After all my careful planning and attempts to avoid this scenario, it finally happened. There's no use trying to cover it up now. I am officially sick. There I said it, and I hate admitting it. There is nothing in this world worse than catching the flu, or cold, or other kind of virus. The last few days have found me hanging out in the steam room, eating a ton of fruit, sleeping in the afternoon, and worst of all NO RIDING.
It's only been 2 days, but I feel I'm going crazy. I look at how much time I have left and realize it's not much and I need to make the most of it, but I can't do that if I'm lying around all day with a fever. I'm looking at this positively and it's my body's way of say to slow down a bit, but c'mon. I'm not stuffed up, I just have a fever and chills, so at least it's nothing too major.
The Tour of Belgium is starting today in Oostende, only about 30km from here. I wanted to go an watch the start, but I won't be doing that today. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel well enough to get out and ride a bit. I'd rather take a couple of days off now then a week or two later, so I'm doing anything.
Other than that everything is going well. I'm still in high spirits and can't wait to apply what I've learned over here. I'll be home before I know it, and part of me can't wait, but another part just wants to keep on racing. I need to push all those thought out for now however, with 5 weeks of racing left over here I need to get the most out of it as I can.
I'm scheduled for another kermis this weekend if I feel up to it, but after that I have no idea. I just want to get back to the UCI races.
Well it's time for my steam room session, talk to you all later.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
Money money money
The race went pretty well yesterday. Once again I won't go into the details of it, if you want those just ask, but I will say it went well.
My whole goal at this race was to make the group split. Traditionally these races go out hard, ease up, kind of, then punch really hard to break the field and then race to the finish. We started with 130 guys, so there were plenty of people just waiting to get broken off.
Nothing really stuck, and not due to lack of trying, until about 7 laps in. Even when it did they didn't get far, never more than a minute up the road, and the last few laps we were chasing hard and closing the gap. It was a very hard race, but fun and I felt great, better than I've felt in a long time.
I didn't have a single problem with my back, at least nothing like the at the crit. I'm just greatful that I didn't cause any permanent damage. Anyway I ended up 39th, and since they were paying 50 deep I made some money. Not much, but enough to enjoy myself when I go into Brugge next time. By the way only 52 guys actually finished the race, so it was definately tough even for the Belgians who have done this for years. Things are starting to click!!
My whole goal at this race was to make the group split. Traditionally these races go out hard, ease up, kind of, then punch really hard to break the field and then race to the finish. We started with 130 guys, so there were plenty of people just waiting to get broken off.
Nothing really stuck, and not due to lack of trying, until about 7 laps in. Even when it did they didn't get far, never more than a minute up the road, and the last few laps we were chasing hard and closing the gap. It was a very hard race, but fun and I felt great, better than I've felt in a long time.
I didn't have a single problem with my back, at least nothing like the at the crit. I'm just greatful that I didn't cause any permanent damage. Anyway I ended up 39th, and since they were paying 50 deep I made some money. Not much, but enough to enjoy myself when I go into Brugge next time. By the way only 52 guys actually finished the race, so it was definately tough even for the Belgians who have done this for years. Things are starting to click!!
Friday, May 25, 2007
Always breaking stuff
Well after that last race I feel pretty good. My back is fine, no tears and no residual pain. I am thankful for that. To top it all off it seems that everyone is sick or getting sick, but me. I keep telling them it's all in their heads and if they don't talk or think about it, it won't happen. No one seems to believe me. Oh well, whatever, I'm not sick and that's what matters.
All is not well though. While cleaning my bike today I noticed my race wheel (the rear) was sticking a little bit. It turns out the freehub body is toast. I took apart the hub and greased everything, then checked the bearings. As it turns out the outer bearing on the freehub is frozen, meaning...drumroll, it's toast. That means I'm racing on my Powertap at the kermeses, which isn't all bad, I would like to get that power info anyway, then doing the UCI races on the team's wheels. Just irritating that's all. At least not devastating.
Anyway that's all the news for now. Nothing really going on. I race again tomorrow, just a kermese, there are no UCI races for another week or so. Stay tuned for that update.
All is not well though. While cleaning my bike today I noticed my race wheel (the rear) was sticking a little bit. It turns out the freehub body is toast. I took apart the hub and greased everything, then checked the bearings. As it turns out the outer bearing on the freehub is frozen, meaning...drumroll, it's toast. That means I'm racing on my Powertap at the kermeses, which isn't all bad, I would like to get that power info anyway, then doing the UCI races on the team's wheels. Just irritating that's all. At least not devastating.
