tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51308955223588611112024-02-19T08:53:00.928-08:00Two Wheeled FocusMike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-59720142552662225692013-06-22T20:50:00.001-07:002013-06-22T20:50:13.739-07:00Sea Otter circuit raceThe sea otter classic is mostly an event for the mountain bike community, with a bunch of races and a huge bike expo all around the Laguna Seca track. For those of you not familiar with Laguna Seca, it is one of the best racetracks in America, if not the world. It winds its way thru the Monterrey hills and I went there last summer to watch the motoGP race with my dad.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/06/22/2514.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/06/22/s_2514.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='158' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />In conjunction with the mountain bike events there are a few road racing events as well, with each field being represented by riders near and far, this event was no joke. My field had 64 riders and we were racing for 50 minutes on the Laguna seca track. This might sound easy but the track has over 200 feet of elevation gain per lap (2.2 miles). The first few laps were moderately paced as we were just feeling out the track and getting rid of the riders that weren't able to get over the climb. Each lap the field shrunk and there were about 30 left with 3 laps to go.<br /><br /><p align='center'><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/rC5_P7r8riU" width="400" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rC5_P7r8riU" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><!-- Fallback content --><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC5_P7r8riU"><img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/rC5_P7r8riU/0.jpg" width="400" height="300" />YouTube Video</a></object></p><br />At 3 to go a lone rider attacked on the climb and built up a 15 second lead. With 2 laps to go someone else attacked and bridged to form a 2 person breakaway. They didn't have a huge lead so I wasn't worried about them being to make it 2 more laps. At the beginning of the last lap we reeled in the break before the climb and with the field together it was full gas over the climb as everyone was fighting to be in the best position for the final mile to the finish line. Everyone was strung out as attacks were constant with people trying to get away but inside the last 500 meters everyone slowed just a tad as it was going to come down to a field sprint. I was in good position at the top of the climb (10th) but was shuffled back in the run in to the finish.<br /><br />Looking back I should have attacked on that lull and taken the best that would come of it. Instead, I hesitated and waited for the sprint. The sprint started and I began trying to find a gap to move up as I still had a little left in the tank. I was eventually pinched and had to sit up and rolled thru in 24th place. I felt strong in the race but needed to be better positioned going into the finish and more decisive as I think a top 10 was there for the taking if I wouldn't have hesitated.<br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-57214089053271710562013-06-06T22:37:00.001-07:002013-06-06T22:37:05.702-07:00A week offSo I wasn't planning on not blogging for this long but I have been busy and just didn't get around to it. This post will be short but I wanted to get back into blogging for the rest of the season. I am just finishing up a few days of rest in the middle of the season and will be back at it soon.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/06/06/3119.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/06/06/s_3119.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='278' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />In the last 2 months I have put in over 72 hours on the bike between training and races. I also just completed a pretty hefty block of racing having completed 7 races in a 7 week span. I will get down to the details of the races soon but I have stayed upright and am getting closer to scoring upgrade points. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/06/06/3120.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/06/06/s_3120.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-18175293337403405202013-04-14T08:28:00.001-07:002013-04-14T08:28:17.273-07:00PeakingIt has been a while since I have posted and just as long since my last race. I have had a very good block of training and I am just about ready for the next 4 weeks when I have races planned for each weekend.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/04/14/1112.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/04/14/s_1112.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='187' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I did race in Berkeley about a month ago but the result was very poor and not worth discussing.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/04/14/1113.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/04/14/s_1113.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I spent a long weekend in Philly and although it was very cold, I still went on a couple bike rides to keep building the fitness. The consistency has been paying off and I have been getting stronger every week. I set a personal best time up mt diablo a few days ago and have been doing long race simulations on the weekends with the house of pain ride.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/04/14/1114.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/04/14/s_1114.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />My next race is at the sea otter classic at Laguna seca. Yes, we are racing on the famous track near Monterey, my dad and I went there last year for the first time to watch the motogp race but this time I will be on the track (although with a lot less horsepower).<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/04/14/1115.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/04/14/s_1115.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I don't like setting my expectations too high but I really feel that there is no way that I will be dropped in this race and with such a hilly course I am expecting it to be pretty selective. I am not sure how many will be in the field but I think it would be disappointing if I wasn't in the top half of the field at the very least. Only time will tell, for now I am off to an easy training ride.<br /><br />P.S. due to Kelsey's new bump I bought her this helmet so that she can be more aerodynamic.<br /><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-56001179219068615252013-03-10T22:41:00.001-07:002013-03-10T22:49:19.914-07:00Crashes and a critLet me start by saying that I did not crash this week. Actually, I have crashed in quite a while (knock on wood). But there were a few crashes in the last week of riding that I wanted to share.<br />I rode the HOP ride yesterday morning and it was a smaller group so the speed was a little bit slower. Because of this, we shared the work a bit more and did some pace line work at times on the ride. On highland road, there was a motorcycle crash that occurred while 2 motorcycles were trying to pass the HOP medium ride. One of my teammates saw the whole thing happen and we ended up riding by the ambulance as it was picking up one of the crashers. On the second half of the HOP ride I took a few pulls at the front of the field up the main grinding climb which I would pay for later on in the ride. After the climb up collier canyon (which I barely hung on to the group) we started up Camino Tassajara and the wind really began to blow. Our small group was echeloned across the road and I was stuck riding in the wind and eventually I was blown off the back. It felt good to have a few hard pulls at the front and then to hang on to the field afterwards. I can tell I am getting stronger just need to keep up the hard riding (and smart recovery) and I will be in a good place for the end of a race.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/10/3604.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/10/s_3604.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />On Sunday I raced the red kite crit in Livermore with a few teammates. It is a flat, 4 corner, 1 mile crit and our field was 97 deep with a mix of cat. 3 and cat. 4 riders. Our race was scheduled for 40 minutes and these type of races can be very nervous with such a large field and very few ways for people to separate themselves from the rest of the field (like hills or a technical course). The result is that people take risks to move up in the field and this can have an affect on the riders around them (like tapping your brakes in traffic, it has a domino affect on the 10 cars behind you). But first, here is a video of how the race started. This really did happen and it was kind of a microcosm for how our race went (far too excitable and ending in a crash).<br /><br /><p align='center'><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/_uuyutCulxw" width="400" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_uuyutCulxw" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><!-- Fallback content --><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uuyutCulxw"><img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/_uuyutCulxw/0.jpg" width="400" height="300" />YouTube Video</a></object></p>The first few laps were pretty fast and I sat in the field comfortably. I moved up for a few of the middle laps as I started to feel out the spots on the course where the wind wasn't as bad and the field was slowing. With 5 laps to go I was shuffled to the back as I was caught in the middle of the field with no way to move up. On the 3rd to last lap there was a massive crash in front of me that took down at least 6 riders. I narrowly missed getting taken down as the wreckage exploded outwards from the original fallers. I had slowed down pretty significantly and as I was already at the back of the field there was a gap of about 100 meters to the main field. I quickly started the chase back to the field and after 1 lap of hard work, I had finally caught back up to the back of the pack. We passed the wreckage of the crash and 1 rider was still down and being attended to (he was very bloody and had to be taken away in an ambulance eventually). The last lap was very fast and after my effort to catch back on, I was unable to move up and I cruised across the finish line. Officially I finished 77th, not very good but I must admit that I don't think I will be doing a whole lot more flat crits this year. I don't think that they play to my strengths and the chances of crashing are much higher.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/10/3605.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/10/s_3605.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />I am traveling to Denver, Spokane, and Boise this week so I will be on the stair machine to keep up the cardio. Bariani road race next Sunday.<br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br /><br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-5865861427844876952013-03-03T21:04:00.001-08:002013-03-03T21:04:49.480-08:00ProgressThis past week has been an excellent week of training. I have found a group of local teammates who ride on week nights and one of them has put together a generic training program for us to follow. Although I have only been following this for one week I can tell that I am getting stronger already. It also helps to have other people to train with as this makes the efforts more bearable (not easier).<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/03/3148.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/03/s_3148.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />On Sunday I went for a ride up mt. Diablo with my teammate Andy and as we neared the top we saw that some of the snow had remained from a week earlier. It was a rare sight in these areas and made for a good photo opportunity. We kept a good pace up the first half of the climb but I slowed us down on the second half and we reached the top in just over an hour. It was a respectable time to the top especially since we hadn't pushed it too hard and I haven't focused on climbing too much this year.