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Day In the Life

“Editor’s” Note: I initially wrote this a couple weeks ago. As is common in my life these days, I couldn’t make the time to actually finish this post. Still, the information stands as-is, and continues to be my usual Tuesday/Thursday routine.

Welcome to 2020! Is this the year that blogging makes a comeback? Probably not. I do enjoy writing my thoughts down, but my time is more stretched than ever these days and there are probably less eyeballs than ever interested in my athletic pursuits. Being the good millennial that I am, however, I will carry on with at least one more post about myself.

Before I get any further, just a quick mention that I will be racing with the Subaru Santa Monica race team this season. We recently had a training camp out in Joshua Tree where I got to meet the team – a great bunch of guys that share my love for racing on two wheels. The team is made up mostly of Cat 1 and 2 cyclists (I’m still a Cat 2 at this point) which is a bit of a step up from my previous team. Plus, my wife and I each drive Subarus, so it is a natural fit.

I thought it would be fun to do a “day in the life” in its current state. I have two young children, a wife, a career with 10-hour workdays, a 1:20 round-trip commute, and a mortgage on a 40+ year old home. As the responsibilities have increased (or grown in the case of my children, career, commute and home – but not my wife! 😊 ) my cycling training is always under threat. Shortly after our second child arrived, I realized that if I don’t get up early to train before work, it just isn’t going to happen. I pride myself as a “weekend warrior,” but I can only warrior so hard on the weekends and I need to have a bit more consistency in my training throughout the week to make any meaningful adaptations. So I made some changes to my schedule and this is where I’m at.

My day really begins the night before. When you’re trying to make the most of your time, it is critical that you’re organized – which is not my natural state. I have a set wakeup time and a set time I need to leave for work to get there by 6 am, so each minute I spend fiddling with something in the morning is one less minute I get to spend on the bike. I am currently training in the mornings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means Monday and Wednesday nights I try to get everything ready for the morning. Typically, I do this after my oldest daughter goes to sleep around 8 pm, but on this evening, she wanted to help me, so we prepared my breakfast and packed my lunch together before I took her to bed. Other things to prepare are bike and trainer setup including computer, cycling clothing, shoes, work clothes for after I shower and running clothes (more on that below).

4:01 am

My alarm goes off. Why 4:01? It just looks less terrifying when I set it the night before than four-oh-oh. I take my resting heart rate and HRV using HRV4Training App (perhaps a forthcoming blog on that?).

I get dressed, make it to the kitchen, chug some water, and make a Nespresso. Today I had it with almond milk and some maple syrup, but sometimes I just take the espresso shot black.

4:20 am

On the bike and pedaling. The TrainerRoad app automatically pulls up the workout I have for the day, which is called “Gendarme -3.” This one is 2 sets of 15 x 30 seconds on (120% FTP or 391 Watts)/30 seconds off. I’m building into my season and today is the first workout on the trainer with some hard intensity. The 1:1 work to rest ratio is pretty forgiving for this short duration and the session wasn’t too bad overall. When you’re ready to move beyond simple aerobic endurance riding, it’s so much easier to get the work in when you have something structured and planned before getting on the trainer, and TrainerRoad is perfect for this. On this day I watched Eric Lagerstrom’s latest Youtube video for entertainment.

5:08 am

In the shower

5:18 am

Premade oatmeal in the microwave. Scoop of Vega protein mixed in a bottle. I eat and drink in my car on the way. Lunch packed into my bag for work.

5:25 am

On the road

6:02 am

At my desk at work

10:55 am

We take lunch from 11 to 11:30 am. For hourly workers it’s pretty strictly enforced, but for salaried employees there is a bit more wiggle room. However, I try to be back at my desk close to 11:30. In the last couple months I’ve started to do a lunch run a couple days a week. I do a full wardrobe change, get out the office on a 3.5-mile loop, and back in about 30 minutes. I eat lunch at my desk after changing and washing up a bit. Today was warm and sunny and I was really happy to be outside. Almost half of the loop is trail, adding to my runner’s high.

