| My Senior Olympics Race Report - Saturday |
| 07.21.05 (11:29 am) |
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Now the 10 K race on Saturday! Dawn broke gray, and drizzly, not a great day in my book. I’d rather bike in the heat and full sun as race in the rain/fog and gloom. The weather affects my mood to a great extent when I race. However, I’m competitive and pull out of it once the real task is at hand. But I did give serious thought to bagging it when I got up. I had the same breakfast as yesterday: oatmeal, and coffee. I drove to the race site and it drizzled the whole way. I got butterflies again as I got closer. I knew the race was going to include the guys as Friday, and would be competitive, if only I’d known! When I finally got to the meeting place the drizzle had stopped and people were getting their bikes off their cars. I went inside to get my race number and talked to several people in the room. The humidity was oppressive when I finally walked out with the sun just trying to peak out of the clouds. I got on my bike and headed out on the road for the course by the least hilly route possible, and peddled slowly. There was some water on the roads but not too bad, but the high humidity was making things damp and sticky. And the temps were getting into the mid and upper 80s even at 9:00 AM When I got to the race start it was only about 5 min. till the start of the race. I had nearly a 40 min. wait as the start order was the same as Friday, oldest women first the oldest men. I talked to several of the guys I’d met yesterday and found out there were 8 signed up for Saturday’s race, only about ½ of what we had yesterday. There were fewer women, only 6 and one new entrant, she looked like she was in my age group, ah, and easy gold for her! As I looked around at the bikes everyone was riding I noticed that everyone has a top notch bike, Carbon fiber Treks, Titanium Lightspeeds, Greg Lemond racing bikes and a Quintna Roo time trial bike, even the women in the 80+ category were riding high end machine!! Sure sign everyone here was a competitor at heart! As my time approached I took a couple if rides to keep my legs and lungs warmed up and in race condition. When you stopped however, the sweat just poured off of you it was so humid! Everyone was complaining of the heat, humidity, and mosquitoes standing near acres and acres of over our head field corn. Well, my turn is next. When my turn came I pulled my bike up to the line and had the man standing there hold my bike by the underside of the seat. I mounted and clipped in my pedals and waited for the count down. 15, 14, 13, 12 … 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Start! I stood up and pushed down hard standing getting myself up to speed. As I settled in I got my cadence up while up shifting to a comfortable pace and pressure on my pedals. I got my speed at a constant 22 mph and I sped down a nicely paved fairly flat road. I tried to keep my breathing under control today, after losing control yesterday. It is a fine balance between too much exertion and too little, so I wanted to breath hard, but not gasp for air. This was a part of the same course I’d ridden the day before only with one more turn. The first turn came nearly 2 miles into the course. I drifted toward the center yellow line, lined up the corner and took a look both ways on the road. The course is “open” meaning there IS traffic, but there are course marshals to direct traffic and we bike riders. Still I’m in the habit of looking for my self. Clear! I chose my line and hit the corner at 23 mph, round it and find myself over the yellow line near the far edge of the road, shit overshot and therefore lost a few fractions of a second, awwww, still pretty good at 23 mph. The road here is flat too, so I pushed off down the road trying to keep my breathing controlled, my legs while working hard were not hurting. I see the 5K point, ah, good half way there. Then I heard this sound on my left side, a familiar “plastic/composite” sound, Oh Frick, another rider, with a solid disk wheel! I know that sound! Shit, he started one minute behind me and is passing me!! I’d been eying the guy in front of me too with the thought I was going to pass him, and had closed within perhaps 200 yards. But this guy comes flying past me, he is going to catch the other guy in front of me too! Soon that dreaded hill appeared ahead, I remembered yesterday and how I was going to attack it today. As I approached I monitored my legs for effort. When I could tell I was beginning to bog down slightly I sprung out to the saddle and continued to climb in a standing position. My speed didn’t drop as much, it was more work, but I was not losing time. Soon my legs began to scream, so I finished the last few yards seated. As soon as I sat down I then heard a car approaching from behind, passing wide, good, and then a large dump truck rumbled past too. Oh shit the corner is coming up! As I watch in front of me a situation unfolds. My minute man (the guy who started one minute in front of me) was going to get trapped between the car and the truck, before the corner! Poor guy, that will slow him down!! Ah ha, easier for me to catch him!! Well, he gets through after a bit of a slow down but the dump truck doesn’t turn the corner right in front to me!! I scream GO, GO, GO!!!! ……………… Fucker MOVE!!!! Still he sits there, and there is nowhere for me to go, he is too big, I can’t pass on the right anyway, there are potholes in that part of the corner (I learned that yesterday). Finally he goes and I try and round the corner at a good speed, Shit 18 mph. I’m furious! I’m LIVID! I’m screaming obscenities at the top of my lungs as press hard to regain my speed, and also crest the hill after the corner. I settle down and get my rhythm again, crest the hill and fly down the other side. I pedal as I go down, trying to keep myself from blowing up with my breathing and hit a top speed of 31 mph! I’ve