got my legs ripped off. But I never would have done that particular ride when I lived in Wichita before; I wouldn't have been anywhere close to keeping up! I'm much faster now than I was then.

Last Sunday I rode to a donut shop in Wichita for a recovery ride. I broke my chain along the way. I'm very disappointed in Wichita; I was stopped on the side of the road fixing my chain for about half an hour, and no one so much as slowed down to see if I was okay--including two or three other cyclists! Shame on you, Wichita; shame on you. I've had cyclists, runners, walkers, and motorists stop to see if I needed help here in the big city. Where's the Midwestern charm?

Tomorrow begins the Tour of Washington County Stage Race, with a 41 mile road race. This is another combined women's field, but there's no center-line rule! There's also a TT and criterium on Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes!

Jamie's Diet Food: "Paleo" Granola

It's been much harder to keep my weight down this year, since I'm not doing nearly as much volume as last year. I also want to try to stay lighter this year, because that's what cyclists do. I've been more successful than I anticipated on hilly races at staying up with the climbers, but I think it will be that much easier if I weigh less.

As a result, I've been leaning back towards a paleo eating style. I don't really subscribe to the theoretical side of paleo (although I used to, and you can read some of it in my archives) . . . I know more about human physiology now, and the paleo/primal movement strikes me as one more movement that's more about the tribe than about the science. There are some good principles, but it seems mostly like a chance for people who need to feel special to tell everyone else how special they are. I feel the same way about vegans. Go ahead and start penning your hate mail, now. Diatribe over.

Anyway, I may not be part of the great primal evangelical movement anymore, but I still like a lot of the ideas behind it. Eat as many whole, natural foods as you can; focus on lean proteins, vegetables, and fruits; have some nuts and seeds, minimize grains; enjoy things in moderation; and remember that diet is only a part of a healthy lifestyle.

Since it's hard to do lots of endurance training when you eat lower quantities of carbohydrates, I've also been doing some nutrient timing. On Tuesday, when I had some hard Trainer Road intervals on the docket, I had some pasta with my lunch and a sandwich for dinner. On Wednesday, when all I scheduled was yoga and an endurance ride, I stayed away from the grains in favor of extra veggies and some fish. I eat some calorie-dense foods, but I cluster them around my hard workouts.

For breakfast, I've been having nuts, seeds, and fresh fruit on yogurt. Then I found this paleo granola recipe on Pinterest. I just finished making a small batch to make sure that I like it. And I mostly enjoy it. It feels a little heavy, probably from all the nuts and seeds. I don't like it as much as real granola. Maybe it needs more salt, or more vanilla. Here's my version, if you want to try it:

Jamie's Paleo Granola

2 cups almonds (chopped or slivered or whatever)
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup coconut
2 tbsp flax meal
2 tbsp almond meal
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger

3 tbsp coconut oil
4 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 275*. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Combine dry ingredients in a big bowl. Warm liquid ingredients in a saucepan on the stove (don't put honey in the microwave). Combine and toss. Spread mixture on baking sheet. Bake for 45-60 minutes, stirring every 15.

Race Report: Meadow Farm Criterium (Women Cat 4)

Improvised podium in the wind and the rain

When I first started refereeing rugby, I began with 15s. That's the traditional form of rugby, in which team plays 15 people per side. As a referee, that means keeping track of 30 people, staying out of their way, positioning so that you can see the ball, and making sure that everyone is obeying the laws of the game. The pros have the aid of assistant referees on each side line and a television match official who can examine some plays that a referee might miss, not to mention players who know the laws well. In the low-grade games they allow beginner referees to officiate, you get none of that. Needless to say, it's a difficult job. And you get yelled at if you don't do it well (I didn't do it very well, especially at the beginning).

After a few months of refereeing 15s, I refereed at a 7s tournament. In 7s, each team fields 7 per side. That means there are fewer than half the number of people in a 15s game. The matches are faster and more expansive, with fewer pile-ups and better lines of sight for the officials. It's way easier to referee 7s than 15s. I wish I would have started with that; it would have allowed me the space to learn how to manage the game better, and that experience could have carried over to my 15s game.

That's how this weekend's race felt. The field was only 7 women deep on a flat course with open, flowing turns. It reminded me of racing in Kansas, where the women's fields were smaller, except now I have more skills and strength on the bike (because I'm not simultaneously training for swim and run). The small field size allowed us to hone our tactics, and the turns were technical enough to allow practice without being too risky. And the race was only 30 minutes. As I tell my cycling classes, you can survive just about anything for 30 minutes.

I had one teammate with me, and she and I decided that we would put the hurt on the rest of the field. The plan was for her to take the pace out hard (which she does really well) and try to keep a break to the end while I sat in. If she came back before the end, I would counterattack and try to stay away for the rest of the race.

Robin sprinted from the start and got a gap with one other cyclist (a junior from the Mermaid Winery team). One of the women was off the back from the start, leaving four of us to work together. The other woman from Mermaid must have had trouble clipping in, because it took her a lap or two to get up to us. I was sitting on wheels and not working. The group I was in wasn't able to work very well together, probably because I wasn't taking any pulls. One cyclist, who looked pretty young, didn't understand why I wouldn't pull; the other woman (Marie, from US Military Cycling) was trying to explain that I was just doing my job, and they would have to work around me, but they weren't able to trade pulls very well. At one point, the younger girl pulled through too hard and dropped Marie. I pulled Marie back to her wheel because I'm nice and it was more fun with the three of them together.

The other Mermaid woman (Giselle) managed to bridge up to Robin's group, but the younger Mermaid girl (Samantha) dropped off the pace and came back. With her in the group, they were able to get more of a rhythm going, and I took a few turns on the front. We had picked up one of the juniors (they started 30" ahead of us, another thing that made this race fun), and he ended up in our rotation . . . sort of. With about 4 laps to go, I ended up on the junior's wheel, and no one came around me. So I slowed waaaaay down; everyone else had realized that Robin and Giselle weren't coming back in the last 3 or 4 laps, or whatever we had left at that point. With those two safely off the front and everyone else sitting in on my wheel, I figured I would take a chance at going off the front myself for a third place, rather than leaving it to a final sprint.

The course was dumbbell shaped, with a big loop on one end and a big box on the other, connected by a divided straightaway. On the first half of the big loop with two laps to go, the young girl who didn't have much experience with tactics tried to take a flyer off the front. We all covered it, no problem, and I ended up sitting second or third wheel (don't remember for sure) coming into the right turn onto the straightaway. I went wide on that turn and kicked hard on the straightaway. Carried the speed into the next right, then a flowing left. After that, straight into the wind for about 100 m, then another left. I had a gap of at least 50 m by the first time I looked back, with my heart rate seriously in the red (I saw the number 186 when I looked down). I kept grinding, trying to keep the heart rate right around 180, especially through the tailwind section on the second half of the box. Hit the finish line and got the bell for the last lap.