Anyway that's all the news for now. Nothing really going on. I race again tomorrow, just a kermese, there are no UCI races for another week or so. Stay tuned for that update.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Lots to do and no time to do it
It's been a long time since I last updated, the sad thing is that I didn't even realize it had been that long. A lot has happened since then, a few races, lots of training, and plenty of adventures to Brugge.
The best race that I had was last Monday. As a team we had a great weekend in France. We had a couple of podiums, and a team win. The criterium that I did was great, a perfect American style race. Lots of open corners, and no wind. We attacked and made it very hard for everyone through the technical course. Blah blah blah. Long story short our teammate took 3rd and I ended up hurting myself. My back seized up with five to go not allowing me to breathe, that forced me out of the race. It made me so angry because I was in the group that was bridging to the leaders without having to do very much work, I already had 2 guys in the break so why work? I'll get them next time, but still so frustrating. Out of 100k I finished 72 of it, so not a bad day, just painful.
I'm ok now, a little tender still, but I was able to ride today no problem. Nothing is torn, luckily, I stopped before that happened. Right now I'm taking it day by day, tomorrow I have sprints so we'll see how that goes. I'll listen to my body and if I need to stop I will. It turned out that my cleat had moved back a little bit on my right shoe. I must have done it in the crash I had on Saturday and didn't notice it. It took me awhile to figure it out, I had been doing yoga for awhile to keep my back from hurting and then it dies something wierd like that. I'm fixing the cleat tonight so it shouldn't be a problem anymore. We'll see, I race again this Saturday.
Other than that I have been trying to relax. I had the best pizza of my life (short of homemade from Heather) at this place called the Flandrian. It was an aged ham and parmesan pie with a beer from the local brewery. It was sooooo good. Then we went to Cabrinus to relax before heading to de Midici for coffee. There are no Starbucks here, so we have to pay an hefty price for a cup of coffee. Average is 3 Euro (about $5), but most places include a small pastry of some sort, and this place gives you a small bit of ice cream. It's nice to be able to relax and enjoy a coffee in a place that doesn't get too crowded.
It looks like the weather has finally decided to turn. It's still a bit rainy in the morning, but today was awesome weather. Twenty-four Celsius and sunny. We couldn't have created a nicer day. The awesome thing about this place is that if it's nice outside everyone takes a day off and goes riding. It's the coolest thing. Last week there was a national holiday and it happened to be nice too, which meant lots of riders. We had a rest day from the bike and decided to count riders out our front window. We happen to live on a popular ride route, and within an hour and a half we counted 230+ riders. Where else are you going to see that but Belgium? I love this country and if I could pick one place in the world to live it would be here. Maybe Heather can get stationed here, there is a UN base here, so there is a chance.
If you ever plan a trip to Europe, skip France (it's dirty and the people aren't very nice), and come to Belgium. You won't be dissapointed. Hit up Brussels, and Gent, maybe Amsterdam, but definately bring your bike. It's the only way to travel here. You can get a list of all UCI races and see those, of which there are plenty, or come during the spring and watch the Ronde.
Anyway, there are so many things to talk about, and believe me I could go on and on, but I need to go. I need to sleep and recover from all this training and racing. Talk to you all later, thanks for reading.
The best race that I had was last Monday. As a team we had a great weekend in France. We had a couple of podiums, and a team win. The criterium that I did was great, a perfect American style race. Lots of open corners, and no wind. We attacked and made it very hard for everyone through the technical course. Blah blah blah. Long story short our teammate took 3rd and I ended up hurting myself. My back seized up with five to go not allowing me to breathe, that forced me out of the race. It made me so angry because I was in the group that was bridging to the leaders without having to do very much work, I already had 2 guys in the break so why work? I'll get them next time, but still so frustrating. Out of 100k I finished 72 of it, so not a bad day, just painful.
I'm ok now, a little tender still, but I was able to ride today no problem. Nothing is torn, luckily, I stopped before that happened. Right now I'm taking it day by day, tomorrow I have sprints so we'll see how that goes. I'll listen to my body and if I need to stop I will. It turned out that my cleat had moved back a little bit on my right shoe. I must have done it in the crash I had on Saturday and didn't notice it. It took me awhile to figure it out, I had been doing yoga for awhile to keep my back from hurting and then it dies something wierd like that. I'm fixing the cleat tonight so it shouldn't be a problem anymore. We'll see, I race again this Saturday.