2:00 pm

There is a 15 minute break at my work at 2. A couple coworkers and I typically go in a conference room and knock out some sort of core workout. Today we did the Foundations 12-Minute Back Routine. We also like the 8-minute plank, 8-point plank challenge, and this circuit/ab workout.

5:15 pm

Back home to play with my kids, help make dinner and prepare for another day. We limit TV time to local news while making dinner and generally have Jeopardy! on after, but always try to turn it off before that damned Wheel of Fortune show comes on. I try to be conscious about using my phone in front of my toddler, but I’m not perfect. After she goes to bed I’m always tempted to “catch up,” but to be honest my wife is the one I should really be catching up with.

8:45 to 9:00 pm

In bed

It’s a long day, for sure, and certainly not something I could do every day of the week, but I actually am really enjoying my early morning trainer sessions. I take pride in the training I am able to squeeze in without taking away from my family. Hopefully it will be enough to continue to get some good results racing locally.

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Cantua Creek Road Race

The Cantua Creek Road Race marked the beginning of the 2019 race calendar. This was a 70 mile, 3-lap out-and-back style course on mostly flat roads with some rolling climbs at the end of each lap. This race is generally the first part of a two-race weekend put on by Velo Promo, with the second race being Pine Flats. Unfortunately, due to weather and road conditions, Velo Promo decided to cancel Pine Flats earlier in the week. That was a bit of a bummer because that race is honestly much more interesting, both in terms of scenery and course profile, than Cantua Creek.

Racing in California’s central valley gives me a good opportunity to spend some time with by brother and his family. They only live a few hours north of Los Angeles, but it seems like such a struggle to get up there very often. I spent the evening before the race with them. Because of Sunday’s cancelled race, I didn’t return after Saturday’s race, so unfortunately I didn’t spend more than a few hours with them. We will have to make plans soon to visit again. There’s actually some good riding up near them, so I’ve heard… 🙂

Race start was at 8 am, and with the weather we’ve been having lately, it was quite cool and wet. The field size was fairly small, with 18 starters, I believe. Colin Patterson of Marc Pro was on the start list, and knowing that he won the P/1/2 race here last year, I knew he was someone to keep an eye on. I had two Simple Green teammates joining me — Jason Francia and Adam O’Camb — so we talked a bit of strategy before the race. I told them I was pretty sure nothing would happen the first lap, and that all the serious moves would happen on the climbs at the end of each lap. Unfortunately Adam forgot his cycling shoes; he borrowed mine, but they were two sizes too small and Adam made the right call to pull out of the race at the end of the first lap when we started to have some knee and foot pain. Even just one teammate can help take some pressure off during the race, so I was happy to be on the start line with Jason.

Too my surprise, a few attacks started going within the first few miles, and by 5 or 6 miles in, I found myself in the front half of a split in the field. Jason was with me in the front group of 9. This turned out to be a good scenario, I think, because once we saw we had the gap everyone started working well together in a paceline.

At the end of the first lap I was ready for a move to go up the climbs, but since the group was working well, everyone seemed content to ride along like this for another lap.

It wasn’t until the second half of the second lap that the group started to get unorganized and there were a few attacks. We were still a group of 9, however, by the time we reached the climb the second time around. Colin began to up the tempo and started to string out the group, but no one had fallen off. Finally, I decided to put in a hard couple of minutes to blow it up. At the turnaround at the top, we were down to 5. I yelled to the group to keep rotating, and they followed along, putting in a large gap between the chasers. Fortunately, this smaller group also worked well together until the final climbs on the last lap.

Last year I went way too soon and ended up getting beat pretty soundly in the final sprint against Eric Sasse. This time I told myself to be patient, and I did a good job on the lower slopes. We had a tailwind and I was second wheel going into one of the final kickers. I knew the guy on the front would try to put me in the wind soon, so I decided to kick from there. Looking at Tyler Pearce’s footage (see the Instagram post), I actually had a larger gap than I thought I did. Like last year, however, it was just too soon and Colin and Tyler eventually tracked me down.

Regardless, I’m happy with another P/1/2 podium finish to kick off the new year of racing. Next I will be at the UCLA Road Race, which is a course that suits me well, but the field will be very strong. Looking forward to it!