As I took the right-hand turn into the loop, our team tent got caught in the wind and blew almost directly into my path. It didn't quite hit me, but the wind was getting mean and nasty. Looking at the weather data from yesterday, looks like the strongest gusts were over 40 MPH. But I know wind pretty well, and it felt more like 50 MPH to me. I was worried that the other girls, sheltered in their little group, would be able to catch me in all that wind. But every time I looked back, they were nowhere to be seen. I was also worried that the officials were going to stop the race early, because the weather was starting to look really bad. But they let it run to the finish, and I came across the line all on my own to take third place.

Robin got second. I think she had done so much work at the beginning that Giselle was able to ride her straight off her wheel. Still, Veloworks-Spokes, Etc., women went 2-3!

I am really pleased with my performance yesterday. Tactically, it's the best race I've ever done. I did exactly my job in the group, saved my legs, and timed my attack perfectly to get away and stay away. And I won $25 from my team and got to stand on the podium (sort of)!

The question now is if I can take some of the lessons learned in this 7s match (there were literally 7 of us) and apply it my next 15s match, probably Ride Sally Ride in three weeks.

Week Off

No race report for me this week. I'm home sick. I had everything all packed and ready to go last night, in the hope that I would wake up feeling better this morning. But no such luck.

One of my teammates got third place in the women's 4 field this morning, though! Way to go, Kim!

Cat 4 Women's podium at Poolesville Road Race

I've missed a full week of training with this stupid cold. I hope to be back to normal next week, so I can resume my training. I signed up for Trainer Road on Monday, but I haven't been able to do any of the workouts so far!

Race Report: All-American Road Race (Women 1/2/3/4)

My teammate, Sean, got a cool picture of us lined up at the start

Redemption!

This race went much better for me than last week's. Course was 4 loops with a few rollers and one long-ish stair-step climb after the first turn (Mt. Nebo). I lined up early to get a good spot, after last week's debacle getting pinned in the back of a slow combined field. Positioned nicely and had no trouble hanging on through a strong first few miles. First time up the hill was no big deal; I held my position well. A break tried to go up the road, but was brought back before the end of the first lap. Second lap, I found myself almost on the front, right behind a Sweet Spot/Cutaway rider who did a ton of work throughout the second lap. Pace stayed fairly low on the hill through the second round. More women pulled around us to take over pace-setting on the front.

A break went from the left side at the crest of Mt. Nebo on the third lap. I was blocked inside and couldn't go with the group. I was already riding the edge pretty hard from the hill, and almost got blown off the back from that move. I chased back on, though, and managed to work myself back to middle of the pack as the main bunch was bringing back the chase group. NCVC riders made up about half of the field. They were well-equipped to block for their riders up the road. It took multiple women bridging up to the break for them to work to bring it back. I sat in the group throughout the move, still recovering from chasing back on.

Last lap slowed down quite a bit, and I found myself near the back of the bunch with the slow-pokes and opportunists. With narrow, rough ("rustic") roads, a centerline rule, and 40 women, it was difficult to move up. I stayed on the inside line and sniped places where I could: gained a few places by following another rider up the gutter at a point where the road branched to the right; gained another few places on a left-hand bend; gained another place or two by riding up the gutter. At one point, I got pushed off the road and into the mud, but handled it with no problem. Coming around the last turn, I was positioned on the inside line 3 or 4 wheels back.

After the last turn, the road was closed and the centerline rule no longer applied. The attack went on the outside, and I was blocked in. I missed that move, which I think turned out to be the crucial one. I had to break a lot of wind to try to get on the back of that group of (maybe?) 12 girls. I found a wheel to follow, but I'd done too much work to get on it, and by that point I was blown. I sat down and hammered to the finish, but I didn't get a sprint in. Looking back, I should have pushed harder. C'est la vie. Next time.

Ended up 6th place, just off the podium and out of the money. But I felt really good about how I hung with the group, and my ability to position myself late in the race. There were some squirrely wheels in the group today (one girl, a junior, leaned into me twice and ran another woman into me another time), but I don't think I was one of them this time. I felt confident in my handling, stayed relaxed, and held my line (for the most part). After last week's performance, this week feels like redemption!

My teammate, Cinnamon, had a great result, too. This is her second race of the season, and she finished 7th, just behind me. She hasn't had as much practice with really tight groups like that, and she handled it really well.

Lessons learned . . . I want to get better at positioning and holding a good position in a tight pack. I'm not sure how to do that. Comfort level and experience are key, I'm sure. I think the more I race, the better I will become. In the meantime, I will take any advice I can get on that point!

Race Report: Tour of Page County

Why am I always making that face when I ride my bike?

Here's another race where I'm not very excited to write a report. The weekend as a whole was so tiring, I don't want to re-live it. But I will re-live it. For you. My adoring fans.

Twilight Street Sprints
I went to the Shenandoah Twilight Sprints on Friday night. It wasn't a scored part of the stage race, but it sounded fun and I'd never done anything like that before. It gave me a chance to meet and talk with several of my fellow competitors, which made the whole weekend that much more enjoyable. I only did two sprints (won the first, lost the second, lessons learned about proper gearing for the start) and spent the rest of the time hanging out with the other women. Attending earned me a call-up and a front-row starting place for the road race the next day, though.

Hooray for Luray Road Race
Our race started cool and muggy with lots of cloud cover, no wind, and a sprinkle of rain in the air. All races were run with combined women's fields. I'm pretty sure we had a full complement of 60 women racing, about half of whom were cat 4. The race was very slow--basically 45 miles of zone 2 riding with a few hard efforts out of corners sprinkled in. I had no problem staying with the pack, although several women dropped off the pace. I think our main pack had 20-30 women, but I can't be sure.

Someone told me to hold my line, but not in an unhelpful way. I think the way I learned to ride in a pack is wrong, but no one has pointed it out to me up until this point. I've always worried that I'm one of the "new wheels" in the cat 4 field that we all dread, but now I know that I have been. Something to work on. One of my teammates also told me to work on it. It wasn't mean or nasty either time (and there are women in the field who are mean and nasty about it); it was genuinely helpful. So . . . something to work on.

Focusing so hard on holding my line, combined with the brake-y nature of the race, was mentally taxing. I woke up the next day with sore forearms from braking so much. By the time we came to the last 1k, all I felt was relief. I stayed in the pack and didn't try to sprint. I was worried that I would lack the stability to control a hard effort, at that point. Finished 14 out of 32 cat 4 women, not sure in the overall race. I was just happy to have stayed with the pack through the punchy rollers on the backside of the course.