<br /><br />Monday was an easy group recovery ride of about 2 hours. Wednesday was a set of 5x5 intervals up a slight grade in a neighborhood nearby. We would start at the bottom of the hill and go all out for 5 minutes, turn around and head back down the hill and repeat the process until we finished 5 total intervals. This efforts are quite brutal and it certainly helps to have a few other people to suffer with (even though I admittedly mailed in the last interval, I just couldn't push it a fifth time). Thursday was another tough day in the saddle although I was by myself for this excursion. I tried to keep the pace high for the whole ride and up it just a little bit on the hills.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/03/3149.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/03/s_3149.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Friday was a very short spin on the trainer, basically a day off but I wanted to spin the legs just a little so that they would be ready for my hard ride on Saturday. Saturday mornings are the infamous HOP ride, short for House of Pain. Due to the popularity of the ride and to accommodate the different levels of riders, it has expanded to HOP lite, HOP medium, and the HOP. The easier rides start earlier in the morning and eventually the fastest ride begins. The loop is the same each week and consists of 50 miles over rolling hills without any real climbing (about as fast a loop as you can get around here). The best part about the ride is that it gives new racers a chance to ride with those faster than them and in a setting that isn't as aggressive as an actual race. I started the season riding in HOP medium and decided that I needed to start riding with the fast guys if I wanted to get faster.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/03/3150.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/03/s_3150.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />The HOP ride started out pretty mellow while everyone was warming up but it quickly sped up. I had planned to ride at the back as I didn't want to spend any time in the wind, I needed to conserve all the energy I could. After 5 miles we turned left onto a back road and the pace was full on. We went over a few rollers at full speed and headed towards a predetermined sprint point. We were sprinting out of corners to keep up with the pack and when I looked at our speed after the ride, we had averaged 29.7 mph for over a ten minute period. I stayed with the field until the long drag up collier canyon road at which point I wasn't able to stay with the pace on the fast climb. I backed off and recovered before heading over to mt. Diablo and finishing my training ride with a solid effort halfway up the mountain.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/03/3151.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/03/s_3151.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I spent an hour riding the trainer today as seen above. I finished my third book on tape this year and just downloaded a fourth. After reviewing some of my data files from this week and comparing them to last year, I am delighted to report that I am at almost the exact same fitness level as I was last May (when I was at my best last year). I can tell that I am getting stronger and don't think that I will plateau soon. I am looking forward to another hard week of training and the impending daylight savings when I won't have to carry lights on my night rides.<br /><br /> Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-90940659638117454342013-02-23T09:55:00.001-08:002013-02-23T09:55:22.290-08:00Copper townThis week was a little bit light on the training but I was consistent in getting out to ride, and feeling pretty good for my race on the weekend. Kelsey's parents were in town to help set up our spare bedroom in anticipation of the new member of our family. <br /><br />But before we get to the race, I have an update about the tour of California bike race. The pros will yet again be visiting NorCal and the queen stage is finishing on mount diablo. A video was posted describing the different stages and one of my teammates who works for the diablo state park was asked to describe part of the route. He is the guy in the ranger outfit towards the end of the video below.<br /><br /><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/race-live/video.html">Amgen tour of California route</a><br /><br />I also got an email from a teammate regarding the video and one of the other people in the video. See below for a great story about a local cyclist.<br /><br />"At the beginning description to the Mt Diablo stage, there’s a shaved headed chubby guy in an orange jersey. For those newbies who’ve only been riding for fifteen years or so, that’s George Mount. Local boy from Berkeley, fourth in the Montreal Olympic Road Race. First American to race the Giro. Fourth in The Milk Race, won the Red Zinger (precursor the Coors Classic), etc, etc. He quit racing in ’81 or ’82, moved back to the Bay Area and made a fortune in high tech sales. In ’90 or so, he casually raced locally for a couple years. He’d show up, chubby, on an old steel bike with downtube shifters and a six speed cogset and old wool shorts. Few people knew who he was, but invariably, he’d attack midway through the race, win solo and go home, people asking, who was that guy? He took to putting a bell on his handlebars, which he’d ding preceding each attack – just to give everyone a fair warning. It didn’t help us at all. He was known as Smilin’ George, because when a race would be at its most miserable – think Snelling, in the rain and you’re being guttered trying to get in the echelon – George would casually ride alongside the suffering mortals and smile at each and every one of us. It was completely demoralizing. He was a god and will always be a hero of mine. In ’92 or ’93, when I was younger, skinnier and could climb somewhat, he passed me like a bolt of lightning near the saddle during the Mountain Challenge. He was on a fixed gear. Wearing cut off blue jeans. And an old leather hairnet. He was kind enough to smile when he passed."<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/23/1007.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/23/s_1007.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />On to the race. The copper town circuit race is held in copperopolis and consists of a 5 mile lap on rolling terrain. Our field was 44 deep with one team having about ten riders in the field. From previous experience I knew that it was important to be at the front at the 2 turnaround points as it bunches up and crashes are more likely to happen there. I had one teammate in the race and 2 other friends from a different team. The race started fast and because it was only 60 minutes long, it was expected to stay fast. The one team with many riders started off the attacking early and it would continue this way throughout the race. One of their riders would attack and then someone from a different team would chase and the field would follow. Once the rider was caught, a different rider from their team would attack. It was textbook team tactics if you have a numbers advantage , attack the field until they give up and one of your riders gets away. <br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/23/1008.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/23/s_1008.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Unfortunately for their team, we consistently pulled back the attackers and the race never was too hard to drop anyone from the field. I kept my nose clean for the first 2 laps and stayed near the front at the turnarounds. On the third lap I almost had a crash as a rider came around the outside of me at one of the turnarounds and bumped my arm, pushing my handlebar and steering my away from the turn. I leaned on the rider a little bit, regained my direction, and moved through the corner without further incident. By the last turnaround I was in about 20th position and knew I needed to move up to be in a better position for the sprint finish.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/23/1009.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/23/s_1009.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /> Inside the last 2 miles, the speed picked up significantly and I started to look for a way to move up as everyone was fighting for position. I made a move up the outside of the field but was unable to get far as we were moving over 30 mph. I blew up trying move up and tucked back in for another effort. This time I had a tow to the front as someone else was trying to make the same move. Unfortunately the result was the same as he blew up from the effort and we were both shuffled back. Coming up to the last few hundred meters, I wasn't in a position to contest the sprint and sat up to roll through the finish. 33rd place was my official finishing position.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/23/1010.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/23/s_1010.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />The good news is that I felt good throughout the race and was able to move up in the field much better than I have before and I was in a good position up until the last 2km. After getting back from the race I had to make a trip to the bike shop to drop off my newest bike. Specialized had ordered a recall on my bike as there was a potential for the front fork to break. I needed to bring the bike in so that they could ship the fork to a testing facility and stress test the fork. It was supposed to take up to 2 weeks but I got a call that my bike was back in less than a week.<br /><br /><p align='center'><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/NP7PGEwZjuY" width="400" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NP7PGEwZjuY" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><!-- Fallback content --><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP7PGEwZjuY"><img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/NP7PGEwZjuY/0.jpg" width="400" height="300" />YouTube Video</a></object></p>On Monday I got sick again. It seemed like a relapse of my norovirus problems from Christmas and I was worried that this was going to put out of commission for a week like at Christmas. Luckily, it was only bad for 2 days and I was back at work and training within 4 days. I have a few weeks before my next race and plan on doing a heavy training program to build my fitness for the faster/longer races to come.<br />Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-16296028705063000722013-02-10T19:17:00.001-08:002013-02-10T20:25:53.624-08:00Cherry PieI was in the office all this week so I should have had the opportunity to train all week. I was planning on taking Monday off as my legs were pretty sore from Saturdays race and Sundays hard ride up mt. Diablo. I took Monday off and started to prep my second bike for the upcoming race on Sunday. I started to stretch the tubular tires in order to have them ready to be glued onto the rims later. I spent Tuesday taking the old glue off the rims and then putting the first layer of glue on the tires and rims, during which I managed to stab myself with a screwdriver in the thumb.<br />Wednesday followed with another layer of glue and then I mounted and centered the tires onto the rims. Afterwards I pumped them up to 140 psi and left them for 24 hours to sit. Although it was late (8pm), I got dressed for the cold weather and went out for an hour ride. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/10/2997.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/10/s_2997.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Thursday was spent doing hill repeat intervals, in preparation for the race on Sunday. There is a small housing development a half mile from our apartment with short but very steep hills and I spent the better part of an hour climbing those hills. Friday I took the day off and then on Saturday I had a short but harder ride up mt. Diablo. Saturday was also the day that I discovered a problem with the second bike(the bike I was going to race). With my skills of deduction I realized that the problem was coming from the rear wheel and more specifically the rear hub/cassette. I rode the bike to the local bike shop and they told me not to ride that wheel and that I would have to have the hub serviced to fix the hub which wasn't spinning smoothly.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/10/2998.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/10/s_2998.