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Nichols to Mulholland

Just a quick post before I (hopefully) get around to posting something more lengthy on the 2019 race season…

Next weekend I will be racing Saturday at Cantua Creek and Sunday at Pine Flat road races. It’s been a good off season. I banked some big rides over the Christmas holiday season, which I did last year as well and I think that set me up nicely for a good Spring of road racing. My intensity in training has been slowly building since then and I’ve been able to find a good balance with family, work and training time.

By this time last year I had done a bunch of criteriums already as I was still trying to get out of Cat 5. Now that I’m a Cat 2, I’m trimming down the race calendar a bit to races that I really want to do and/or ones that suit me well (generally those go hand-in-hand, but not necessarily). Because of that, I’m a little bit rusty. After a couple days of solid training (about 6.5+ hours over the last two days), I headed over to Hollywood to give it a good hard effort at the Nichols Ride.

Los Angeles was due for rain this morning, however it held off nicely until about 10 am. I left just before 7 am and made my way across the atypically quiet San Fernando Valley roads. I actually enjoy riding through the Valley early on the weekend — there’s nothing really special about any of the roads, but the contrast to what’s normal is neat. I took Hayvenhurst all the way up to Mulholland for the first time which features about a kilometer at 13% with a 20% kick near the end. Sepulveda is the easy way up, for the record.

I made it down to Nichols Canyon Rd and Hollywood Blvd with a few minutes to spare. Phil Gaimon came rolling down, we said hello, and then the group showed up. It was perfect.

Phil let it rip from the bottom and I pretty quickly reserved myself to just hold the wheel. Super chef Jeff Mahin seemed to have the same idea, and the two of us quietly suffered in a perfect paceline behind Phil. I ended up with my fastest time up, good enough for 12th on the leaderboard (featuring 37,003 attempts by 4,194 people) despite some brake checks around some of the wet turns.

We kept it going as a trio racing across Mulholland. By the time we reached Sepulveda I was tired and happy to have accomplished exactly what I was looking for.

I’ve been riding with the Cycliq Fly 6 rear light/camera on my bike. Today was my first time riding in a strong group since I got it for Christmas, so I decided to edit a little video of the effort up Nichols to Mulholland. (It’s mostly just Jeff’s front wheel!) Hopefully I will get some more interesting content from it this year…

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805 Thousand Oaks Grand Prix

The 805 Thousand Oaks Grand Prix on July 7-8 was a great opportunity to compete in my first two Pro/Cat 1/Cat 2 fields. Saturday was a circuit race and Sunday was a criterium, both 80 minutes long in the hot afternoon sun.??Saturday was well north of 100?? F in the early afternoon, and dipped just under that by the time we went off at 4 pm. I raced alongside Simple Green teammate Adam O’Camb. Teammate Jason Francia also came down for the race weekend, competing in the Cat 3 field.

My daughter Lilly came out to watch me race!

I felt the circuit race, with about 140 feet of climbing each 1.9 mile loop, would suit me better than the crit. I knew I needed to race more conservatively than I had for the lower category races I’ve done this year, so when a break went right at the start, I decided to let it go. However, I spent most of the first half of the race chasing down every move in hopes that it would be the one that stuck. Eventually, it paid off and I got in a break later in the race, but I had clearly put in too many hard efforts by that point. I did get the opportunity to sneak in a $40 prime lap win while in the break. Unfortunately we got pulled in with three or four laps remaining. I finally sat at the back to try to let my heart rate recover from a shockingly high max of 194 bpm. I was ready to sit in the ~20-man pack to the finish to see what the sprint finish was like, when I sensed a lull in the pace with about 1 km to go. I made my final move, got some separation, but it wasn’t enough and in the end the field came storming pass me with about 300 m to go. I ended up finishing 16th. Strava Results

Always breaking away!