Other than that I have been trying to relax. I had the best pizza of my life (short of homemade from Heather) at this place called the Flandrian. It was an aged ham and parmesan pie with a beer from the local brewery. It was sooooo good. Then we went to Cabrinus to relax before heading to de Midici for coffee. There are no Starbucks here, so we have to pay an hefty price for a cup of coffee. Average is 3 Euro (about $5), but most places include a small pastry of some sort, and this place gives you a small bit of ice cream. It's nice to be able to relax and enjoy a coffee in a place that doesn't get too crowded.
It looks like the weather has finally decided to turn. It's still a bit rainy in the morning, but today was awesome weather. Twenty-four Celsius and sunny. We couldn't have created a nicer day. The awesome thing about this place is that if it's nice outside everyone takes a day off and goes riding. It's the coolest thing. Last week there was a national holiday and it happened to be nice too, which meant lots of riders. We had a rest day from the bike and decided to count riders out our front window. We happen to live on a popular ride route, and within an hour and a half we counted 230+ riders. Where else are you going to see that but Belgium? I love this country and if I could pick one place in the world to live it would be here. Maybe Heather can get stationed here, there is a UN base here, so there is a chance.
If you ever plan a trip to Europe, skip France (it's dirty and the people aren't very nice), and come to Belgium. You won't be dissapointed. Hit up Brussels, and Gent, maybe Amsterdam, but definately bring your bike. It's the only way to travel here. You can get a list of all UCI races and see those, of which there are plenty, or come during the spring and watch the Ronde.
Anyway, there are so many things to talk about, and believe me I could go on and on, but I need to go. I need to sleep and recover from all this training and racing. Talk to you all later, thanks for reading.
Friday, May 11, 2007
The switch
Last week we had a very rough race, not only for me, but the team as well. There were several crashes, massive headwinds, and a few extra technical turns. We showed up with 13 riders to this race, only 1 finished, 3 crashed, 2 dropped out within the first couple of laps, and the remainder of us were pulled out after half the race. Our race director brought up a point that I hadn't even thought of. I thought I was doing well mentally here, but I have not been 100% commited to the racing.
He said that when we show up, we're entirely too nice to everyone, including ourselves. Some more than others of course. Personally, I know exactly what I messed up on. I wasn't committed, I wasn't saying "that's my wheel and no, you may not squeek in here". I need to race much more aggressive here than I do back home. Back home guys will let me in, they expect me to be in that break so they don't do everything they can to get rid of me. Here it's different. No one wants me in the break, and everyone expects me to let them in. That's going to change. It took my DS mentioning what it was for me to realize what is holding me back. It's not the intensity, it's not the distance, all those we can handle. My power numbers are very good for my size, so it's not a lack of power, it has to do with me being all to willing to allow that wheel to go to the next guy. It's me allowing myself to say "I can move my way back up there, so go ahead, I'll deal with it later" when I need to say "get away from my wheel you (explitive deleted) Belgian, that's mine". They paid only 3E to enter, in reality I paid hundreds if you include the cost of me living here and the flights. That is going to change.
The weather has been a lot like Seattle lately. Very wet, very windy and cold. A big difference from last month when it was the exact opposite. Not a big deal, no sand at least. I really don't mind the wet, in fact it's a rather nice change. The only problem with it is that the guys here don't get it into their head that it's raining. They are so totally used to it, it doesn't really effect them. Not like home where racing in the rain means only 10 guys want to be there, so only 10 actually race. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.
He said that when we show up, we're entirely too nice to everyone, including ourselves. Some more than others of course. Personally, I know exactly what I messed up on. I wasn't committed, I wasn't saying "that's my wheel and no, you may not squeek in here". I need to race much more aggressive here than I do back home. Back home guys will let me in, they expect me to be in that break so they don't do everything they can to get rid of me. Here it's different. No one wants me in the break, and everyone expects me to let them in. That's going to change. It took my DS mentioning what it was for me to realize what is holding me back. It's not the intensity, it's not the distance, all those we can handle. My power numbers are very good for my size, so it's not a lack of power, it has to do with me being all to willing to allow that wheel to go to the next guy. It's me allowing myself to say "I can move my way back up there, so go ahead, I'll deal with it later" when I need to say "get away from my wheel you (explitive deleted) Belgian, that's mine". They paid only 3E to enter, in reality I paid hundreds if you include the cost of me living here and the flights. That is going to change.