closed the gap between me and my minute man but he is pressing hard too and staying just ahead of me, maybe 100 yards. Bump I go over the bridge and head up the small hill just before the finish line and push hard into the line. Wow, so close but so far, I did not catch him but made up quite a bit of time on him anyway! The challenge of him being so close in front of me helped me I’m sure turn in a better time. My bike computer gave me a time of 17 min. and 30 sec., and average speed of 21.5 mph! Ah ha, I was right faster then yesterday, on a longer course on less!! Must have been the correct form climbing the hill of maybe the excitement of almost catching my minute man! Anyway I’m pretty happy, and pleased with my performance! I didn’t gasp for breath, and I pushed as hard as I could the whole way, I remembered to climb the hill standing and did it! Now if only that truck wouldn’t have been there………… I stuck around for the medals and too pictures of all the winners, except for one, the 50- 54 woman, see got up and down too quickly!! After the medals were handed out the posted the times on the building so we could all see them. In my group the 50 to 54 men’s category there was less then 3 min. between all 8 of us and less the one minute separated the top three medal winners! So very competitive!! They also announced that next year would be the National Qualifiers, and the racecourse would be this very course!! Yes!!!!! Great, Next your I’ll come back in even better shape and practice this course very often, and I’ll have it down pat! Watch out next year guys!! Thom’s motivated!! [url=]Here is a slideshow of the medal winners![/url] |
| 9 Comments |
| I owe Mom |
| 07.18.05 (7:23 am) |
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Well I know I owe everyone another race report, but I just HAD to post this one, as a parent I understand these all too well! 1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE. "If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning." 2. My mother taught me RELIGION." You better pray that will come out of the carpet." 3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL." If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!" 4. My mother taught me LOGIC." Because I said so, that's why." 5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC." If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me." 6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT." Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident." 7. My mother taught me IRONY." Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about." 8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS." Shut your mouth and eat your supper." 9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM." Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!" 10. My mother taught me about STAMINA. "You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone." 11. My mother taught me about WEATHER." This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it." 12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY." If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!" 13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE." I brought you into this world, and I can take you out." 14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION." Stop acting like your father!" 15. My mother taught me about ENVY." There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do." 16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION." Just wait until we get home." 17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING." You are going to get it when you get home!" 18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE." If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way." 19. My mother taught me ESP." Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?" 20. My mother taught me HUMOR." When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me." 21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT." If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up." 22. My mother taught me GENETICS." You're just like your father." 23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS." Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?" 24. My mother taught me WISDOM." When you get to be my age, you'll understand." 25. And my favorite: My mother taught me about JUSTICE." One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you |
| 7 Comments |
| My Senior Olympics Race Report |
| 07.15.05 (5:52 pm) |
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I got to the race course around I’ve got a few pictures of the crew, looked like quite a spread of ages from 50s to the 80s at least! However, as I’m unpacking my stuff and getting my bike off the car, I spy one of the guys I trained with in Spin class. This guy is an animal, a super athlete and quite a triathlete, wins his age group all the time. Legs of iron and a physique any guy of any age would envy! Oh crap, I guess the race is for second place in my age group. I thought he was younger than 50!!! I’m 53 so I’m one of the “young bucks” of this race and usually these age groups are quite loaded with people. I go to the office, get my race number and get a pre-race briefing while listening to the training for the course volunteers. As they give me my number I take a peek at the registration and there are 15 guys in my group, crap again! Nearly 40% of this whole race is in my age group, stiff competition! I’m #741 the 41st out of 50 racers in the entire race, nearly one of the last to start and my start time is Undaunted I go back get my bike and strike out for some warm up. There is only one corner in this race a 90 deg. turn, down hill and as I ride past it I see some pot holes near the apex of the curve. Ah, better take this curve once at several speeds in practice to see how I’ll need to take this corner during the race. After about 3 attempts I find a good line to approach the corner and make the turn