Luray Caverns Time Trial
After my performance in the road race, I was looking forward to the mental break of grinding out my own race, suffering on my own terms, and taking my own line through all the corners. I got a great warm-up in on the trainer. Rolled to the line and got a strong start. A mile in, I was already within sight of my 30-second gap girl, and was closing time. Then the road started to feel unusually bumpy. Looked down. Flat tire. Pulled over at the next corner marshal. Waited for the moto official to come by. He said he'd make sure that I got a time so that I could start the criterium in the afternoon, and to go ahead and start riding back. I rode for a little ways, but the downhills were too fast on a flat tire, and I didn't want to damage my expensive racing tires (or my rims, for that matter). So I got off my bike and walked the last mile in. It wasn't so bad; lots of the women who were coming back on their TTs asked if I was okay, and everyone was very sympathetic. The officials gave me a time of 37:00, which may have been my actual chip time, come to think of it. That was about 10 minutes off the slowest cat 4 TT of the day, so I was definitely out of contention for the GC. I was just grateful to get to race the criterium in the afternoon.

Downtown Luray Criterium
The women's open field had been so overwhelming on Saturday that I was sort of dreading the criterium. It was a technical course with one steep, sustained climb of 30-45 seconds and 8 ninety-degree turns. I really didn't want to have to fight for corners with 30 other women, and I didn't want to have to ride my brakes down every hill and into every corner. I lined up in the second row, but let a few women in front of me. Plan was to hang in the back and see how things looked after a few laps.

I missed my pedal on my first attempt to clip in. Once I got clipped in, the girl in front of me was still struggling to find her pedals. And there went my race, right there. By the time I got on top of my pedals, the lead group was two corners away.

I figured it was an opportunity to make up for the time trial I missed earlier in the day. Started looking up the road to find someone to work with. Caught several women and a few little groups, but no one going fast enough that I wanted to work with them. Took the first 6-7 laps really easy on the hill (on the advice of one of my teammates) and spun up it in a small gear. I was picking up momentum on the backside and got the hang of the corners quickly. I had teammates on the hill cheering me on and telling me I was making up 5-10 seconds per lap on the main group. On lap 7 or 8, I started hammering the hill instead of soft pedaling. It didn't feel too bad. I felt like I could sustain that effort for another 20 minutes.

A lap or two after I started pounding the hill, I saw a group of maybe 8 women ahead of me. I was closing time on them. I was going to catch them. They were coming back to me on the hill. With one more lap, I would be in the shelter of that pack, and could catch my breath while I decided what to do next.

The group of 8 crested the hill and passed the finish line. The officials whistled me over and my race was done. The end.

The officiating at this race was really poor. Women that I had passed a few laps before were allowed to continue on racing for 2 more laps after I was pulled. The results were all kinds of messed up, with women who had been blown off the back of the pack even farther than I had been placed above me and another teammate who was pulled. The officials' lap counting was really screwed up. I should not have been pulled. I was frustrated. My teammates were frustrated for me. But oh well. That's bike racing.

In summary, it was not a great weekend of racing. It was a pretty good weekend, everything else considered, but I'm disappointed with my performance. It was a good learning experience. Lessons learned:

• The way I've been riding in a pack is a little off, and I need to practice holding my line in tight quarters
• Relax and shut up, even if the group is shaky. Control what you can control, which is your line and your stress level. Mostly just relax. Shake out the shoulders, loosen up your hold on the brakes, and relax
• Keep your head up (already knew this, but can't say this one enough)
• Stay near the front of the pack if you don't want to be accordioned all over the place (already knew this one, too, but can't say it enough)
• Leave a bigger buffer for braking on a wet road with wet brakes
• I'm stronger than I think on hills
• Double- and triple-check your gear before the race (I did pump up my tires right before my TT)
• Criteriums are probably going to be my strength
• Good starts are critical for success in crits
• Don't give up, even if you think you're out of the running.

And probably some other lessons that aren't occurring to me right now.

I'm at this point in cycling, and I have this experience in everything I do, where I have surpassed the quick, easy learning curve. The easy gains have been made, and subsequent gains come only with effort and experience. I'm speaking specifically of skills and tactics, here, not so much in fitness. I can still make big gains in my fitness. But the skills, technique, tactics, and savvy to race really well come only by racing and failing and screwing up and getting back in the next weekend to race again. Playing musical instruments, teaching yoga, kinesiology, visual art, and rugby all came really naturally to me at first. And then, pretty suddenly, they didn't. Because there's only so much you can learn by reading books and watching videos and listening to friends share their experiences. At some point, the only way you get really good at something (even if you're naturally talented at it) is with time and experience and hours of practice.

The best part about the weekend was spending it with my team. We rented a house together and stayed there for the whole weekend. Two teammates came and served as our soigneurs, cooking for us and cleaning up after us. It was very pro. I'm still new to Veloworks-Spokes, Etc. This weekend gave me a chance to get to know everyone a little better, especially after all the racing was done and we could relax. My teammate, Kim, got top ten results in the road race and the time trial; another teammate, Robin, got a top ten in the crit; a third teammate, Kaitlyn, took fifth in the GC for the 1/2/3 women; and Clay, our brilliant chef for the weekend, took fourth in the open time trial. So a good time was had by all, and many a lesson learned.

Also, Kim and I hit a black bear on the way home. In a car, not on a bike. Bear and car were both fine. "Hit the bear" may be our new team slogan, though.

Race Report: Farmersville Road Race (Women 3/4)

Brownstown, Pennsylvania, is a two-and-a-half hour drive from me. I headed up the morning of with three teammates, two cat 5s and my fellow 4, Tina. We got a late start, so we were running around like headless chickens trying to get numbers and pin them and get dressed and go to the bathroom (sorry if I flashed anyone during that bit). Ran out of time for a warm-up, so came to the staging area cold. The start was delayed by 15 minutes. That, combined with long lines at check-in, did not bode well for the organizational component of the race.

Rolled out neutral for about 200 yards, then it was 50 women on narrow country roads with center-line rule in effect. I was able to weave to the front just a few miles into the first 6.6-mile lap. Lost Tina off of my wheel, though. I need to work on getting through traffic with a teammate tagged on to my wheel.

The pace stayed moderate for most of the first few laps. I stayed near or even on the front and was able to stay with every little attack that went. Nothing split the group, though, and we still had most of the field going into the third lap. There was a group of U17 boys who were sitting on the front of our field and keeping everything slow, which was annoying. When we complained, one of them (douchebag in training) said, "I don't see you up here pulling!" But then when women tried to get on the front and pull, they ended up accelerating and planting themselves back on the front anyway.

The boys attacked and got a gap about halfway through the third lap. Someone behind me said, "There's a girl in that group!" There wasn't, by the way. But we tracked them down anyway. I sat second wheel as another woman took a strong pull. I told her to take a break and dragged the U17s the rest of the way back. The bunch came together again as we came up on the last little hill (all the hills on this course were little) of the lap, and I could sense an attack coming. I shifted back into my small chainring, and heard my chain drop. Someone to my left said, "Uh oh!" Fortunately, I was on the far right side of the pack, and was able to pull safely off the road without taking anyone else down. I got off and looked at my chain and knew that my race was over.

I wish I would have had my phone so I could have taken a picture of my chain. It simultaneously fell off the outside and inside of the chainring, and somehow wrapped twice around the axle. It took me a good 10 minutes to sort it out. And at that point, my race was over. At least I good still get a good workout.