Sunday was a crit that was still a bit lumpy and not your typical flat, four corner course. The 40-man field was stronger than Saturday???s field and included some real studs like Justin and Cory Williams; Rahsaan Bahati and some Methods to Winning teammates; and a handful of SoCalCycling.com Team riders. After reviewing Saturday???s race with my teammate Jason Francia, I agreed to sit in a lot more. I had a plan not to go for any moves in the first 30 minutes of the race (total race time was 75 minutes). After 16 of mostly sitting in, however, I found myself on the wheel of another rider that was making a push for a break. Since all I had to do was sit on his wheel, I decided this was an opportunity too good to pass up and I went with it. Soon we had separation from the field, and because I hadn???t made a push to get in the break, I was feeling fresh and ready to do some work. Eventually we were a group of six guys and we worked together fairly well to build our gap to the main bunch to over a minute. The hard pace in the heat was wearing on some of the riders, and a couple of the guys dropped out of the break as we started to wind up towards the finish. Going up the hill heading into one lap to go, I was at the back of the group and decided to carry my speed by attacking hard. Going over the top I had a few bike lengths over second place Cory Williams. I knew that he would out sprint me if I pulled him to the line, so I drilled it to the turn on the far side of the course where we turned into a?? head wind. Cory knows how to race (he is nation???s number one beast, after all) and he made sure he was on my wheel before that turn.

Going for it with one lap to go!

At this point he pretty much had a free ride to the finish. Rather than swinging off and playing games with him, I decided to keep pressing as hard as I could all the way to the finish. I did this for two reasons: 1) I could tell he was uncomfortable by how labored his breathing was and I thought just maybe he???d be too spent on our final kicker up to the line and 2) I knew there were a couple guys not too far behind that could potentially catch us if we really let up. I was assured 2nd place, which would be a great result for my first time race in a P/1/2 field, so I just went HAM for the line. In the end, he came around me with about 150 m to go, just as I predicted. Strava Results

Overall I was very pleased with my first weekend of racing with the??big boys. Can’t wait to get out there on a tough road race course and see what I can do!

2nd Place Pro/Cat 1/Cat 2 805 Thousand Oaks Grand Prix Crit

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Road to Cat 2

In March I wrote about my quick journey to upgrading to Cat 3 (check out this post and this one if you want to follow the story from the “beginning”). A few months on and I am now a Cat 2!

In the Cat 3 bunch during Stage 2 of the San Dimas Stage Race

My first race as a Cat 3 was a big one — the San Dimas Stage Race. This race suits me well, with an uphill TT on Stage 1, a lumpy road race on Stage 2, and a crit on Stage 3. The goal was to get the lead on the uphill TT and hold onto it, which is exactly what happened! I won the TT up Glendora Mountain Road by 13 seconds over 2nd and 27 over 3rd (Strava). Stage 2 was rather hectic in the yellow jersey, but thanks to some help from my Team Simple Green teammates Jason Francia and Bradley Wiggs, I was able to finish in the front of the group and hold onto yellow (Strava).

Stage 3 Crit at the San Dimas Stage Race (Photo by: Troy Templin)

Stage 3’s crit was pretty aggressive, and I looked like I had it all but locked up until there was a crash in the very last turn. Of course the guy that was in 2nd place in GC (Edgar Stepanyan – a former Jr. World Champion on the track, apparently) was in front of the crash and won the stage, earning extra time bonuses. I finished the race without crashing, but there was a chance I was going to lose the overall win because I got stuck behind the crash (Strava). There were some very anxious moments before I found out that the refs “neutralized” the finish, which meant I would get to keep the yellow jersey and take the overall!

Next up for me was the Dan Point Grand Prix – another crit. This was the first time I tried racing two races in one day. I first competed in the 30+ Cat 3/4 field, which I won thanks to a 30+ minute solo breakaway (Strava)! I was happy to get that win, stay out of trouble (there was a terrible crash in the bunch sprint for 2nd place in that race) and win a bunch of free beer! The next race I did was the Cat 2/3, which was about an hour later, and after that long solo break in the first race, my legs were pretty toast (Strava). Still, I’m happy I did that one because it was my first time experiencing the speed of a Cat 2 field.

With these two wins, I now had 20 of the 30 points required for the Cat 2 upgrade. I knew the Mt. Hamilton Stage Race would be an excellent opportunity to get the remaining points.