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />I scratched the plan of riding the second bike and prepped the first bike for the race. The cherry pie crit is in a business park in napa and the race goes around a 1 mile lap with a short hill up to the start finish line. Our race had 67 riders total, a large field to say the least and it was full gas from the start of our 40 minute race. I stayed in the front of the race for the first five laps to avoid any crashes; it is early in the season and everybody is nervous and crashes are more likely to happen. Each time up the climb was hurting and I wanted to reserve some energy for the end so I took the next few laps pretty easy on the climb and was swarmed and moved to the back of the field. With 3 laps to go I started to move up in the field but I only moved up about 10 places going into the last lap. I moved up a further 10 places going into the final time up the climb and waited to launch my final sprint. I found a good gap and with a final effort I moved up to 26th place by the finish. I was happy with the finish but know I need to work a little bit harder on my positioning in order to be closer to the front when the sprint will matter.<br />P.S. we found some food trucks near our work and one truck was making tacos with a twist. Fried eggs on tacos and a Mexican Pepsi. Picture below.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/10/2999.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/10/s_2999.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />P.p.s. a lot of cyclist break there collarbones (clavicle for all of you medically inclined people) due to the way that most cyclist crash on their shoulders and it breaks relatively easy for such puny cyclists. A teammate of mine recently crashed and will need to have his broken collarbone put back together with a titanium rod. Picture of X-ray below.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/10/3317.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/10/s_3317.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Napa,%20CA&z=10'>Napa, CA</a></p>Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-3239745104444765212013-02-03T08:05:00.001-08:002013-02-03T08:05:14.246-08:00Christmas, New Years, and the first race of the yearIt has been a while since I have updated everyone but now that the season has started in earnest I have committed to blogging more often about racing and life in general. Lets start with life in general. Big news is that my lovely wife is pregnant with our first child (not sure if it is a boy or girl yet). Here is the most recent picture of Kelsey's belly.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/03/1155.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/03/s_1155.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We were in Philly for Christmas and New Years and had the chance to see family and friends. We had the chance to meet up with a few newly engaged friends and share the news that Kelsey is pregnant, all very good things. The bad news is that pretty much everyone in the house became ill with some version of the flu and it put me out of commission for a few days. I had a bike in Philly and was doing some training, although the rides weren't that long due to the intense cold. Due to the illness, I missed our yearly New Years get together with my roommates from college. Ironically enough, the first day that I started to feel good was my first day back at work. The other bad part of my illness was that my training regressed by at least a week. I was starting to build the miles and incorporate a little bit of intensity into my workouts so it was pretty frustrating to feel like I was back to where I was at the beginning of December.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/03/1156.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/03/s_1156.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />So when January began I knew I still had a month before I was going to race. I also knew that I had to travel for work twice which makes being consistent with my training very difficult. It normally takes me about a month of hard training to get into good shape so January was looking to be pretty difficult. The good news is that I found out at a team meeting that 2 new teammates were going to be racing in my category so I won't be racing on my own too much more. I had the chance to meet my new teammates (Andy and Saul) and ride with them once before our first planned race. Training had been progressing pretty well as I have been riding around 25 miles on most week nights and then combining that with 60-70 mile rides with more intensity on weekends. Our first race was scheduled for knights ferry road race and after riding with Andy it was apparent that he was stronger and the better option for a high finish at this race.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/03/1157.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/03/s_1157.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />The knights ferry road race is 59 miles long, mostly flat, with an out and back layout. We would ride over 2 laps of the course and finish on the top of the only hill on the course. I drove out with Andy and Chris, two new teammates, as our races were starting close together. We arrived early and warmed up with plenty of time to spare. My race only had about 30 riders in it so I knew it was going to be easy to move forward in the field, something that normally I am not very good at and in bigger fields can cause problems at the finish of the race. More on this later. A photo of the finishing hill below.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/03/1158.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/03/s_1158.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Our race started off fairly quickly, with a few half-hearted attacks early in the race and the whole field sprinting over the finishing hill and out of the turnaround. The pace stayed variable with accelerations thru the remainder of the first lap. I had started the race towards the front of the field and was shuffled to the back of the field once I was comfortable that no breaks were going to get away. I made a habit of moving up in the field when we approached the turnarounds as it does get a little bit bunched going into the corner and you can get caught having to sprint to catch the rest of the field if you are too far back in the pack.<br /><br />The pace slowed significantly on the second lap as everyone settled in for the last 30 miles of the race. Andy and I spent time on the front of the field controlling the pace and everyone was happy to sit in and prepare for the finale. With 5 miles to go the field was swarming as everyone wanted to be near the front but not actually on the front of the field. I was getting shuffled back and as the old adage goes, "if you aren't moving up in the field, you are moving back." With 2 km to go I was now stuck at the back of the field and I had no options to move up as our lane was jammed with everyone holding their position. Andy was positioned well in the top five but I knew I wouldn't be able to help him with the finish, I was too far back in the field. As we hit the final hill up to the finish line the field began to explode as people were moving up and some moving backwards very quickly. I waited as long as possible before making my move on the steepest part, I even had to hit the brakes at point as one rider was slowing and I was accelerating up the hill. At the finish line I knew I had passed some of the field but thought that I was still around 15th at the finish line. Results posted below (look under category 4)<br /><br /><a target="_blank" href="http://www.usacycling.org/results/?permit=2013-227">Knights Ferry results</a><br /><br />Andy finished 7th as he ran out of gas in the last 200 meters of the race and I had clawed my way back to 11th place. I was happy with the finish and the result, it is still too early in the season to be worried about my finishing place but it is something to build on. This was a long race and it felt good to have something left in the tank for the finish. I also wanted to show you my new shoes below and the inscription on the inside of the collar of our new jerseys (a few pictures above).<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/03/1159.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/03/s_1159.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Possibly another race next weekend, weather permitting.<br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-79606189318212543362012-12-16T16:55:00.001-08:002012-12-16T18:23:09.280-08:00Winter of my discontentSome of you may not know this but I strongly dislike riding the trainer. The trainer is essentially a resistance wheel that you clamp your bike onto and it simulates the resistance of riding outdoors. The benefit of a trainer is that you can ride indoors and avoid poor weather but the drawbacks are many. The bike is clamped and therefore it doesn't feel very real because the bike never moves when you pedal. The resistance wheel is a poor replicator of actual riding as it is constant and outdoor rides are anything but constant. Lastly and most importantly trainer rides are boring and don't offer any of the escape that I so enjoy on outdoor rides. As you may noticed I have recently purchased lights for my bike in order that I won't have to ride indoors on weekdays, instead I can still ride after work with the lights attached to the bike (as a side note, I tend to stick to roads that are well lit on my night rides, just to be on the safe side).<br /><br />The downfalls of riding at night are the lack of light and of course, the cold. We have had a particularly cold spell here in Northern California and although it hasn't stopped me from riding, it certainly has shaken my resolve to ride. I won't lie in saying that riding in the cold can be miserable and my last two rides have been particularly unbearable. I rode on Thursday evening for about 25 miles and I can admit that I was frozen by the time I got back (my bike computer said the average temperature was 42 degrees). It took a hot shower to thaw my extremities. As bad as that was, Saturday mornings ride was much worse. I had plans to go for a very long ride and left early (7:30) to take advantage of all of the light. As it was, the temperature was 34 degrees when I started to ride and despite having the warmest of my clothing on, it was certainly not enough. After an hour, I needed to stop as I was having trouble feeling my arms and they were starting to fail in supporting my upper body. I was at the point where I had gone past numb and the cold was starting to get painful. I stopped at a gas station, drank a hot chocolate, and tried to warm up. This was mostly futile and I knew I needed to turn around. I headed back and can admit that it started to warm up but the only thing that actually made a difference was that I started to ride harder in order to try and raise my heart rate and core temperature. Upon my return, a hot shower was the only remedy and I have vowed to learn that on weekends I will wait for it to warm up prior to riding.<br /><br />I learned my lesson today and this morning Kelsey and I went up to napa to try a bakery that we had heard about it was delicious. It is called Bouchon Bakery and they make wonderful croissants, pastries, and sweets and after we got back I made the trek up Mt. Diablo for the first time in months. As a side note, the tour of California will be finishing on Diablo in May in what is being billed as the queen stage of the race (the queen stage is the biggest and toughest stage of the race). I rode to the junction as there was cloud cover further up and I wasn't looking to ride on wet roads any further. It was a good effort and I plan on starting to pick up the intensity from this point further.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/12/16/2348.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/12/16/s_2348.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />I have included this photo to show all of the items that I carry/wear on a winter ride. From bottom to top - shoes, socks, shoe covers, knee warmers, bib shorts, undershirt, jersey, arm warmers, thermal vest, heart rate strap, food, pump, earphones(so I can listen to my books on tape), cycling computer, sandwich bag for phone, helmet, cycling cap, sunglasses, keys, gloves, water bottles. Depending on the length of ride I will carry 1 or 2 water bottles, 1 is always full of water and the second with a drink mix (contains salt, sugar and some flavoring). I will usually try to carry some food, mostly granola bars or gels of some sort. It takes me about 15 minutes to get fully dressed and ready to ride. Considering that it takes me about 5 minutes to get ready in the morning, the process of getting ready for a ride can seem like an eternity.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/12/16/2392.