So I hopped back on the course and started time trialing, just trying to keep my heartrate at or above threshold. I started sweeping up the stragglers. Course marshaling was not very good. I turned the wrong way twice while the course marshals stood there staring at me. At one corner, I actually shouted at the course marshals to ask which way and they still pointed me in the wrong direction. I also passed a tractor. So that was fun.

I finished the last lap and a half solo, passing about 10 people along the way. I was happy that I got to finish the race, and wasn't pulled off the course. But when the women's results were finally posted, I was placed 38 out of 39. I knew that there were names ahead of mine that I had passed. And the cat 5 men were all in by the time I finished, but never passed me. I couldn't figure out what had happened, until I got home and uploaded my Strava data. Turns out I took a wrong turn and did an extra half lap. Again, the course marshaling wasn't great. Course marking was also not adequate. I know it's my own fault for not knowing the course better, but c'mon. We're out here at our limit. It's hard to remember directions when you're trying to keep pedaling without puking.

I enjoyed the race course and didn't have any problem with the race while I was doing it, but now that I look back, it wasn't very well run. Hopefully the race directors gained some valuable experience, and the course will be better next year.

I was also really frustrated that I was taken out by a mechanical problem. I felt strong and I was in a good position near the front of the race. I felt in control. I felt like I could compete. But it doesn't matter, because I dropped my chain. And it's easy to say that I could have had a good result (or at least helped Tina to a better result) when I didn't have to stay with the group for the last 10 miles. Sigh. Maybe this weekend.

But my training is working, apparently! I am definitely stronger. And my handling is better, and my tactics are . . . well, they're coming along. And I did get a very good training ride on Saturday. And I did get to pick my line through all the corners. And I got some bonus training from the wrong turn. And I didn't crash or (more importantly) take out a bunch of people when I couldn't pedal. So . . . Yay?

Meh. I'm going to go work on my bike. Maybe change the chain. This weekend, Tour of Page County!

Race Report: 23rd Annual Carl Dolan Memorial Spring Classic (Cat 4 women)

Sigh . . .

I've been putting off this race report because I'm not very happy with how I did. It took me a while to get over my frustration about the race, how it went down, and how I performed. I finally got over myself, though, once I stopped my navel-gazing long enough to realize that nothing was that bad: I didn't crash, I didn't cause anyone else to crash (I don't think), I got some experience racing in big, sketchy fields . . . It wasn't all terrible.

I got to the race site in plenty of time to warm-up, riding the course in reverse. There were 5 of us in the Cat 4 field. Our team captain is a Cat 2, racing in the field just before ours. We all warmed up together. I kept going too hard in the warm-up, dropping everyone else. My legs felt really good (maybe a little bit too good).

The Cat 1/2/3 field staged directly in front of us; they departed a minute ahead of us. Our plan was to take the pace off fast, try to establish a breakaway, and lead out our A rider if the field stayed together. I don't remember much about the early laps; the field stayed bunchy, everyone seemed a little jumpy, and there were a few really sketchy wheels. We couldn't get a break off the front, but the pace in the pack wasn't difficult at all. The field got especially slow on the one tiny little hill. My job was to sit in the back and protect our A rider, though, which went okay for the first lap or two. I remember trying to move the two of us up in the field over and over, but everyone wanted to be near the front, and we kept ending up near the back again.

It wasn't far into the race--maybe second lap?--when we got within sight of the Cat 1/2/3s. Our Cat 2 Captain told us later that the moto officials told them that the Cat 4s were only 10-15 seconds back from them. Then the pace picked up with a few attacks. But it only took another lap or two for the Cat 4 fields to completely overtake them.

Standard rules for races like this are a little like triathlon rules in that you can't work with the riders from the other field. The officials went over that rule in detail before the race started. We also had a centerline rule in effect, which meant we could be instantly disqualified for riding on the wrong side of the center yellow line. We started to overtake the Cat 1/2/3 field just as the road narrowed a little. I think our whole group was unsure of what to do. We knew that we needed to get past the field as quickly as possible, but we also couldn't go past them on the left because of the centerline rule. Adding to the confusion, all of our numbers started with 5; the 1/2/3s had numbers 500-520, the cat 4s had numbers higher in the 500s. That made it really difficult to tell the fields apart. Apparently, the moto officials made some effort to separate us ("Sort yourselves out, ladies!"), but it was too late. The fields were together, and they stayed together for the rest of the race.

From that point on, our team plan was out the window. I tried to hold our A rider on my wheel, and tried to find one of my other teammates to lead the two of us out in the last 2 laps. About the time I found my teammate, who was in the center near the front of the pack, the rider on my left bumped in to me and I leaned into my teammate. I don't know how the heck we stayed up, but we didn't crash. From there, I tried to get us to the outside of the pack, but lost my two teammates in the process. I was in good position all on my own.

I accelerated out of the last hard right turn (which was a shit-show, pardon my language, for the entire race, with inexperienced riders cutting the turn and causing chaos with a complete inability to hold their lines) and passed a bunch of riders on the left. I was in the gutter on the left side, on the front with no one to work for. Things slowed down a little coming up the last hill. Team captain was on my wheel, noticed me slowing and told me to pedal. I thought it was my A rider telling me to start the lead-out, so I hammered for a hundred yards, blew myself up, watched the whole field pass me, and ended up 28 out of 33 finishers. I felt like a big pile of dog doodoo. By the time I came across the finish line, I was totally recovered. I didn't feel tired at all. I still had a full tank of gas. I had wasted a great position going into the finish. In short, I sucked.

I spent the rest of the day cranky and stewing. Same thing for Monday morning. I was stuck in a spiral of "I suck"-ness, and I couldn't get out of it.

Then our Cat 4 captain sent out her race report, and I remembered that she got third place! Here I was, feeling so sorry for myself, completely discounting the fact that she had pulled a really great result out of a really bad situation. Instead of navel-gazing and feeling sorry for myself, I should be celebrating our team accomplishment!

Part of what was so frustrating about the whole race was trying to figure out what I could have done better. What were lessons that I could take from this race where I did such a poor job, both for my team and for myself? Here's what I've come up:

1. Don't take yourself so seriously, Jamie. You're a cat 4 amateur racer. This isn't your job, it isn't life or death. Sometimes things don't go well at races, just like you occasionally get a bad official in a rugby match (I have also been that bad official). You can't make the official better, or interpret the laws the way you do. Maybe it loses you a match, even, but you still can't control it! So relax and enjoy the ride, because it's really not that big a deal.
2. The other side of the team coin: you want to do a good job for your team, but you can also rely on your team to do a good job for you. Sometimes you knock the ball on at the base of a ruck, and the team doesn't (or shouldn't) berate you for making a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes! Instead, the team gets ready to scrum down to support you after the mistake. You give the best that you can for your team, but some days your best sucks, and the team doesn't immediately kick you off; instead, you get to participate in their success!
3. I'm not sure how to phrase this last one. I'm still working it out in my head. Something along the lines of drifting to the back with my team and regrouping; being willing to chuck out the pre-race plan and figure out a new plan on the fly; and keeping my mouth shut and taking the lead from my teammates. Our Cat 4 captain came from near the back of the field to take third place, while I blew up from the front of the field to take last place. There's a pretty obvious lesson for me in all of that.