This stage race was actually four stages over three days, with a hilly circuit race on stage 1, an epic road race that starts with a climb up Mt. Hamilton on stage 2, an uphill TT on stage 3, and then finishing up with a crit. I rode real strong that weekend, with victories in the circuit race (Strava), road race (Strava – 45 mile solo break away!) and the TT (Strava). In the crit I rode defensively to secure the overall victory (Strava).

Stage 1 victory in Mt. Hamilton Stage Race’s Livermore Circuit Race.
Photo by: Katie Miu

I now sat at 35 of the required 30 points for the Cat 2 upgrade. I thought a bit about if I wanted to keep racing more Cat 3’s for “experience” and potentially more race victories, but I came to the conclusion that moving up to Cat 2 racing was what got me excited to get out and train on my bike.

What’s next?

In the immediate future (like, tomorrow) I will be racing in my very first P/1/2 field at the 805 Grand Prix, which consists of a circuit race on Saturday and crit on Sunday. I think I’m much better suited to a hard road race, but this will be a great opportunity to see how my skill level compares to the “professionals.” I’m not sure what racing will look like after that. I have my eye on Phil Gaimon’s Hill Climb Worlds up Gibraltar at the end of October, but any serious racing as a Cat 2 may have to wait until 2019.

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Road to Cat 3

Citrus Criteriums – Podium 3/3 for 2018

A quick update on the end of a long ???road to Cat 4??? before getting in to my much shorter ???road to Cat 3???: After being denied early upgrade to Cat 4, I doubled up on my last races with a ???mentored??? crit in Redlands (which I won!) followed by CBR #2 (I was third and won a few primes). The Redlands race was a little far to drive for a ~25 minute race, but ???Citrus Criteriums??? put on a great little event that I felt would be very helpful to anyone a little anxious about getting into crit racing or even bike racing in general. After those races, I applied for my upgrade and was granted a Cat 4 license. Woohoo!

Photo by: Paul Cressey Photography

For my first Cat 4 race and first road race of the year, I headed a bit north to Cantua Creek in Coalinga. I think for most Californians,??they only know of Coalinga for its smell. It’s that place off I-5, in the middle of nowhere, with a huge cattle feed lot. Fortunately, the race started and finished up and over a hill a couple miles away from the feed lot, which is apparently too far for the stench to travel. Cantua Creek is a three lap out-and-back course that is mostly flat with a bit of climbing to end each lap. After an excruciatingly slow start to the race, I attacked up the first climb and got away. On the descent two riders bridged up to me. One was a junior that did very little in the break except to annoy the two of us, though kudos to him for getting in the break. He hung in for another lap, while the two of us did all the work. We put in another hard climb, and then it was just the two of us — Eric Sasse and I. We shared the workload well, and sort of had a silent agreement to wait for the hills at the end to decide the finish order.

Podium 5/5

I felt like I climbed much better than him earlier in the day, and still had pretty good legs, so I thought I could just ride hard up the climbs and that would be enough. It wasn’t, and Eric got the better of me right at the finish. I was happy to see my teammate Gilbert Marquez win the bunch sprint for 3rd place! Strava file

I raced the next day in the foothills of Fresno at a place called Pine Flat. Both of these races were about 70 miles from my brother’s home, so I stayed with him two nights and got to spend some time with him and my niece and nephew!

Pine Flat is a beautiful place, and I regret not taking more pictures while I was out there. Eric and Gilbert were both in this race as well. This race starts off pretty rolly with some tough, short climbs followed by a long descent, some flats, and then two big climbs. After another slower start, Eric started some attacks for a break. The group chased him down the first couple times. I actually rolled off the front on a shorter descent, and then I saw Eric chasing with that junior from the day before in tow. Just as we were getting the break established, I looked back and saw Gilbert trying to bridge up solo. I immediately stopped working and things slowed down just enough for Gilbert to get on. It pretty much worked out perfectly and I was pumped!