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/12/16/s_2392.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I took this picture on my way down Diablo. It is starting to turn green around here and is starting to look like what I always imagine Ireland looks like.<br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-14240471079759268532012-11-20T13:30:00.001-08:002012-11-23T15:51:09.738-08:00RainIt rained over the weekend. Not that it bothered me as I don't hate the rain like some people in California who have been spoiled by sunshine their whole lives. I actually enjoy rainy days as most people stay indoors so those of us willing to venture out get to enjoy the world by ourselves. This past weekend it rained pretty heavy for the first time since May and 8 of us went for a long bike ride in spite of it.<br /><br />To be honest, I was looking forward to riding in the rain as I just purchased some winter riding gear but I wasn't looking to have go for a 5 hour ride. I also had committed to completing a Strava ride challenge. I may have mentioned this before but Strava is "fitness facebook". I upload my rides to the website using a Garmin cycling computer and they rank segments of the ride based on time versus others that have ridden the same segments. Strava will also sponsor challenges to ride a certain amount of miles over a specified time period. This past weekend was a challenge to ride at least 79 miles in one ride. <br /><br />We had set out on the ride at 7:30AM and it was lightly raining. After about 10 miles it started to rain in earnest and soon enough we were all fairly soaked. As a side note, I am pretty certain that their is no such thing as "water-proof" in cycling clothing. If it rains, you will eventually get wet. It stopped raining for just over 1 hour and then as we headed back it picked up again and didn't stop until we got back. The last hour was pretty miserable as we were all starting to get cold and just wanted to get rid of the road grime and warm up.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/11/23/1830.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/11/23/s_1830.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Just before my shower I took this picture and adjusted the color with Instagram. Below is a picture of a bicycle I found on a different blog, I think it looks pretty awesome.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/11/23/1831.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/11/23/s_1831.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='189' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I am currently in Washington state visiting with family and when I get back I will have to clean up the bike from the rain and continue fixing my backup bike to take back to PA.<br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone<br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-44333774609090665282012-11-13T07:56:00.001-08:002012-11-13T07:56:47.295-08:00Night ridingJust thought I would share a photo I took from my ride yesterday evening. It isn't the most clear picture but it is a palm tree lit with Christmas lights. <br />
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I also wanted to keep everyone informed of my training. I logged over 100 miles over the weekend and have continued my night rides on week nights. The plan is to continue this for the next few weeks and then to gradually build intensity into my rides. I won't race in January but I will most likely start in February with a few races to speed up my fitness level. <br />
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A quick story from my ride this weekends ride. While near the top of Patterson pass a teammate of mine ran over some glass on the road and instantly flatted. He pulled over to fix the flat but was having trouble finding puncture in the tire or tube. After a few more minutes we looked over at his bike to discover that the other tire was flat and that he had mistakenly thought the flat was on the front and not the rear tire. After a quick switch we put the front tire back together and had a new tube in the rear. Needless to say he was embarrassed from the mistake but it allowed for a nice break in the middle of the climb<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgN4zq-pE1rLlSPJxPOsejfCsSIM7it1nWZF2fZPptef1QFXsgOgRFMtSwXpTROUE-9IYaUvOAg6s4erxykAzjAcGgGT3VehahEa3V4ugCKE5oHjEo6iEpam25OQ8beExhttxsSTklU_jT/s640/blogger-image--1411366058.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgN4zq-pE1rLlSPJxPOsejfCsSIM7it1nWZF2fZPptef1QFXsgOgRFMtSwXpTROUE-9IYaUvOAg6s4erxykAzjAcGgGT3VehahEa3V4ugCKE5oHjEo6iEpam25OQ8beExhttxsSTklU_jT/s640/blogger-image--1411366058.jpg" /></a></div>Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-69581418604480358162012-11-07T07:32:00.001-08:002012-11-07T07:32:32.523-08:00A few photos from recent ridesI have started my training for next year in earnest and just in time as the race schedule was just released. I took a few photos on my ride Sunday and yesterday and wanted everyone to see. I have also just started my darkness rides and have added lights to make sure I am seen at night. <div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-tsPvJi3wcHey2u17cBLsxwYVoytTgG88LPnGJGNDP9Q8wvpQTZJNqrbdW3XQbfxjZ1p5XwfrToCQwd5mdn8BBMcaZdpplvyhkvebopiq0k55WuRjEwhDZSpu9JTp23p8IPmZLQw_JoVm/s640/blogger-image-62274354.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-tsPvJi3wcHey2u17cBLsxwYVoytTgG88LPnGJGNDP9Q8wvpQTZJNqrbdW3XQbfxjZ1p5XwfrToCQwd5mdn8BBMcaZdpplvyhkvebopiq0k55WuRjEwhDZSpu9JTp23p8IPmZLQw_JoVm/s640/blogger-image-62274354.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2o7dbuAfMKZ_2a3cG9W9Z8gYlcbZ0tkWPTup9YI1a0FDrLLC5vcKWvTzLTV7S7pQY3WUpGeIkdgszgIpiPm3GkVkgVm9ao1Ohr5l06XIUglUWJeMLafu124TMejKWYiK6l8dmvzwQypSu/s640/blogger-image--1800573684.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2o7dbuAfMKZ_2a3cG9W9Z8gYlcbZ0tkWPTup9YI1a0FDrLLC5vcKWvTzLTV7S7pQY3WUpGeIkdgszgIpiPm3GkVkgVm9ao1Ohr5l06XIUglUWJeMLafu124TMejKWYiK6l8dmvzwQypSu/s640/blogger-image--1800573684.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDhphyphenhyphenaVA5qtN9lR-WP6-DGtHmNT8qeKah8AVQd0rfXSIepCjLV6qpehOtrnBr2b_-2Par_MHITyZ_JRAkLo6zLLCdz-PnkCzQtxXRY7y3MmWz2hdzWtxpXI5AeDpL1Vo7q33NxDrJLS4z/s640/blogger-image-2131483473.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDhphyphenhyphenaVA5qtN9lR-WP6-DGtHmNT8qeKah8AVQd0rfXSIepCjLV6qpehOtrnBr2b_-2Par_MHITyZ_JRAkLo6zLLCdz-PnkCzQtxXRY7y3MmWz2hdzWtxpXI5AeDpL1Vo7q33NxDrJLS4z/s640/blogger-image-2131483473.jpg" /></a></div>Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-41414064674472145282012-10-14T08:17:00.000-07:002012-10-14T08:17:01.558-07:00More end of year stats and an opinionWhat do the following numbers represent:<div>
199</div>
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231,004</div>
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3,242</div>
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They represent the total number of hours, vertical feet, and miles I have ridden this season. During this year I have joined strava as a way to track my rides and fitness. Plus, it is a great way to see what rides my teammates and competitors are doing as well. I still plan on adding more miles this year as I start training for next season with long slow rides. In an effort to keep these long base mile rides interesting I have decided to start listening to books on tape. I joined audible.com and just purchased Destiny of the Republic, a book about James Garfield, the 20th president of the US.</div>
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I also wanted to take this opportunity to express my opinion of the Lance Armstrong doping case. Although Lance has yet to admit to doping during his career, the evidence is now overwhelming to point to the fact that he and his team all used performance enhancing drugs on their way to winning 7 Tour de France titles. About a year ago I read a book called Lance Armstrongs War which detailed his 6th Tour de France win and the overwhelming feeling I got from the book was that he was as competitive an athlete as has ever lived, always looking for an enemy and ruthlessly dispatching each one.</div>
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His desire to win was legendary and I do believe that he had the ability to win a Tour de France without the use of EPO and other drugs, how many tours can never be proven. I also am of the opinion that most if not all of the grand tour contenders during this era all doped so nobody is clean and deserving of the Tour de France wins. So what should anyone believe of the pro cycling going forward. I am of the belief that some will always try to cheat to win and that they will be caught over time trying to do this. The statistics seem to show that almost all cheats are out of the pro peloton and that there is a new generation of cyclists who are sick of being labeled as cheats and want to win cleanly. </div>
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I am interested to see where the Lance case will go in the coming months but it seems like he will have all of his wins stricken from the record and will most likely be pushed out of his involvement with Livestrong as well. Unless he comes clean he will most likely never be accepted in the athletics community again (when was the last time anyone heard Barry bonds mentioned).</div>
Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-43496159307707646902012-10-07T18:35:00.000-07:002012-10-07T18:40:45.841-07:002 weeks of gluttony + YosemiteYes, I have officially labeled my off-season "2 weeks of gluttony". I have enjoyed not going on any rides for the last two weeks and I have enjoyed eating (and drinking) whatever I can get my hands on. I have gained weight and better yet I have finished my weeks off the bike with the desire to start training again. The plan for the rest of the off season is long slow rides with some climbing at a very slow pace mixed in. The goal is to build a really strong endurance base so that I can have more strength at the end of races next year.<br />
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I also wanted update everyone on my newest bike. I bought the frame in August and proceeded to buy the components to piece together the rest of the bike. By the end of August I had went to a bike fitting to get the best position for me on the bike and then used this info to build the bike. After a month of riding the bike as I had built it and adjusting a few shifting issues, I can now report that the bike is awesome and ready to race. <br />
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Now a few pictures from Kelsey and my trip to Yosemite National Park. Enjoy.<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixMZqg45QmHQ_idlIeEkDdugh1py5PUupT0K6sz35rg4PcvTxczdNt4hSR5PTZYdHSPnFycpr_bm3eYwGd8da0MOQ1VwXw7r8BNhs3ORoxqogzdZUvfiUYSFabM9XWiwZIn6vr5nyUJdRa/s640/blogger-image--551424765.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixMZqg45QmHQ_idlIeEkDdugh1py5PUupT0K6sz35rg4PcvTxczdNt4hSR5PTZYdHSPnFycpr_bm3eYwGd8da0MOQ1VwXw7r8BNhs3ORoxqogzdZUvfiUYSFabM9XWiwZIn6vr5nyUJdRa/s640/blogger-image--551424765.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjge0a3K0Mnklxikx_U2-SR_ZY5DttZXKLwGNKUSywFslLdVa7qeW3-vI0gICV5Vv4SJwK6Nr1p1Z5c46mxZm-tTJ0LGnIOeAEEprzNKxD5lnT84hAsqBkQvY7v22C_ScgU1M-qfs-sLDnT/s640/blogger-image--2020059323.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjge0a3K0Mnklxikx_U2-SR_ZY5DttZXKLwGNKUSywFslLdVa7qeW3-vI0gICV5Vv4SJwK6Nr1p1Z5c46mxZm-tTJ0LGnIOeAEEprzNKxD5lnT84hAsqBkQvY7v22C_ScgU1M-qfs-sLDnT/s640/blogger-image--2020059323.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXQkGI42FzXNmLxB_T2zqptGe2IWghX7VYBI0bdigqyw_jLEsutnro3Wag4PQxnUExMUWqZyjmQP-OPtRIMxDchjklnrMfZCg_uL1uwPj1A9LXpXKr03NydECItf0f8VwIsUg9xJngCTI/s640/blogger-image--1793819810.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXQkGI42FzXNmLxB_T2zqptGe2IWghX7VYBI0bdigqyw_jLEsutnro3Wag4PQxnUExMUWqZyjmQP-OPtRIMxDchjklnrMfZCg_uL1uwPj1A9LXpXKr03NydECItf0f8VwIsUg9xJngCTI/s640/blogger-image--1793819810.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidQ58gKy2Zl2Kv8mlM29N5ZgpowyProFkSHZ18d-hvM2h9b0q_FIpGyNYoTrJjGAPQXWy-3qq-YWAu_ERm_b_u0VEuRgy1H8CTvEXz5uK61q9hNyktaWTe_E3j8-sCnuRThc3dxQkkx_0L/s640/blogger-image--367594780.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidQ58gKy2Zl2Kv8mlM29N5ZgpowyProFkSHZ18d-hvM2h9b0q_FIpGyNYoTrJjGAPQXWy-3qq-YWAu_ERm_b_u0VEuRgy1H8CTvEXz5uK61q9hNyktaWTe_E3j8-sCnuRThc3dxQkkx_0L/s640/blogger-image--367594780.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFVOcwR1FS3v2qE64YHqAHZoTGRTMFDHsQ4cWQdN2LTpic0c8cIZD1awsbFeBNq66Kect_Ro5QuWPHOAOLW5-glmOF7YDsHiUkqBLHn3VJolibCml2E8P7tm8LKzB0_T0PiZsJQ_WLAIsT/s640/blogger-image-1523373653.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFVOcwR1FS3v2qE64YHqAHZoTGRTMFDHsQ4cWQdN2LTpic0c8cIZD1awsbFeBNq66Kect_Ro5QuWPHOAOLW5-glmOF7YDsHiUkqBLHn3VJolibCml2E8P7tm8LKzB0_T0PiZsJQ_WLAIsT/s640/blogger-image-1523373653.jpg" /></a></div>Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-55833089711421931892012-09-27T21:28:00.001-07:002012-09-27T21:28:32.020-07:00Season wrap-up and what's nextThe season is officially over. Well, actually the season ends this weekend but I am currently in Portland for work and will be here for the weekend so I won't be able to race. The second half of my season was marked by mostly inconsistent training and much less racing. I struggled to find a good level of fitness and this has led me to some thinking about what I will need to do for next year in order to improve. Here are some random thoughts about this year and next year:<br />