without violating the yellow line in the middle of the road, and I can take it at 22 mph, no problem, great, a nearly full speed turn! I then ride up to the one hill on the course a log low affair that rises more steeply as you get near the crest. I practice this one too and find it will be the hardest test on the course. Having nearly an hour left I ride back to the meeting place and grab my drink and an energy bar and head back on the course to ride slowly back to the starting point. I pick up the draft of another rider (legal, because the race has not started) and ride to the start line with him. I’m nicely warmed up, and watch others as they take off on their races. I feel myself cooling down so I ride off again careful to come back just 3 min. before my start time. I’m sweating and my legs feel good, warm but not tired. It’s my turn on the start line. A volunteer hold the seat of my bike as I mount and click my shoes into the peddles. Many of us use cleated shoes which allow us to fasten our shoes into the peddles so more power is transmitted to the peddles and also so we can pull up as well as push on each peddle stroke. Another volunteer counts down 15 sec. ……. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 GO! I stand and push hard to get up to sped quickly, shift gears and sit down and shift again, rapidly gaining speed and flying along at about 22 mph. Only about 2 min. later here comes the hill, I opt to take it seated and downshift, but I have to downshift more as I climb. Instead of standing as was my plan for some reason I kept sitting and my speed slows far beyond what I wanted, 18, 15, 12 mph, crap, I’m crawling. As I crest the hill I’m nearly out of breath but push over and up shift to try and regain my speed. Soon I’m back up moving at 22 to 23 mph, but seriously out of breath. There is a slight downhill into the corner, so I ease off and find my line around the corner, rotate my peddles so my inner peddle is far away from the pavement, and sure enough round I go at 23 mph, perfect corner, missing the pot holes by a good distance. Now two more small rises in the road, a nice downhill and then flat for nearly 1.5 miles. I speed down the hill at nearly 28 mph, coasting because I’m fighting for breath, now it is time to peddle again. Oh the my breathing is very labored now, deep gasping breaths, full lungs full of air, every breath is hard. I keep up a strong cadence (revolutions per minute) with my feet, trying to keep the speed at 23 mph, but my breathing is too labored to continue, so I have to slow. Nearer to 20 mph now, and there is one more small rise after a narrow bridge, my lungs burn and so do my legs, I’m no longer looking at my speed but rather pushing myself to hold my leg speed and concentrate on the finish line. I’m not as going as fast as I once was but push on, then look again at my bike computer for the time, oh my already at 8:00 min. and still a long way to the finish line. My mind goes into overdrive, I’m making to take charge of my body, and my thinking goes something like this: Push, hard, don’t give up, leave it all on the course Thom! I drive to the finish line barely able to breath, legs hurting so bad I can hardly stand it! There it is
I stand a while and watch a few more guys come in then decide to slowly ride back to the meeting place and put my bike up and with of the results. I get back to the car and realize I’ve been so concentrated on the race. I did not take any pictures, so I grab my camera and walk back to the finish line. I took a few pictures and then took more at the meeting place. I sat around and waited for the post race meeting and medal presentation.
There is one guy in the 85 to 90 age group who raced and of course took a gold medal! He was the only one in that age group, and till had a decent time 12 min. and change! WOW a great time for an 85+ man !!! When the 50 to 54 age group was called sure enough the guy I figured would win did, with a time only :07 slower than the all time record state time for that age group. I was only :30 short to the third place winner. but the way the results were tallied there was no way to know how many guys were between he and I. All and all I was proud of my effort!! Now the 10 K race tomorrow!
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| 10 Comments |
| Race Day! |
| 07.15.05 (4:37 am) |
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It's 7:30 AM and I'm up and had my breakfast, the bike is packed and I'm ready to drive to the race course. I drove the course last night and it is very flat, only a few small rises, a piece of cake! The race starts at 9:00 AM EDT, I have no idea how many competitors there are going to be or how long this is going to take. But when I have an idea of how things went, I'll call "J" let her know, post a few emails, and make a posting here letting everyone know how I think I did, or maybe even the final results. I'm feeling rested and excited to go, I'm READY!!! |
| 3 Comments |
| Getting Ready to race |
| 07.13.05 (1:07 pm) |
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The Michigan Senior Olympics is this week and my bicycle time trial is this Friday and Saturday. The 5K race is Friday and the 10K on Saturday. Last week while on vacation I took my bike so I could keep my training up, and feel prepared for the race. I’ve been riding 3 to 4 days a week usually 20 to 30 miles at a time, but had not practiced time trialing at all. So last week I had a great road picked out and set out to simulate a race. First en explanation is in order for those of you who do not know anything about bicycle racing. Time trialing is different from riding a bike for pleasure or to see the sights, even “fitness”, training or racing rides. A time trial is a race against the clock and the person with the fastest time wins. In road riding or racing riders ride in groups at a fast pace and draft behind each other just like the race car drivers in NASCAR. We cheat