So that was Carl Dolan for me. Crappy factors outside of my control, exacerbated by me taking myself too seriously and trying to hold on to a race plan that was (or should have been) obviously out the window. This weekend is another chance to do better. Farmersville Road Race, here I come!

Race Report: Jefferson Cup (Women Cat 4)

Emily and I took the weekend to get away. We stayed at a KOA campground about a mile down the road from the race staging area, which was at a middle school near Charlottesville. It rained both nights we were there. Not the best camping weather. But we brought an air mattress this time, so at least we were able to sleep (or I was, anyway).

We went into Charlottesville to check out the town, since neither of us had been there before, on Saturday. Had a nice brunch at a very college-town type bar/restaurant. Happened to pass a women's rugby team warming up on the way to lunch, so after eating we found the game and watched UNC play JMU. We caught part of two games; I guess UVA women's rugby was hosting a round robin or something for the weekend. But holy cow! the UVA women are terrific! I was pretty sure we were about to be overrun by a tribe of Amazons when they came out to warm up on the pitch. They decimated the Virginia Tech team. It was a real romper. The weather was sunny, pretty, warm, and windy--a beautiful day to catch a game, but an unexpected detour that led to a mild sunburn for me (because I didn't think ahead enough to put on sunscreen).

After the rugby game, we headed back to our campsite. Emily napped while I headed out from our campsite (so convenient) to ride the course. The course was about a 10-mile loop with one significant hill (took about 1:30 to climb), some sweet descents, and lots of spaced-out rollers. I was a little concerned about my ability to hang with the group on the big hill (which I shall hereafter refer to as the Trump Hill, because there was a Trump Winery at the peak). I practiced a few ramp-ups and sprints in the finishing stretch, which was helpfully marked at 1km, 500m, 400m, 300m, 200m, and 100m to go.

Saturday night was very rainy and windy; Sunday morning was uncomfortably chilly. I had teammates in the women's 1/2/3 and men's 4 fields, which started at 9. I headed over early to watch them race. I caught the first 3 of their 5 loops before heading back the middle school to find my fellow cat 4s, warm up, and get ready for staging. The race was supposed to start at 12:30, but the start was delayed; high winds had taken out some power lines, and Dominion Power had to block the road with their utility trucks. As a result, our race was shortened from 3 laps/30 miles to 2 laps/20 miles. Crap. I could see, in my mind, the intensity ratcheting up significantly. Neutral roll out from the middle school to the start line, where we re-staged as we waited for the cat 5 men and the juniors to roll out in front of us.

The race started fast, but quickly settled. I needn't have worried about the Trump Hill, because the pack doodled up the hill like we were out for a charity ride. My teammate, Kim, was firmly near the front of the race, covering any attacks that might try to go, but nobody put in any significant digs. There were some sketchy wheels in that pack, too; 30 cat 4 women, and I know of at least 3 that were in their first race. I had to lean into other racers on a couple of occasions when somebody else did something unpredictable. Fortunately, all the people with whom I brushed elbows were solid enough that I didn't take the pack down as a result.

There was a second mini-hill on the backside of the course, before the rollers started. Something in my brain told me to put in an attack there, so I did, with Kim still sitting on the front of the pack. I got maybe 10 seconds max before the pack shut me down, but I think I shook some weak wheels off of the back. Going into the second loop, our numbers were down by a little bit. Pace stayed fairly low until the next time up the Trump Hill, where somebody put in a serious dig. I sprinted out of the saddle to cover, but did too much too soon and dropped the pack behind me. I pulled through, expecting the pack to come through and take over, but they were a good 10m behind me. So I was hanging out there in no-man's-land, waiting for them to come through so I could tag onto the back. I almost got dropped there, but managed to stay within reach through the descent. It was an attack after the next corner where I lost touch and got blown off the back.

I was still within reach to chase back on, though, so chase I did. I picked up another woman who had fallen off the back, and we started rotating through. Then another two women came blowing by us and the four of us worked together . . . kind of. It wasn't very organized. There were two girls who were doing too much of the work, rather than doing short pulls. Another woman and I kept shouting "SHORT PULLS!" But we were all red-lining and it was hard to hear. Once we got within touch of the main pack, we all sprinted separately and clung on to the back of the lead group, which was sitting up and spinning again.

I tried to ramp up the pace at the front to string out the pack a little more, but no one else was willing to work at it. There was one woman who was strong, but got caught on the front doing all the work as everyone else sat in. I drifted back into the pack again, and tried to talk to my remaining teammates, Robin and Tina (Kim had cramped and dropped off the back, I think at the same attack where I got dropped). Our race plan was that Tina would be our A rider and Robin would be her lieutenant; since I was still in the pack and had the legs, I wanted to try to tow them close to the line for the sprint. I don't think I communicated that well, though. And I didn't want to blab out our strategy in front of the women who were strong enough to compete. By this point, there were about a dozen left in the pack.

I positioned myself well coming through the last hard right turn into the finishing straight. The line was about 1.5 miles away, at that point. I knew what to expect, what to look for, because I'd done it a few times the night before. We passed the 1km marker, and everyone was still sitting up and taking it easy. I waited until 500m to go before I started ramping it up and shouted to Robin to get on my wheel. I was just hoping that Tina would see and follow. I was hoping to drop them off at the 200m mark, but only made it to 300m before pulling off to the left. Some girl almost bowled me over trying to come around on that side. Tina put in a great sprint, but started it too early. She got nipped at the line for 4th place. Robin came in at 8th, I dragged in at 10th, and Kim made it in at 12th.

Lessons learned: I'm getting stronger on the hills. I could have picked up that attack on my own, I think, if I had accelerated a little more slowly. I need to remember that I can pull someone back gradually, and don't have to burn a match every time a gap opens up. I also need to be more proactive about communicating with teammates. I feel like we could have had a better result if I had recruited Tina and Robin more proactively. I'm still new to the team, though, and I don't want to be the punk who comes in and thinks she knows more than everyone else, ordering people around.

If I had waited until 400m to go, we might have won; if I had communicated better, we might have won; if I had been able to hang on and tow until 200m, we might have won. I feel like I have the strength and savvy to get a better result, but it didn't work out that way this time. That said, we got a lot of compliments from other racers on our teamwork. I think we are on the right track, and have a good start to serious dominance of some cat 4 fields this season.

This weekend, we head to the Carl Dolan Memorial. This weekend, we get the podium.

Race Report: Morgantown Road Race

First off, the course profile looked like this:

Like shark's teeth!

I don't have body image issues or anything, but for a cyclist, I am fat. Fat cyclists don't do well at races like that. My team captain said, "Given your strengths and the course profile, treat this as a training race." Which I took to mean, "Do your best, fatty!"