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-I need to ride longer training rides if I want to be competitive in road races. I can typically get to the last mile of a race with the group but I am nowhere once the pace starts to increase.<br />
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-I need to spend more time riding towards the front.<br />
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-I need to attack more often. Sitting in isn't fun if you aren't there for the sprint anyway.<br />
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-I don't need to worry about my diet as much, as long as I am riding consistently, my weight stays pretty regulated.<br />
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-I need to do more hard group rides and more interval training. Basically I need to ride harder and more often.<br />
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-the season is very long if you start racing in January. It is also much more fun racing in August when the weather is nice instead of the rain and hail in February. No more racing in January for me.<br />
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-leg strength stays with you for a while but cardio will disappear in only about a week.<br />
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A few more updates from the second half of the season. I have sold off my second bike and bought a frame and components and built my first bicycle. Nothing has fallen off the bike as of yet and I am pretty certain that my patience in building the bike has paid off.<br />
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I did race the fast &furious crit in pleasonton in August and tried my hand at attacking for the first time. Full disclosure, this wasn't my first time attacking, but this was my first try at attacking with the intent of forming a breakaway. I attacked about 4 laps into our race, got a gap of about 50 meters and stayed at that distance with the hope of someone else trying to bridge up and join me. Nobody tried to join and I got burnt out riding in the wind for a lap and fell back to the group. I finished in the field and one of my teammates actually finished second in the race.<br />
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Lastly, I am one week into my off-season but in a few short weeks I will be back on the bike and starting the long slow training rides in order to build up my fitness for next season. During the winter is also the time when I get to do travel training rides and I know we have some epic rides lined up. Marin county, Santa Rosa, palo alto to the coast, and mount Hamilton are all on the docket. Even better is that I ordered the new iPhone 5 and will be using it to take pictures of the places I go.Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-75846818628753014072012-06-26T22:45:00.004-07:002012-06-26T22:45:39.552-07:00A Huge Slice of Humble PieAfter getting back from Memphis I went on a few warm-up rides for my 4th race in 5 weekends, the Mt. Hamilton Road Race. Mt. Hamilton is the largest of the 3 long Bay Area climbs (Mt. Diablo and Mt. Tamalpais are the other 2 long climbs). This race was also one of the very few point to point road races. By this I mean that we start and finish in vastly different areas as this race started in San Jose and ended 63 miles away in Livermore. As this was the case I carpooled with a teammate to the start location and we dropped off a car at the finish line so that we didn't have to ride back after we finished the race.<br />
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The race starts with the first 19 miles mostly uphill to the top of Mt. Hamilton (it is really 3 different climbs with small gaps in between each) and from the top of Mt. Hamilton you descend the back side of the mountain where there are a few smaller climbs before the mostly downhill finish into Livermore. That may not sound that bad but I can assure that it is. Our race started with a neutral roll-out before the police motorcycle pulled away and the racing started in earnest. The pace immediately quickened as the best climbers put the pressure on the field. I quickly realized that I would be in some trouble if I couldn't stay with the field to the top of Mt. Hamilton.<br />
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Talking with my teammate before this race it seemed that the best strategy was to make sure that you get to the bottom of Mt. Hamilton with at least a few other riders as it would be a very long ride to the finish line without anyone else to help with the workload in the wind. The following thoughts crossed my mind as I watched the main field charge away up the road and out of sight after only the first 30 minutes of racing. My first thought was pure frustration mixed with a few choice words for the riders who were setting such a high pace so early in the race. The second thought was whether I was going to stick this race out and finish it or head back to the car as it was considerably closer than it would be for many hours. Luckily the turnaround impulse didn't last very long as I had already made a commitment to finish every race that I started this year. The last thought was that I now needed to figure out how to start the long process of finishing this race with as much dignity as possible.<br />
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I now had 55+ miles to go and still a bunch of climbing before I even reached the top of Mt. Hamilton. Luckily I had realized quite early that I wasn't going to be strong enough to stay with the real climbers in the field and therefore I had backed off to a pace that I could maintain. As riders from the main field blew up from the hard effort I began to catch them and convince them to stay together to make our last 50 miles as efficient and fast as possible. My group that had originally started with about 3 riders now grew to about a dozen as we started the last push to the top of Mt. Hamilton.<br />
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A quick note about riding in a group and pacing. One of the lessons that you learn from riding in a group is how to properly pace your effort when you are riding at the front of a field. Riders usually take turns at the front of the field and everyone has the natural tendency to ride faster once they get to the front. This can cause major problems for the rest of the group as everyone speeds up to catch the excited rider on the front and can cause the feeling of doing interval training (not good in a long race). Our group had a few excited riders during our climb and I had done my best to verbally calm down these guys as it would be easiest to maintain a pace up the climb instead of constant accelerations. We had one rider in our pack who just couldn't help himself and every time he would go to the front he would increase the pace and it was causing problems for the rest of the group. I started to pick up on this and each time he went to the front I would speed up and go in front of him and slow down to our normal pace, effectively blocking him and allowing everyone else to catch up. He eventually went off the front and not surprising our constant pace eventually caught his over-zealous acceleration (tortoise and the hare anyone). One last note about this, I wouldn't normally care about pacemaking in the group as this is a race and I am all for using any advantage within the rules to beat your opponents but in the scenario we were in it was quite obviously better for our group to keep as many members as possible and to stay consistent with the pace (we still had too much of the course left to start racing each other).<br />
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We crested the top of Mt. Hamilton with a group of about 15 and began the very sketchy descent of the backside. I had spent most of the climb on the front setting the pace and I definitely wanted to be in the front on the descent as I am typically faster than others at descending and I didn't want anyone getting in the way or causing problems. I took the descent pretty easy as I knew there were some very tight turns and it was pretty steep. After seeing a downed rider getting medical attention and blood covering his face I knew that it wasn't worth it to race down the descent. By the bottom I had still caught a group in front of me and dropped all of my original group. We formed up and began the pacemaking but it became apparent once more that I wasn't going to be able to hold the pace. I dropped off the back of this pack and waited to be joined by the next pack.<br />
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I still had over 30 miles to go and I wasn't feeling very hot about my chances. The next pack that I was waiting for never really formed up and I learned later at the finish that after I had left the group on the descent they stopped communicating and the group quickly broke up as they began racing each other. I was passed by many other riders from different fields (and probably my own) on the lonely road to the finish as I rode solo for the rest of the race. With a few miles to go I decided that I should give it my all to finish as strong as possible.<br />
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By this time I need to explain another unique phenomenon of road races. We start staggered with about a 10 minute gap between each field (generally the faster fields start early to reduce overlap). Inevitably the fields start to catch others on the road but the rules state that you aren't allowed to draft off of riders in other fields (essentially you should only race those in your field and don't gain an advantage from others in a different field). This can be hard to do with so many riders scattered across a 63 mile course but it is basically up to each rider to follow this rule. As I was pushing hard to finish strong I passed a rider in a different field and he decided that he was going to hitch a ride on my back wheel to the finish line. <br />
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Not only was I tired and in pain but I was now getting angry as another rider was going to try and gain an advantage off of me. The course started to descend gently towards the finish line and I was fuming when I realized I was dragging someone with me. I started hammering the pace out of every corner and carrying huge speed thru each corner; I wasn't going to let anyone follow me to the finish line. After about 2 minutes of really hard riding I had dropped the other rider and finished the race on my own terms. I certainly didn't need to drop the other rider as we weren't racing for anything but I was angry and wasn't going to let it happen (I used the excuse in my head that at least I was racing for dignity).<br />
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After 3 hours and 40 minutes of constant riding I finished the race and as I tried to lift my leg over the top tube and get off the bike my right quad cramped up on me (insult to injury). I had consumed 3 water bottles (picked one up on the course), 3 gel packs and 2 honey waffles. I finished in 43rd place out of 57 total. The official verdict is that I was crushed and completely unprepared to race 63 miles with that much climbing. I gutted it out to the finish line but unless I improve my stamina I will never be competitive in road races and will get stuck racing crits around industrial complexes. (back to the drawing board when it comes to my training regimen)<br />