For the next 30 miles or so the three of us worked together with the junior taking every 10th pull, maybe. He fell off without too much pressure as we made our way towards the final climbs. I was in a position to sit on Eric’s wheel this time, thanks to the presence of Gilbert. With a few minutes left in the penultimate climb, I went hard, got a gap at the top, and then went full gas to the next climb. I enjoyed the final few minutes up the last climb as I came to the finish line. Gilbert hung on for third, giving Team Simple Green four Cat 4 podiums in two days.??Strava file

With those two races, I had a total of 12 upgrade points. I need 20 points minimum to upgrade to Cat 3, which I want to do before the San Dimas Stage Race at the end of March. In order to avoid racing too much, I needed to win?? my next race, and that race needed a minimum of 21 starters (the more starters = the more points). The UCLA Road Race this past weekend fit the bill.

Photo by: Brian O’Connor

The race was out in Pearblossom and it was pretty cold, windy and rain threatening. The course is a big rectangle with ascent and descent on either long side. The race was 4 laps, totaling 50 miles and about 6,000 feet of elevation gain. Like a good roadie, I sat in (on the first lap) and didn’t spend too much time at the front. As we came to the end of the first lap, there was a prime at the end of the first lap. One guy jumped and I went with him. I wasn’t able to get around him before the finish (so he won the prime), but once we crossed the line, he was content to sit up and roll back into the group. I, however, said “yolo” and pressed on. My thinking was the wind on the uphill was strong enough that no one was going to want to lead the chase, and on the descent the tailwind was strong enough that I wouldn’t be at a disadvantage going solo. I was right. A moto was giving me splits, which were 1:30 at the top of lap two, 2:00 at the bottom, 4:00 at the top of lap 3. The splits continued to go out and by the end I won by over ten minutes. Job done! (Shout out to Hudson and Spencer for making the trip out to the race with me, even if they were napping in the car the whole time I was racing!)

Photo by: Brian O’Connor

Cat 4 Done and Dusted!

This week I received my upgrade to Cat 3! This little climb up the ranks has been fun, but I’m excited to be in some races where everyone doesn’t??expect me to win or be on the podium. I think I will be at a level now where I will be able to learn a lot from my fellow competitors and, hopefully, go??earn a few victories.

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Dominguez Hills Criterium CBR 1

Photo by: Paul Cressey

Last Sunday I hopped into my second crit of the year, the Dominguez Hills CBR 1 (the first of seven events of the 2018 ???California Bike Racing??? series). Because I???m still a Cat 5 with aspirations of upgrading asap, I took part in the BRP (Beginner Racer Program) which consisted of a pre-race clinic, the Cat 5 race, and then a short race debriefing. The BRP effectively counts as an extra race, so I received two race ???points??? toward my upgrade.

The program was a basic introduction to crit racing. The focus was keeping your hands on the bars, following the wheel in front of you, taking the correct line through a corner, and how to correctly put your bib number on your jersey (seems trivial, but almost everyone does it incorrectly the first time). I personally didn???t get all that much out of the program, but I think it is a good concept and I can imagine it being helpful to people that are brand new to bike racing. Cycling can be an intimidating sport to get into for a variety of reasons, and it???s nice to see a governing body like USA Cycling with programs that are focused on getting more people involved safely. I wasn???t thrilled with the 6:15 am start time (especially on a cold morning!), but I think it was worth my while for the extra upgrade point.

Trying to break away from the field.
Photo by: Paul Cressey

This field was pretty big ??? nearly 70 riders. In hindsight, that should have been my first clue that I may want to tweak my tactics a bit. My game plan, however, was essentially the same as the previous week in Ontario: stick to the front, take the occasional hard pull to keep things fresh, and try to get away in the final five laps or so. I stuck to my game plan, but this time it was only good enough for 2nd place. When I made my move to get off the front just before three laps to go, someone immediately marked me and sat on my wheel. The field was able to keep me well within sight this time, so I was concerned that if I let up at all, including pulling off the front to share the lead, the group would quickly pull us back in. While my fitness is pretty good from my years of triathlon, this was just another lesson in the intricacies of bike racing, and one I won???t soon forget. In the time since the race, I???ve gone over what other moves I could have made, and where I went wrong. It???s fun to be this excited about analyzing a sport again. Results.

Schooled.
Photo by: Paul Cressey

Still happy to represent Team Simple Green on the podium!