Hill climbing isn't my strong suit, so I've been focusing on it in my build this cycling season. I did that last year, too, preparing for the 10k, 600m climb at Ironman Mallorca. I've gotten better at climbing because of the work that I've done, and I expected this race to challenge me and make me stronger. But I did not expect to do particularly well.

The women's cat 4 field (9-10 women, maybe) and men's cat 5 field started together, along with all the juniors and the tandem field (comprised of a single tandem bike). Roll out pace was easy, with a neutral start, but the field was sketchy for the first few miles as people settled in. I surfed to the front of the field by the time the first significant climb began, before mile 5, so that I could drift to the back of the pack instead of getting blown off the back on the climb. I never managed to ride back to the front, and got dropped on the second big climb.

I spent the next few miles trying to chase back to the group with a few cat 5 men. At that point, I knew there were at least 2 women behind me, so at least I wasn't DFL. We had a group of 3 rolling turns when the tandem guys came blowing past us at 600 MILES PER HOUR. It was actually about 28 MPH, but the three of us hopped on and rode the bus back up to the main group.

We caught on to the peloton just as the road started to head up again. I managed to hang for a mile or two, suffering the whole way, then I pulled the plug and let them go. We hadn't even hit mile 20 yet, and I was burying myself. Plus, I knew what was coming from mile 20 to mile 27, thanks to this guy:

Obsessive triathlete preparation FTW!

I knew I needed to leave something in the tank for the next two climbs (not to mention the next 30-some miles).

And those two big climbs in the middle were brutal. I really wanted to get off the bike and walk. But I knew how much I had left to the top, thanks to my notes, and I could see a group of 3 cyclists up ahead around the bend--one of whom I recognized as another cat 4 woman from her bright blue jersey. If I could bridge up to that little group and outlast the blue jersey girl . . . I guess I would just be one more spot up from DFL, but at least it would give me something to think about other than the pain in my whole body.

I was also starting to cramp at that point. My back hurt, my hips were cramping, my calves were cramping, even my stomach was tightening into knots. I think this was a combination of improper fueling, it being the first warm (and sunny and LONG) race of my season, and the intensity from the first 20 miles. My body was telling me to slow down and try to climb out of the hole that I'd dug in the first hour of racing.

I made it over the two big, brutal hills, and enjoyed the descent. My teammates all disagreed with me on this point, but the descents were totally worth the work to get there. I was reeling in the blue jersey woman, too. I was catching up to her more on the climbs, so I knew that she was hurting more than I was.

I think I finally latched onto her around mile 30, and we started working together. We picked up another cat 5 guy (who looked like he was really suffering), and he started rolling through, too. Our little pace group only lasted a few miles, though, because I accidentally blew them both off of my wheel on a pull. By that point I was starting to feel human again, but I think they had already done too much to come back from the dark place. I sat up and waited for them, but the guy we picked up fell off again quickly. Blue jersey girl hung on until the next climb, when I gradually put time into her. Then we came over the hill into a long descent then a rolling (mostly flat) section, and I didn't look back.

I finished the race pretty much solo. I passed a few stragglers on climbs who had blown themselves up. I realized that I'd gained a place in the women's field. I wanted to hang onto it, so I kept looking back over my shoulder, afraid that the woman in the blue jersey would have recovered; I thought for sure I'd see her pursuing me over a hill. But I never saw her again. I was in the clear. It was just a matter of holding on for the last big climb, and then the uphill finish.

I finished alone, glad to be done, fellow competitors laying out on both sides of the road past the finish line. I rolled from the finish line back to the start area and started pounding food and drink. And that was my race.

For some reason, I stuck around to see the women's results posted. I wanted to see how many of my fellow women I had outlasted. By the time they posted the women's top 5, all my male teammates had rolled out. I checked out the top 5, just to see, and--lo and behold!--my name was fifth down! My first reaction, which I blurted out, was, "That can't be right." I was sure that the results were wrong, and someone was going to contest them. There was no way that I got on the podium in this race!

I'm the one all the way on the right. The dorky one.

But I did get on the podium (well, beside the podium)! I got 5th place! What's more, I didn't finish that far behind a few of the other women. If I had known that, I probably would have dug deeper in the last 5-10 miles.

It was really cool, and I'm really proud. That was a tough race. I totally exceeded my expectations and goals. And I feel like I'm a stronger person, mentally and physically, for having done it.

Still, some lessons learned: I need to revise my fueling strategy. What worked for Ironman isn't working for cycling, so far. I definitely need to use more electrolyte mix, probably cut out the water altogether. I bought a bag of Skratch Labs mix to try in my training. Other drink mixes have never agreed with me, which is why I've used Nuun exclusively for the past few years. I think I need to find something with calories, though, and I definitely need more salt--seriously, everything was cramping on Saturday. Also, Pop-tarts are too inconvenient for eating in these races. It was okay during this race, because I had plenty of time at my own pace. But I can't fumble around with wrappers if I have to cover surges up hills or around corners. I'm going to have to figure out something else.

I think I need to be more aggressive about moving to the front at the beginnings of climbs. If I could have started the second climb at the front of the pack, I may have been able to hang in the group instead of having to chase back on. I also need to maintain more awareness of who I'm riding against, and keep track of where I am relative to all the rest of them. The blue jersey woman knew that she was the 5th woman back, so she knew when I passed her that I had ridden onto the podium. She wasn't able to hold my wheel anyway, but I bet she tried much harder knowing that I was taking her podium spot.

That was the longest road race I've ever done. It's definitely the hilliest road race I've ever done. I'm really proud of how I did.

This weekend is Veloworks-Spokes Etc.'s first big target race: Jefferson Cup in Charlottesville. After having such a great race without the support of teammates in Morgantown, I'm excited to show up in force at Jeff Cup and see what the VWS ladies can do!

BB30 Problems

My bike is creaking.

It has been creaking for the past several months. It started shortly after I got back from Spain. I thought it was my rear wheel, or possibly related to the rear derailleur.

Take the bike in for examination. Wheel fairly true, rear derailleur jockey cage bent. Replace the rear derailleur. Still creaking. But it's the winter and I'm not riding that much or that hard, so I don't notice.

Then I start riding with my team. It becomes an issue. It becomes embarrassing. "Jamie, I thought you got that fixed!" I'm getting concerned that it's the frame itself, and make an emergency stop at a sponsor shop at a race. They take a look at the frame, specifically a spot on the seat tube where a paint chip came off in the first week I had the bike. They say it's probably just cosmetic, but take it to my LBS just to be sure. Also, I have a bolt missing on my derailleur hanger, which is probably why the jockey cage bent in the first place. They replace the bolt, true my wheel slightly, and send me on my way free of charge. If you are ever in Hyattsville, Maryland, stop into Arrow Bicycle and spend some money with them!

Take the bike to my LBS (the one that deals Felt). They say the paint chip is no big deal; it's just paint. Advise cleaning out the seat tube/seat post area and applying more carbon assembly paste to fix the creaking. We do that. Still creaks.