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After the race we went to my teammates house, showered up and picked up my truck from the start line. I then went and packed up my motorcycle as I was headed up to Thunderhill Raceway for two days at the racetrack (more on this in my next blog post). Stay tuned. <br />
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<br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-57405132116020622372012-06-17T14:26:00.002-07:002012-06-17T14:26:50.090-07:00Berkeley Hills Road Race + MemphisStill have a few race reports to catch up on and some travel that I have done recently. Going all the way back to mid-May I raced in the Berkeley Hills Road Race only a week after the Cat's Hill crit. The race takes place just in the hills above Berkeley, CA around the San Pablo Dam. The race is mostly flat with three climbs at the very end of the lap known locally as the Three Bears (Mama, Papa, and Baby if anyone is counting). My race was 50 miles and it ended at the top of Papa Bear at the end of the second lap. As a side note, Papa Bear is the longest of the climbs and the most consistent.<br />
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I arrived at the race early and got in a decent warm-up before we started. It was a little bit foggy but we all knew that it would probably burn off during the race and heat up. The race started pretty mellow with a few people trying to attack and establish a break on the first lap but they weren't very committed to it and eventually they came back to field. Halfway thru the first lap I took the front of the field as nobody else wanted to ride on the front. The race stayed pretty calm over the climbs and for the next 2 laps until we arrived at the start of the last lap. <br />
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At this point the whole field was together and everyone started fighting for position. I was almost taken out by a Berkeley Bike Club rider who cut me off in the middle of the pack. The rider next to me just looked at me and we both shook our heads. It was very obvious that for the rest of the lap people would be fighting for position and where the beginning of the lap is on wide roads, the end of each lap moves onto tighter roads where it becomes very hard to move up.<br />
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My goal for this race was to stay with the main field as the previous road race that I had done was the Wente Road Race and I was dropped with one lap to go. At this point in the race I was pretty confident that I wouldn't get dropped until the last climb when everyone would start attacking. The fighting for position increased as we approached the spot where the road narrowed and there was a crash next to me when two riders came together. I was already drifting towards the back of the field due to the increased pace but this just confirmed that it would be getting very hectic for the last 5 miles.<br />
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Sure enough there was a second crash that took out about 6 riders but because I had given myself some space at the back I just rode around it and moved up about 10 positions. We now reached the last two climbs of the day and the last 3 miles of racing. I hung on to field on the first climb but I knew that there would be a few riders who would get away on the last climb up to the finish line. I also knew that there would be a lot of riders attacking to early and they would end up blowing up before the finish line. On the last climb I kept repeating to myself to be patient and finish strong. I was towards the back of the field at the bottom of the climb but as we continued our way up to the finish I was starting to drag back more riders that had attacked too early. I was exhausted at the finish but happy that I had timed it correctly. I finished in 28th place which put me inside the top half of the field.<br />
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<a href="http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?permit=2012-1053" target="_blank">Berkeley Hills Bike Race Results</a><br />
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The following weekend I had my first vacation of the year as I went to Memphis to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and my two nephews. My parents also came down to visit as it was Graham's (youngest nephew) first birthday. I took the red-eye on Thursday evening and arrived Friday morning in Memphis. Kim picked me up from the airport with both Benjamin and Graham in the car. Benjamin was very excited to see me and you could tell as he kept interrupting Kim and I whenever we would try and talk.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Benjo playing with the pinwheel that my parents brought for him. Kim putting together a gift for Graham.</td></tr>
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After a few hours of playing with Benjamin we grabbed lunch where the cashier at the sandwich shop confused Kim and I as husband/wife. My parents arrived in the early afternoon and shortly afterwards Blair came home from work for the day. Kim had called me earlier in the week to see if I would like to go to a barbecue contest in Memphis with Blair, and of course I wanted to go. My dad, Blair, and I hopped in the car and headed down to the barbecue festival. To say this was awesome would be a huge understatement. Blair had a connection from his work and therefore we had free access to one of the 150+ vendors in the contest. Let me elaborate a little bit. The contest was set on the banks of the Mississippi river and most of the contestants are teams of people with a love of barbecue (there are restaurants that compete as well). They build 3-story tall scaffolding rigs where they serve their delicious barbecue to anyone lucky enough to be given a wristband (you can't buy these from what I understand).<br />
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After arriving at the event we went over to the team location, grabbed a beer (free), and went to the top of the scaffolding house to chat while we waited for the barbecue to be served. After a few minutes they announced that the food was ready and we went down to grab food from the feast before us. Smoked chicken, smoked pork, smoked bacon, wet ribs, macaroni & cheese, and some very awesome baked beans were piled onto the plate and brought back up to the rooftop to watch the sun set and stuff ourselves. The food/drink were free and I can't say I have had barbecue as good as this in a long time, if ever.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSMUGiRkbJcFtuZSeQQO9DjobF9e6-hW40aozItfskSKcTO2yDcrLdeG3xM307G5cFcfqowb3zYcOcbMCv2n9PBTyyVcV37RJnCK4r-uGj-L9wkJWUwoh8-ZDNywvvwEJjrncdNSEspr_/s1600/memphis3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSMUGiRkbJcFtuZSeQQO9DjobF9e6-hW40aozItfskSKcTO2yDcrLdeG3xM307G5cFcfqowb3zYcOcbMCv2n9PBTyyVcV37RJnCK4r-uGj-L9wkJWUwoh8-ZDNywvvwEJjrncdNSEspr_/s320/memphis3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The birthday boy.</td></tr>
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Saturday was spent prepping for the Graham's birthday party and at one point my dad and I took Benjamin with us over to the local Harley Davidson dealer to check out the motorcycles (he loves motorcycles). I think we sat on every motorcycle in the place as we chased Benjamin around the store. After we got back we finished up the prep work and soon Blair's family and their friends started showing up for the party. It had been a couple of years since I was in Memphis so it was great getting to see some of the faces from a few years back. Sunday went pretty quickly as I was leaving to head home just after noon. The visit to Memphis was great and I am sure that Kelsey and I will be going back to visit in the future.Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-73098679478427935292012-06-02T11:37:00.000-07:002012-06-02T11:37:02.089-07:00My Ride with the Pro'sLots to catch up on from the last few weeks of riding, racing, and travelling but I needed to start this post with one of the most awesome rides I have had all year. On a random Tuesday morning about a month ago I received an email from one of my teammates asking if anyone would want to host a few pro's on a bike ride that evening. I immediately knew that I had to join, I mean how often do you get asked to host some of the best in the world at something that you like to do.<br />
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We met later that evening at our usual spot in Danville and after a few minutes the 2 pro's from the United Healthcare Cycling Team arrived. Boy Van Poppel and Jay Thomson (the pro's) were in town for a sponsor event prior to the Tour of California and were looking to go on a ride but didn't really know the area. Luckily, one of my teammates is friends with their team manager and we were asked to host them for the evening. About 10 of my teammates had showed up and we decided on a ride up Mt. Diablo to showcase our local terrain.<br />
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We rolled out and after about 20 minutes of riding I was positioned next to Boy Van Poppel, a young Belgian with a pretty good sprint. He had recently finished well on a couple of the stages at the Tour of Turkey and he went about describing how hectic the last 3km of the race was with crashes and turns wreaking havoc on the field. He is conversational in English but it was apparent that some of the slang is still lost on him. He also has a moderately thick accent that takes a little bit getting used to.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jay Thomson on the left and Boy Van Poppel on the right. I am sort of in the background.</td></tr>
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We reached Mt. Diablo and the paced picked up for a few people but most people were more interested in cruising with the pro's as it was their rest day and they were taking it easy. On the bottom part of Mt. Diablo we rode by a rattlesnake, the first that I had ever seen on Diablo and I got a little bit too close because it hissed at me to get away. Boy had brought a camera and snapped a few pictures as this type of scenery wasn't native to his home country of Belgium. He also took a few pictures of some large condor's that were flying overhead, all the while riding up Diablo at a pace I struggle to maintain on most rides. It was actually quite comical to see him riding uphill, no hands on the bars, head pointing straight up at the sky and snapping pictures. He was far more fascinated by the diverse wildlife than our company.<br />
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Once we reached the Junction we took a few more pictures of the group and I had the chance to catch up with Jay Thomson. He is from South Africa and is a few years older than Boy. He typifies the life of most professional cyclists in that he spends a vast majority of his time dragging races forward, he is the kind of guy with a "big engine" and can maintain a high pace for a very long period of time but will only win a race on very rare occasions. He is the sacrificial lamb of the team. Altogether they were both very nice and willing to answer all of my questions about the lives of professional cyclists.<br />
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We continued our journey further up Diablo as the light started to fade with Boy snapping more photos at every opportunity. It often times gets lost on me that I do live in an amazing area of the country and that many of the pro's are now younger than me (including both Boy and Jay) and that most of the US is new to them. After a cool descent down Diablo, we had a dinner prepared at one of my teammates houses. I rode home first to shower and get out of my cycling kit.<br />