The week after the race I put in a request for an upgrade to cat 4 early (I now have 7 ???points??? out of 10 required). I was given differing experiences from other athletes that were either allowed to upgrade early or denied. The worst that could happen is that my request would be denied and I would have to complete all 10 races. So I gave it a try???

DENIED! ???The 10 race (or clinic) requirement is firm.???

So this upcoming weekend I will be driving all over Los Angeles to finally get my last three points in. On Saturday I will be doing a ???mentored??? crit race (which counts as two races) way out in Redlands and on Sunday I will be racing at CBR #2 in Carson for my final race. This will allow me to be able to race Cat 4 for some of the upcoming road races that I think I can do really well at, like Cantua Creek, Pine Flat and the UCLA Road Race in Pearblossom.

Photo by: Paul Cressey

Thank you to Paul Cressey Photography for these shots at the CBR Crit #1 in Dominguez Hills. Here is his full photo album from the event. Paul tells me he will be out at the next CBR Crit in Carson on this Sunday.

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New to 2018 — Bike Racing

For a variety of reasons ??? namely time and curiosity ??? I have decided to give bike racing a go this year. Triathlon is a great sport and I???d love to have a calendar full of them, but it???s just not realistic at this point in my life (9 month old baby!). In fact, towards the end of last year I had pretty much resigned the idea of doing any racing of any sort in 2018, but then I won the KOM challenge at Phil???s Fondo, surprised myself week in and week out on the Simi Ride, and set a couple KOM???s on former Amgen Tour of California segments??(Aliso Canyon from Stage 7 of the 2014 tour and Norwegian Grade from Stage 8 of 2011), which all get me thinking?????maybe I can do some bike racing?!

Of the three sports that make up a triathlon, there is no doubt that cycling takes up the most time. So why not stick to swimming or running you ask? I generally work a ???4-40??? work week, which means 10 hour days Monday through Thursday and Friday off. I have very little time for any training during the work week, and with my background, I can???t skip four days of swimming in a row and expect to build any form. Running is similar, in that it rewards consistency in training. With my running background, I know I won???t be setting any new PR???s without a serious focus on consistent, high mileage run training. With cycling, however, I can pack in the hours as a typical weekend warrior and, it appears thus far, with pretty good results. And of the three sports, you can have the most fun as a ???pretty good??? cyclist, vs. being a pretty good swimmer or pretty good runner.

Cat 5 Hero

For those of you that??aren???t familiar with the USA Cycling system, it is broken into categories: beginning with ???Cat??? 5 through 1 (and then technically there are pro categories beyond that). Each race is divided by categories (though they often combine two or three categories for smaller events), so you only compete with cyclists that are, in theory, at a similar level to you ??? everyone can have a competitive experience, from novice to expert. Everyone starts out as a 5, regardless of their background. In order to upgrade from 4 to 3, 3 to 2 and 2 to 1, you have to accumulate points by finishing well at races. To upgrade from 5 to 4, however, you have to complete TEN races. Ten! It doesn???t matter how well you place, so long as you do the ten races.

On Sunday I competed in my fifth race as a cat 5 (I did two races on a whim in 2016 and two more in 2017) at the Ontario ???Ice Breaker??? Criterium. Cat 5 crits are infamous for crashes, as you might imagine with lots of inexperienced riders taking approximately 100 turns together. I kept near the front, until the last 5 laps where I broke away and rode to the finish solo.

360 W for 9 minutes did the trick

I honestly feel I don’t really belong in cat 5 (some of peers feel the same way, apparently — see below) and I’m anxious to upgrade soon. This Sunday I will be at the Dominguez Hills CBR to get some more experience and move one step closer to cat 4.

Haters gonna hate

Team Simple Green

At one of Neil Shirley’s “4 Days to Fitness” rides around New Year’s, I met Jason Francia who rides for Team Simple Green. I told him I was interested in doing more racing and he said I should look into joining Team Simple Green. I have only been a member for a few days now, so perhaps I will have more to share on the team dynamic in the near future, but I am excited to have some mentors in cycling and to have a team to be accountable to again. I will be rocking the bright green at the race this weekend!

It’s still a bit too soon to say what I am hoping to achieve in my cycling racing. For now I’m just happy to be racing and training with a bit more purpose again.