Take my bike to a teammate who used to be a mechanic for a second opinion. His girlfriend had the same problem with her cross bike. Apparently, this is a common thing for BB30s. Everyone knows this. Apparently the manufacturers don't really care. We add some loctight compound and lots of grease to the BB bearing cartridges to try to keep them from wiggling. Cross fingers.

Still creaking!

Take my bike to my LBS (the one that sponsors the team), desperately hoping that something can be done before I do this race this weekend. We take out and rebuild the bottom bracket. Bearings don't feel as smooth as they should. Apparently, BB30 bearings tend to degrade faster, because they get dirt, water, grit, etc. inside them. Manufacturers apparently know, but (again) don't really care. We order this, and rebuild the bearings in the hopes that it will tide me over for this weekend.

Bike still creaks.

Jamie's Diet Food: Fun with Cauliflower

You guys. Cauliflower is amazing.

If I had to choose between giving up cheese or giving up cauliflower, I might actually choose cauliflower over cheese (but I would still eat this).

If you are eating for weight loss or paleo or low-carb, you should already know about cauliflower rice and mashed cauliflower. You should also have a kick-ass roasted cauliflower recipe (or seven). But you may not ever have made cauliflower tater tots.

Notice that these are cheesy cauliflower tots, so you can tell that I didn't trade cauliflower for cheese. I didn't have to. You can't make me.

Cheesy Baked Cauliflower Tots

Ingredients: 1 large head cauliflower
1 cup cheese (I like cheddar, use low-fat if you must)
2 tbsp almond flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Paprika to taste
1 egg (beaten)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Spray a mini muffin pan with non-stick spray.

Boil cauliflower until tender or zap in the microwave (takes about 2 minutes, covered). Drain.

Use a food processor (I have this one) to coarsely chop the cauliflower. It should look like big crumbs. If you go too far with it, you end up with mashed cauliflower. Which isn't the end of the world, but you're not going to be eating cheesy tots tonight. Put in a fine sieve or a colander lined with cheese cloth and press out some more water.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. No spoon needed. Just use your hands.

Use a tablespoon measuring spoon to scoop the mixture and into the muffin tin. If you don't have a mini muffin tin, just make tot-shaped lumps with your hands and put them on a normal baking sheet.

Bake 15 minutes, or until the tots start to brown. Carefully turn each cauliflower tot over bake 15 minutes more, until tots are browned on both sides. Serve hot; these are best right out of the oven.

Thanks to Kalyn's Kitchen for the idea. Her recipe is lower-calorie, so you might want to check it out, as well.

Race Report: Route 1 Rampage

For this race, the Veloworks-Spokes Etc. women had 4 racers and a plan: Beth and Robin cover breakaways and attacks; Kim and Jamie sit in and shoot for a mini lead-out on the last 3 laps; Jamie stay safe on Kim's wheel and sprint like the dickens at the end. We met around 7:00 in Hyattsville and waited together for check-in/registration to open for the women's cat 4 field. We rode together for a little bit to warm up.

The course was about a mile long with 4 right turns. The start was slightly downhill, with a fairly narrow turn at the end. After the turn, the road slanted up slightly. Another turn, and a full-blown hill (according to Strava, the gradient is an average of 3.8%, although the race flyer claimed 14%) to break up the field, then around another corner into a fast downhill (with speedbumps), another right turn, then the finish line.

We lined up in the front and to the left, to get the best line into the first corner. Beth and Robin helped to take the race out hard through the first 2 or 3 laps. I didn't look back much, because I was holding on for dear life, but apparently we broke the field! We took a group of about 10 off the front with the fast start, and all 4 of us were in that group. Beth and Robin did a great job of setting the pace early, but no one else stepped up to help keep the pace high after those first few laps, so the field came back together.

I almost got dropped on the hill during those first few laps, but always had the speed to catch up on the downhill. Robin got cooked after the hard start, and settled back in the pack for a while. The pace slowed down--especially on the hill--for the middle of the race. I was grateful for that, but it allowed the field to come back together. Or so I was told. Again, I didn't look back much.

The few times I did look back were to check to see if a group was getting away. There were a few times where a small group got a break. One time in particular, a woman tried to go off the front, with another tailing her. I went with them because I didn't see Beth or Robin nearby, and we got maybe a 30 meter gap. I think we could have gotten away. I was trying to communicate that to the other two girls, but by the time they heard me or understood me, the pack was already coming back up to us. That was a match I could have used later.

We had a prime lap with 4 to go. The pace picked up a little bit, but no big break. Beth covered that attack nicely. I was more interested in the win than the prime, so I mostly ignored it. And the pack came back together after that.

With 2 laps to go, a woman (I think from NCVC) launched an attack coming around the second corner (I think?) into the hill. She got a good gap on the bunch, and I encouraged Beth to try to cover that attack. By that time, Robin was suffering from the work she'd done earlier, and Kim and I were trying to sit in and save up for the sprint. Beth got up the road with a group of 3 or 4 other women, but they never caught the woman who launched the initial attack. She went on to win. On that last lap, another NCVC woman put in a little surge on the hill, probably trying to bridge up to the breakaway. But by that point, there wasn't enough road to catch them. I launched around Kim on the downhill going into the turn to try to catch her, but she was too far ahead. I sprinted to the finish for practice, but I was alone in it. Kim came in right behind me. There was one other woman, then Robin.

Beth ended up getting 4th place, good for one upgrade point! She had a great ride, very strong, and was really good at covering breaks. I got 6th, Kim got 7th, and Robin got 9th. I think we did a great job of working as a team; we even got compliments on it from other racers! And it's still early in the season, so we'll all get stronger. The VWS women are well-positioned for an outstanding season.

Personally, I need to work on trusting my team more. I lost Kim's wheel for about half of the race. I went with that potential breakaway instead of trusting Beth and Robin to bring it back while we sat in. I'd like to do better next time on sticking to my role and trusting my team. We communicated pretty well, and we're going to continue to work on that. We have a few ideas about how to improve on it, but I'm not going to tell you about them. They're secret.

It was a fun race! I'm glad we were able to get such a good group of women together for this one, especially on short notice. Big thanks to Kaitlynn for keeping an eye on the registration, and encouraging us to do this race as a team.

Thanks also to Veloworks Cycling Development, Spokes, Etc. Bicycles, and our other great sponsors for supporting us!

Jamie's Diet Food: Sweet Potato . . . Noodles?

What is this dish, anyway? Is it noodles? Is it like a noodle soup? Is it just sauteed, julienne vegetables? I'm not sure what to call it, but it's delicious.

I don't do pretty Instagram food pictures. Just trust me. It's tasty.