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Dinner was delicious and the topic of conversation soon turned to cycling and everyone's war stories of crashes and broken bones. Jay took the cake as he was plowed into by a car and had spine damage that will haunt him for the rest of his life. He lives half the year in South Africa during our cold months and spends his summers in either Europe or California. In the summer it gets so hot in South Africa that he wakes up at 5AM to get his 6 hour training rides in before noon. The quantity of time that they spend on the bike is just staggering but I guess if that is your job you probably would spend 6 hours on the bike everyday.Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-59487014434214769962012-05-05T22:39:00.000-07:002012-05-05T22:39:20.774-07:00Cat's Hill Classic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After a week of training I was back at it this morning for the Cat's Hill Classic in Los Gatos, CA (los gatos is spanish for "cats"). I wasn't really looking forward to this race due to my poor performance in the Wente Road Race last weekend but since I had signed up a few weeks prior I wasn't going to skip it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdwG7gy7yV-qaX2OGci62IlX7lC93KJ8rfnBR8BQ0iEgZJOVVvnoFFHVd5h2R3O5jD5T7QTdIXmZ6oPhQkVaa1wxDcdS4Gym9UJBCFmBpk6pzt7SUbJ2mUFnvSU1nU2u86wf2VuniDdVb/s1600/DSC_0278.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdwG7gy7yV-qaX2OGci62IlX7lC93KJ8rfnBR8BQ0iEgZJOVVvnoFFHVd5h2R3O5jD5T7QTdIXmZ6oPhQkVaa1wxDcdS4Gym9UJBCFmBpk6pzt7SUbJ2mUFnvSU1nU2u86wf2VuniDdVb/s400/DSC_0278.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view from the top of Cat's Hill. At 23% it is very steep and will sap the life out of your legs in no time. Note the telephone poles in the background to get a reference for the height of the hill.</td></tr>
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The Cat's Hill Classic is a staple of the Northern California race circuit and has quite a bit of history as well. The race has been going since the 1970's and one of the most famous races was in 1978 when a young blond kid from Reno, NV (Greg LeMond, future 3-time winner of the Tour De France) won the race. The course is about 1 mile long and consists of 5 right-hand turns and 1 left-hand turn. In the middle of the lap is the "cat's hill" which is about 1 block long and 23% of gradient (for my PA readers, the Manayunk Wall is 17% gradient). My Cat. 4 race was 16 laps of the course and just as many times over this climb.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the climb and early in the race. I am in the middle of the photo.</td></tr>
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Kelsey and I woke up early for my race as we had about an hour drive to Los Gatos and my race started at 9:20AM. We arrived by 8:00AM, picked up my race number, set up my bike on the trainer, and Kelsey walked around the corner to grab a cup of coffee. My warmup consisted of 30 minutes on the trainer as I was told that you need to be warmed up in order to tackle the climb at race pace right after the start. In talking with some of my teammates they also mentioned that you need to shift before the hill, use a high cadence to climb whenever possible, and that the hill is the most important part of the course and will almost always determine the winner.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the start of Cat's Hill, somewhere around half way into the race.</td></tr>
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We lined up at the start and I finally got my first glimpse of Cat's hill thru a cross street and it looks quite intimidating. It looks like a wall of asphalt and I was pretty nervous to get over it for the first time and settle into the race. We started as a field of about 50 and once we turned left onto the Cat's hill there were a few people who immediately dropped there chain and I had to dodge at least one other rider who just wasn't fast enough to stay with the field. The next few laps were also pretty nervous as the field is fighting for position before the climb and speeding down the backside on really bad pavement after the climb. I distinctly remember trying to count the number of laps we had left but it was all too confusing and I realized that it would take forever if I was counting each lap.<br />
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The next thing I remember was hearing that we had 7 laps to go and that the field was all of sudden down about 20 riders. I was doing a good job of conserving as much energy as possible and I just waiting for the pace to pick up as the number of laps dwindled. With 2 laps to go the fireworks started to happen at the front of the race and everyone was left chasing to hang on. I put in a huge effort to close the gap with the field on my 15th time over the climb but as we made our way down towards the finish line it had become clear that the gap was just a little too big to close. I was now in a race with 2 others for what seemed like 30th place but I managed to put in 1 more good effort up the climb to gap my 2 competitors and almost caught the remainder of the field by the end of the lap. <br />
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By the end I had finished in 24th place but I was felt good about how I rode and how I had reacted to the repeated hard efforts that this course required. This race was definitely one that I thoroughly enjoyed and one that I think I could do much better in with just a few tweaks to my game plan. I was kind of kicking myself after the race as I knew I could have went harder and been right in the mix unlike last week when I was crushed and didn't really have much of a shot to do any better.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just after the race. This is about the 5th picture that Kelsey was trying to take and I wasn't having any of it.</td></tr>
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Tomorrow, Kelsey and I head up to Sonoma to watch the motorcycle races and next weekend I have another hilly road race to contend with.</div>
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<br /></div>Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-31905190821261906682012-05-01T23:55:00.000-07:002012-05-01T23:55:36.983-07:00Wente Road Race<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So it has been about two weeks since my last post and I apologize for the delay. I have been riding quite frequently and I can tell that I am getting stronger. My training is taking on a more serious characteristic as I have 4 races scheduled in a 5 week span and the 1 weekend I won't be racing I will be heading to Memphis to visit my sister, brother-in-law, 2 nephews, and parents.<br />
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I won't bore you with the details of my training in this post but there have been some interesting rides that I have been training on (i.e. the House of Pain ride). Instead, you get the first race report in over a month.<br />
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The Wente Road Race is a fairly popular race for the bay area and because it has a decent amount of true climbing, all of the skinniest riders show up. I was feeling very confident heading into the race and thought that I had a decent chance at finishing well in the race. Two weeks before the race we had even ridden down and scouted the course so that there wouldn't be any surprises on race day.<br />
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I showed up early for my 11:45 race and had plenty of time to get in a 20 minute warm-up on the trainer and drink lots of fluids as the race was going to be pretty warm. Our race was 50 miles long and we scheduled to ride 3 and a quarter laps of the course. From the map above you will see that the finish line is after the start line so we end up going up the initial climb (on Carroll Rd.) 4 times by the end of the race. Other than the initial climb on Carroll Rd. there are about 3 other areas where the road heads uphill although not as steeply.<br />
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I got to the race early and warmed up for about 20 minutes on the trainer. We were the first race of the second wave and the field was rather large at about 70 riders. We rolled out and once we hit the first time up Carroll Rd. the pace quickened violently. I stayed in the pack but I was definitely hurting by the top. The pace settled slightly for the rest of the lap but it was significantly faster than my last race. I moved up the field prior to our second time up Carroll Rd. to ensure that I had more space to fall back and to stay in contact with the main field.<br />
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Just after the second time up Carroll Rd. we had to have dropped another 20 riders from our field because it was noticeably smaller than the previous lap. The problem was that after the initial climb the pace picked up for the remainder of this lap. I was really struggling to stay with the field by the end of the second lap, the consistently high pace was taking its toll on me and we had been going hard for about 80 minutes. By the beginning of the third time up Carroll Rd. I was well aware that I was cooked and wouldn't be able to hang on much longer. I watched as the field slowly pulled away and I was unable to react.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The lonesome last lap of the Wente Road Race. </td></tr>
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After feeling so good before the race I was now in the unenviable position of having to race the last 15 miles on my own. At the beginning of the last lap I made the commitment to finish the race even if I was completely out of the running. I crossed the finish line without much fanfare (41st place out of 70) and immediately turned around to head to the car.<br />
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I was pretty bummed for the rest of the weekend as I was now made aware of how far I have to go before I can be competitive in my field. On Monday I did head up Mt. Diablo to see if my fitness had improved after such a hard day on Saturday. I am happy to report that I set a new fastest time to the junction and I did it without the help of any other riders (and my power output went up as well).<br />
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Below are a few pictures from earlier this year that I found on photographers website. I have a race this Saturday and then Kelsey and I will be going to the AMA motorcycle races on Sunday.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the climb during the Bariani Road Race.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A shot from the Cherry Pie Criterium.</td></tr>
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P.S. - Movie of the month: Pirate Radio. Philip Seymour Hoffman is officially my favorite actor and as I was going thru his movies I ran across this little gem that I definitely would recommend.<br /><br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-40595827988781399292012-04-10T21:29:00.001-07:002012-04-10T21:29:41.569-07:00Just TrainingIt has been almost 10 days since my last update and unfortunately I don't have too much to report. I have been training but I have been traveling for work and haven't had a good chance to be consistent with my riding. I still get in at least 3 rides a week but I would prefer that number to jump to around 5 for the next few weeks.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-bo6hxH8ZX2MaTOZKKPOV3S_UZbNQsmKuEKoDcqShEhSC33N0M4IgqVlyqCeccTFQIRWdFvMZ4SVf__M30jvSXPhsUJsPettj0nlenwPGhFxmLTBG2i1MG-zpkjKFlVVw7eTAJYXBfG3W/s1600/taaienbergboonenboom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-bo6hxH8ZX2MaTOZKKPOV3S_UZbNQsmKuEKoDcqShEhSC33N0M4IgqVlyqCeccTFQIRWdFvMZ4SVf__M30jvSXPhsUJsPettj0nlenwPGhFxmLTBG2i1MG-zpkjKFlVVw7eTAJYXBfG3W/s400/taaienbergboonenboom.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Cobbled Classics have just finished and Tom Boonen (front) crushed the competition. The Ardennes (hilly) Classics are next. I will be one of the few getting up at 6:00AM tomorrow to watch Brabantse Pijl.</td></tr>
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I have finally figured out my race schedule for the next two months. I signed up for 3 hilly road races and 1 crit with a short but very steep climb (23%). The hope is that these races will begin to play into my hands as someone who trains quite a bit on his climbing/descending skills. I still have a few more weeks to build on my fitness before the first race but I am looking forward to getting back in the peloton and racing.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccuUX7GzUpgSaUjEIQ9K4Y483kWwFjmjhd4WmoJLRwybr841Sv2LlCc8rHoymXvZO2BndV0UJZJXagO0MpM3rLyQwYoVqVy10ytDSxFGDnJf7oScT7wYBTY9lLjHnu8AKuzTpXfbvhpJ2/s1600/MF1A0758.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccuUX7GzUpgSaUjEIQ9K4Y483kWwFjmjhd4WmoJLRwybr841Sv2LlCc8rHoymXvZO2BndV0UJZJXagO0MpM3rLyQwYoVqVy10ytDSxFGDnJf7oScT7wYBTY9lLjHnu8AKuzTpXfbvhpJ2/s400/MF1A0758.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I will be back on the (original) bike soon!</td></tr>
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It also looks like I will be returning to the motorcycle race track at the end of May. It has been almost a year since my last days at the track and I am starting to really get the itch. <br />