The weather has been a lot like Seattle lately. Very wet, very windy and cold. A big difference from last month when it was the exact opposite. Not a big deal, no sand at least. I really don't mind the wet, in fact it's a rather nice change. The only problem with it is that the guys here don't get it into their head that it's raining. They are so totally used to it, it doesn't really effect them. Not like home where racing in the rain means only 10 guys want to be there, so only 10 actually race. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
The Hardest Day
Yesterday I had the privelege to race in a UCI 1.2. Since most of you don't know what that means I'll break it down real fast. The first number means a sigle day or multi day event (1 being a single day, 2 being multi day). The second number is the difficulty level (12 being all ameteur, 1 or HC being pro tour). With this being a 1.2 that means it's a pro-am, out of 30 teams present, only 8 were full on ameteur. This was going to be a hard day.
As we rolled up, I saw team cars from all the big names. Prodictor/Lotto, Gerolsteiner, Landbowcreditdiet-Colnago, Chacolat-Jacques, Unibet, etc. Granted these are not there Pro tour squads, they are not allowed to enter these races, but they do fund a continental pro team and that's who came out. It was so strange knowing that we're about to race against these guys and these are the guys that are going to be on the pro tour in a couple of years.
The racing was hard. I'm not going to type out a long play by play, if you want to see that let me know and I'll send it to you. I will say this, however, these guys can ride. The first hour averaged just shy of 47 kph. I threw up after the first lap, my HR was so high. I was able to stay with it for 115 km of 187 (yes a very long day). For those that don't know kms, 162 is a hundred miles. I lasted about 72 of 115 miles (give or take). I just couldn't go that hard anymore. I saw the peloton inching away with me in my 53x11 and at 100 rpm, at that point what am I going to do. I couldn't dig any deeper at that point. All I needed was it to slow down for a minute and let me reposition myself. Anyway, like I said, I 'm not going to get into that. Let me know if you want that report.
Mentally I'm good. I saw where the bar is, and I know what I need to do to get there. I may not be able to achieve that this year, but next year I can do it. My winter training is going to have to be different as my endurance is not where it needs to be for those types of races. My goal for this season is to finish a UCI 1.2, and to place at a kermese (top 10) before I leave. I know I can do it, I just need my body to catch up to where my mind is. That is the most frustrating part of all this. I'm not down and out, I'm just lacking the physical side, which is very fixable.
Thanks everyone for your support. I can't believe it's already been 5 weeks. I'm a third of the way done with this!! It's moved so fast, it crazy. Before you know it I'll be home again to NC and ripping up the local scene all over again.
As we rolled up, I saw team cars from all the big names. Prodictor/Lotto, Gerolsteiner, Landbowcreditdiet-Colnago, Chacolat-Jacques, Unibet, etc. Granted these are not there Pro tour squads, they are not allowed to enter these races, but they do fund a continental pro team and that's who came out. It was so strange knowing that we're about to race against these guys and these are the guys that are going to be on the pro tour in a couple of years.
The racing was hard. I'm not going to type out a long play by play, if you want to see that let me know and I'll send it to you. I will say this, however, these guys can ride. The first hour averaged just shy of 47 kph. I threw up after the first lap, my HR was so high. I was able to stay with it for 115 km of 187 (yes a very long day). For those that don't know kms, 162 is a hundred miles. I lasted about 72 of 115 miles (give or take). I just couldn't go that hard anymore. I saw the peloton inching away with me in my 53x11 and at 100 rpm, at that point what am I going to do. I couldn't dig any deeper at that point. All I needed was it to slow down for a minute and let me reposition myself. Anyway, like I said, I 'm not going to get into that. Let me know if you want that report.
Mentally I'm good. I saw where the bar is, and I know what I need to do to get there. I may not be able to achieve that this year, but next year I can do it. My winter training is going to have to be different as my endurance is not where it needs to be for those types of races. My goal for this season is to finish a UCI 1.2, and to place at a kermese (top 10) before I leave. I know I can do it, I just need my body to catch up to where my mind is. That is the most frustrating part of all this. I'm not down and out, I'm just lacking the physical side, which is very fixable.
Thanks everyone for your support. I can't believe it's already been 5 weeks. I'm a third of the way done with this!! It's moved so fast, it crazy. Before you know it I'll be home again to NC and ripping up the local scene all over again.
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