Ingredients

1-2 tbsp of your favorite fat (I used butter, but you can use some other kind of oil)

1 yellow onion, sliced

2 sweet potatoes, julienned (I use this to julienne my veggies)

2 cups chicken stock (or water with bullion, if you're lazy like me)

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: 2 tbsp sliced jalapenos and 2 tbsp tandoori spice mix

Directions

1. Slice the onions. Julienne the sweet potatoes.

2. Heat your fat in a big pan (ideally, a pan that you can cover later) over medium heat.

3. Add your onions and let them caramelize. You can do as little as 10 minutes, but the longer you let them caramelize, the tastier they get.

4. If you're using the jalapenos, add them now. I used the kind that come in the jar, and used some of the juice to deglaze the pan.

5. Add the chicken stock. If you didn't deglaze the pan with the jalapeno juice, do it with the chicken stock. To deglaze the pan, use a spatula or spoon to scrape up anything that's browned and stuck to the bottom of the pan. Pouring the chicken stock in should loosen it up.

6. Simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

7. Add the sweet potatoes. Lower the heat to medium-low, keeping the stock at a strong simmer. Cover the pan and cook for about 5 minutes, until the sweet potatoes change color a little bit (they'll go from orange to yellow-ish). Stir a few times during the 5 minutes.

8. Uncover and add salt, pepper, and tandoori spice mix, if you're using it. You can also use garam masala, or any other spice mix you like. I really liked the Indian spice, but you could try it with something Greek or Mexican or whatever. It's your lunch. Or skip the spices entirely!

9. Cook, covered, for another 5 minutes or so, stirring regularly. Remove from heat.

I ate a big bowl of this with a generous scoop of plain, non-fat Greek yogurt on top. Very tasty, fairly healthy. Goes well with a side salad.

Eating a $180 Entry Fee Because I Hate Running

This is how we look when we enter races together. You can tell this is pre-race, because we're still smiling and Emily isn't soaked through with sweat.

Emily and I signed up for the Rock 'n' Roll DC Half Marathon back in December. It was mostly to keep her accountable to work out through the winter (which she hasn't), but I signed up as moral support.

But I haven't run since October, and Emily hasn't exactly followed my prescribed training plan either. At all.

Also, I don't miss run training (or swim training) at all. I enjoy riding my bike so much, but I have no interest in running or swimming anytime soon.

There's also the matter of the stress on my body. I don't think of a half marathon as a very long event; I'm positive I could suffer through it, although I wouldn't be getting a PR or anything. But running is much more stressful on the body than cycling, especially in terms of impact. I might (MIGHT) have retained enough fitness from Ironman training to make it through unscathed, but Emily doesn't have that fitness. I'm concerned we might suffer more adverse effects than being winded and miserable. Specifically, I'm worried about stress fractures or soft tissue pathologies that might arise from taking so much impact without proper training.

So I'm pretty sure we're bailing out on the race. I would much rather spend the weekend riding my bike with Veloworks-Spokes Etc, and Emily would much rather spend the weekend sleeping in. Even though $180 is a lot of money to throw down the drain . . . actually, there's no good justification. But we're going to do it anyway.

Race Report: William & Mary Tidewater Time Trial

"But Jamie," I hear you say, "Wasn't this race supposed to be a road race, not a time trial?"

Yes. Yes, it was a road race. But circumstances on the day led to me performing a 15-mile time trial solo, instead of covering attacks and trying to match sprints.

The morning was cold, well below freezing. Emily and I got a late start from the hotel, so I was already stressed about the schedule. Then there was a long line of cars waiting to get into the park ($4 parking fee, only one poor, overworked ranger collecting cash). By the time we parked and I picked up my number and got my trainer set up, I had about 10 minutes left to warm up. I had planned on 30-45, especially since it was so cold!

The race began with a 2-mile neutral roll-out. That gave me time to warm up further. I had one teammate at this race. We stayed close together through the neutral roll-out. The pace was variable through the early stages, even after the neutral roll-out. I felt bad for grabbing my brakes all the time, but there was no avoiding it in that bunch. We were about six or seven wheels back, so I can only imagine what it was like in the back of the pack. I imagine that's why, within the first few miles, I heard a skid and a crash behind me. I don't know how many women went down in that one, or if it broke up the group much; I didn't want to look back to see.

 This course had a hill big enough to have a name: the KOA Hill, named for its proximity to a KOA campground. It was there, on the first hill of the day, where my race went to seed. A girl two wheels in front of me (inexplicably) went down. Maybe she was in too hard a gear for the climb and lost momentum? I don't know. But she went down, and the girl behind her went down, and I got unclipped in time NOT to go down, with Robin (my teammate) shouting, "Don't stop, Jamie!" But girl #2 had her shoe caught in my spokes (which is the closest I will ever get to being like Wout van Aert). After we got disentangled, I made my big mistake: checking to see if everyone was okay. Everyone was fine, and my bike appeared fine (although I realized later that my speed and cadence sensor got knocked around, somehow), and in the space of those few seconds I realized I had probably just screwed myself out of ever catching on to the peloton again. I got back on my bike as quickly as I could and started chasing like fire to get back onto the pack.

I can't remember if I could see them after cresting that first hill. I know I didn't see much of them for the rest of the race. A few times, I saw the lights of the police car and the neon yellow jacket of the motorcycle official. Once, they looked to be well over 400 meters away. The second time up the KOA Hill, they looked within reach. But there were half a dozen cars between me and them, and they were out of sight again by the time I got through the cars (actually, I only got past two; the rest sped away when the peloton turned a corner).

So I ended up time trialing as hard as I could for an hour, trying to catch on to the group again, knowing that it was pretty much impossible. I passed three or four women who had fallen off the back of the pack, a group of collegiate men from the field that started 10 minutes ahead of us, and a few cat 5 male racers. Not sure what happened to the other women who got caught in the crash. I briefly considered packing it in after the first lap, since I was unlikely to catch the group. But I figured I might as well get a good workout in, since Emily and I had driven down for it.

The results aren't out, so I have no idea where I placed. But Robin got second, so that was pretty cool! Another of my teammates won the men's cat 3 race outright. So the team had some sweet success. I think all the cat 4 men were just grateful to have gotten through their race without crashing. Sounds like there was a lot of squirrely riding going on out there.

I really wanted to find out where I'm at in my cycling training, to get a better sense of what to train going into my first build phase. I'm disappointed that all I really learned was that I can time trial pretty well. Which, duh, I'm coming out of 10 years of triathlon training. I really don't need to work on my time trialing, at this point. And I'm sad that I wasn't at the end of the race to help Robin out. Based on what I saw of the pack early on, and the people I blew past later in the race, I think I could have hung strong with all of the women until the end.

What I learned, though, is not to stop when a crash goes down in front of me, especially if there's nothing wrong with my body and my bike. I also learned, based on the data I have from my time trial, that my threshold heart rate is probably 5 BPM higher than I thought. I wish I had a power meter, so I could see what kind of power I sustained for the 45 minutes or so that I was on my own. I averaged 18.8 MPH throughout that, and that's with a couple little hills.

I hope I'll have better luck in my next race. I didn't get the vindication I wanted. I'm eager to try for it again soon!