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<br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-47345646719129634472012-04-01T21:41:00.001-07:002012-04-01T21:41:45.227-07:00The ChaseNot too much to report on in the last week. I have been training more and more as the weather starts to warm up and the days get longer and longer. I have previously reported on my increased level of fitness and it seems to be that I am getting stronger with each week.<br />
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Over the last week I had the chance to try a new tactic while training with the team; chasing. At the bottom of every climb I would drop to the back of the pack and soft pedal for about a minute as everyone else started up the road. The goal was catch as many people as possible by the top of the climb. Chasing plays mind games with you because you know you can catch certain people and you are always tempted to overextend yourself. It was good practice to learn your limits and stay within yourself while at the same time riding at your limit. The video below is a great example of the chase.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/i-J2bIsPDH8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Marco Pantani at the 1999 Giro d'Italia. He gets a flat, has a wheel change and then joins his teammates for an assault on the field and the climb. Notice his very unique climbing style with his hands in the drops, it almost looks like he is sprinting up the climb.<br />
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3 songs for this week:<br />
The Beatles - She Came in Through the Bathroom Window<br />
Mayer Hawthorne - No Strings<br />
Ray LaMontagne - Repo Man<br />
<br />Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-91970728545861433092012-03-24T08:49:00.003-07:002012-03-24T08:49:50.197-07:00On the RivetThis last Thursday evening was the second Hammerfest and the weather was much nicer so about a dozen local riders showed up. I was feeling pretty good as I have had the chance to ride Mt. Diablo more frequently and was looking to test my fitness against the established locals. The pace started very high as the faster riders began to separate themselves from the rest. I dropped back and settled into a good pace with another ride, trading turns at the front as we moved up the bottom of the climb. By the pay gate I was 1 minute ahead of my personal best time and certainly "on the rivet"(see definition below).<br />
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<tr style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><td class="index" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; padding-right: 10px; vertical-align: top; width: 20px;"><a href="http://on-the-rivet.urbanup.com/855695" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">1.</a></td><td class="word" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">on the rivet</td><td class="tools" id="tools_855695" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 20px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="status"><a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=on%20the%20rivet#" style="color: black; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><b>36</b> up</a>, <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=on%20the%20rivet#" style="color: black; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><b>2</b> down</a></span><span class="thumbs"><a class="thumbs_down" href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=on%20the%20rivet#" id="thumbs_down_855695" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #0e426c; display: block; float: right; height: 19px; margin-left: 4px; width: 19px;"></a><a class="thumbs_up" href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=on%20the%20rivet#" id="thumbs_up_855695" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #0e426c; display: block; float: right; height: 19px; margin-left: 4px; width: 19px;"></a></span></td></tr>
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Extreme physical exertion to the point of almost giving up. Derived from bike racing in the olden days when bike seats had rivets, and in an effort not to get dropped one would slide forward on the saddle to exert maximum pressure on the pedals.</div>
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The pace was kept very high as we continued to trade turns but the pace was starting to take its toll on me and I was less frequently able to take my turn at the front. Heading up the last mile to the Junction, I was starting to crack and with about a half mile to go, I had to let my partner go as the gradient was taking its toll on me. I made one final push and arrived at to the Junction in 26:00 a full 1:30 faster than I have ever made it to the Junction. I was completely spent from my effort and it took a few minutes to fully recover and catch my breath.<br />
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Once everyone made it to the Junction we started the descent and I was happy to see that the pace was high even on the descent. I have always thought that I was a good descender and I had the chance to really test out my skills in this group. On the bottom half of the descent I had moved to the front and kept the pace very high and after a couple of minutes I looked back to find that I had ridden all but one rider off of my wheel. Upon returning home I checked my data for the ride and found that I had improved my threshold power yet again to 280 watts (from 272 watts). I still have a bit to go until I get to my goal of 300 watts but the improvements are starting to come.<br />
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The weather looks cruddy this weekend but a couple of rain rides will be a good recovery.Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-86442860475953882682012-03-24T07:44:00.001-07:002012-03-24T07:44:46.071-07:00Rain, Hail, and Olive OilSo I have been slacking a bit and haven't updated everyone on my race on Sunday. I was lucky enough to have an 11:00AM start time on Sunday so I didn't have to worry about getting up early. The race is called Bariani Road Race after the olive oil company that plays host to the start/finish line. This was my first Cat. 4 race and we were scheduled for 50 miles of racing.<br />
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I didn't get to the race early enough to get a proper warm-up but as luck would have it, the pace wasn't really that high so I was able to warm up during the opening laps. The course was a 10 mile lap of rolling hills with 1 short climb of about 800 meters in length. Due to the local rules, we were only allowed to race on 1 side of the road and with a field of about 50 starting, that meant that the road was pretty cramped. The first few laps were a pretty easy pace and it was obvious that nobody was interested in creating a breakaway and that the field would come down to a bunch sprint.<br />
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I spent the better part of the first four laps at the back of the field with the plan of moving up towards the front as the final climb approached with about 2 miles until the finish line. At the back side of the course on lap 4 it started to rain on us and that only lasted for about 5 minutes but it was enough time to get everyone soaked. On lap 5 we got to the back side of the course and this time it didn't just rain but it started to hail. We were moving at around 25 miles per hour and at that speed the hail becomes very painful as it hits you.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqS4vHumxJqq5i3ErA-Iwaq2VA8vHCvxFKTogN4r6n2Q3vAwFb5zb6NrtJ1ajVs1t9aS_qol7HW83jDa8B5TzZb_Wjb96625JdNtIYF1HbHrRJZZS4tsP-2dgMID6jKMjSKwnx9HIy1O0e/s1600/hinault_lbl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqS4vHumxJqq5i3ErA-Iwaq2VA8vHCvxFKTogN4r6n2Q3vAwFb5zb6NrtJ1ajVs1t9aS_qol7HW83jDa8B5TzZb_Wjb96625JdNtIYF1HbHrRJZZS4tsP-2dgMID6jKMjSKwnx9HIy1O0e/s400/hinault_lbl.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No, this isn't me but it definitely felt like this for the last 15 minutes of the race. This is actually Bernard Hinault in the 1980 Liege-Bastogne-Liege race. By the end of the race only 21 finished out of 174 starters and Hinault was nearly frostbitten from the experience.</td></tr>
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After the hail we only had about 5 miles to go and I proceeded to move up in the pack to be positioned to attack on the climb. I almost crashed as I was pushed into some deep gravel and had both wheels start to dig in and slide but I saved it and kept moving up in the tight single lane that we were forced to ride in. At the bottom of the climb I was towards the front of the pack but there were still about 20 riders in front of me. I did my best to attack on the climb but was essentially boxed in as there just isn't enough space to moved up at times.<br />
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At the top of the climb I had passed about 5 riders and was about 15th wheel and this is about the time where I realized why Cat. 4 races will be harder. From the top the speed only increased as everyone was starting to line up for the sprint finish. From this point on the speed stayed around 30 miles per hour and it became increasingly difficult to move up in the field due to the speed. I tried following another rider who was attempting to move forward but his efforts were short-lived and we were eventually passed by another 5 riders. This spelled the end of my race as I was now too far back in the pack with only a few hundred yards to go.<br />
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I officially finished in 26th place and afterwards rode straight to my car as I needed to get my rain soaked kit off as soon as possible. It took me about 3 minutes to get my gloves off as my hands weren't working properly due to the cold. After loading up the truck I turned the heat on and thawed out on the ride home. No races for a couple of weeks so it will just be training in the meantime.Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130895522358861111.post-4031165269703143722012-03-17T20:38:00.000-07:002012-03-17T20:38:45.860-07:00Winter in NorCal/ First Hammerfest of the YearSome would call this a disappointing week but I am trying to look on the bright side. I travelled to Washington on Sunday to visit family and due to a busy schedule I didn't get the chance to ride until Thursday evening, the first Hammerfest of the year.<div>
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One of the great things about living in a bike friendly area is that we have local "races" every week once daylight savings extends the sunset past 7PM. Our local race is lovingly known as "Hammerfest" and it happens every Thursday evening on Mt. Diablo. This Thursday was the first of the year and I was very much looking forward to it as I thought I was starting to get fast enough to hang with the bunch. The weather has been pretty poor all week in NorCal and the rain seemed to have scared away the majority of the locals as only 6 showed up for the first Hammerfest of the year. I thought this would be a good opportunity to show my increased level of fitness but as fate would have it I was definitely the slowest of the group to show up. The main group moved quickly up Diablo and they were definitely waiting for me to catch up at most points.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pulled this little wonder out of my rear tire today. Surprisingly, I don't think it actually punctured the tire. </td></tr>
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I spent the earlier part of today warming up for my race tomorrow (50 miles). My warmup was on Diablo and I felt pretty good about my fitness level. I pulled the above staple out of my tire at the end of my ride, I don't think it actually caused a puncture. I am expecting tomorrow to be a pretty brutal day. My first Cat. 4 race, rain, wind, and hills await me. I have concluded that I will finish the race even if I get dropped by the field but the goal is really to hang around for as long as I can. Wish me luck, a race report will follow tomorrow.</div>
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P.S. The pros just finished the longest race of the year (Milan - San Remo) just shy of 300 km's. The race was finished in just short of 7 hours. Also, the Daytona 200 was today and 2 NorCal kids finished 1st and 3rd. I have been on the racetrack with both of them and can affirm that they are both very fast on a motorcycle.</div>Mike Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09769731239423332395noreply@blogger.com0