the wind and the person at the front of the paceline does most of the work. Each rider takes a short turn “on the front” and the whole group rides at a much faster pace than a lone rider. In time trialing it is just one person on his/her bike against the clock. Each rider is sent off to race usually at one-minute intervals and timed over a measured course. This is a very hard race to perform and usually calls for an all out effort every second of the ride. To make it even worse the distances in the races I’m entered in are for short distances, 5 and 10K (3.1 and 6.2 miles). In order to race effectively you must be at full effort within a second or two. However a full effort from a dead cold start is near impossible. Usually riders need to get in 5 to 10 miles before the legs even fully are warmed up and can give a full effort. Getting back to my race preparation then, I warmed up with a nice 5 mile ride into town. Then on the way back to the cottage I stopped and readied myself for a race. I mounted the bike and took off at a rapid cadence (turn over of my peddles) and got up to race speed quickly, near 22 mph. Holding this pace around curves in the road and up and down small hills in the road is difficult. I found out that by changing my position in the saddle of the bike I could actually push myself past the point where normally I’d have quit was a real pleasure. I could push and push myself watch my bike computer and keep up my pace for the whole 3 miles. Crossing my finish line I clocked a cool 21.9 mph, I was happy with both the effort I was able to sustain and also my speed. The next day my legs hurt, but it was a good hurt! Not so much I could not function but I was tired and a bit sore. I knew I’d given a great effort that previous day, which made me feel even better. But I put off riding then for a couple more days to let my muscles rest and rebuild. Then two days later I took my 33 mile ride, not as intense as my simulated race but there were some pretty good long hills which tested my still recovering legs. Now if I can get in just one more “maintenance” ride (not too hard not too easy) before Friday I’ll be all set. The forecast is calling for rain each day in the afternoon even on Friday, so I may or may not get a ride in before the race. I’ll be sure to post the results, good or bad this weekend! Which me luck! |
| 6 Comments |
| Vacation Recap |
| 07.12.05 (1:47 pm) |
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My week in Northern Michigan was very peaceful, quiet, and restful for the most part.
There were 4 of us in the small cabin, “J” and I, my daughter and her friend from middle school. The first couple of days were nice, warm, and sunny. We went swimming and sailing on Crystal lake, which is a really huge, lovely lake near Traverse City on the western shore of Lake Michigan.
On the Fourth of July it rained and thunder stormed in the morning and later it cleared off to a wet but overall nice afternoon. We went to the fireworks in the resort town of Frankfort that evening, they were an hour late and we were almost ready to leave when the fireworks started, so we stayed, and it was a wonderful display. Her daughter came up and stayed with us from Monday through the rest of the week, then her son and his 6 y.o. daughter come to stay with us too, staying at his dad's place on the same lake, but they visited us often. The rest of the week was sunny and we took walks, swam and sunned our selves on the beach, and did some reading. The teen aged girls were somewhat bored, didn't want to swim except for the first day, and had me drive them to Frankfort several times to see if they could find other teens to talk to and "hangout" with. One day I took “J” sailing when the wind was very strong While I’ve sailed for nearly 20 years I’ve sailed mostly alone and am not used to having passengers who do not sail on my boat. She did have a life jacket on and we were close to shore so she just swam/walked in as I sailed the boat to shore. I got in several good bike rides, one excellent training ride for next weeks race, and a nice long (35 mile) ride up the lakeshore. While I took my long bike ride they took canoes down the river for a 2 hours ride out to Lake Michigan. “J” and I went up to a local light house (Point Betsie) at sunset a couple of times to watch the sun go down, and make out on the beach a bit along with many other couples doing the same thing, and a bunch of old folk on their lawn chairs.
Saturday we went to the art and craft fair in Beulah and looked around for several hours, had lunch and then we (my daughter, her friend and I) packed up and left for home about 4 hours away. After several very long stretches of roadwork later our trip stretched into 5 hours and we were glad to be home. My son “B” has done very well all week with his mom, a far cry from months and years past. These new meds are really working for us, Yipeeee! |
| 8 Comments |
| Vacation Time |
| 07.02.05 (7:38 am) |
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Happy Fourth of July weekend everyone! I'll be gone all next week on vacation. "J" has rented a cabin in Northern Michigan and my daughter (witha friend of course) and I are going with her all next week. We expect to do lots of boating, and just relaxing on the beach. No phone, no computers, no TV. We do have electricity and gas for cooking, flush toilets (indoors) but that is about it for "modern" conviences. I'm taking my bike (3 actually) so I'll keep up my training for the Senior Olympics on July 15 and 16. So far training has gone well, and I'm happy with my progress. I'm not as fast as I know I can be but I've been averaging 21+ MPH for my trial rides, I know I can do better. I'd like to be averaging closer to 23+ mph for a 3 mile ride by race day. It is less hot here in Michigan now, than in the last 2 weeks so I'll be able to step up the intensity of my training. Take care have a safe and happy Holiday! |
| 12 Comments |
