ironclm's tri world

Big Day

2 years, 7 months and 27 days post-crash and 2 years and 25 days post-surgery, my surgeon said the words I've been waiting to hear: Get out of here! Just return if the knee starts bothering me. Finally!

2011 Team Roaring Mouse

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Book Report: "Poke the Box"

by Seth Godin

Back in April on the Time Management Ninja website http://timemanagementninja.com/, Craig asked, “What Do You Need to Start?  What have you have been hesitant to do?"

 That's a good question to ask yourself.  The book is slanted towards the business world, but the concept and ideas can also be used for personal growth and home.

I got a lot out of the book and it's a quick read (less than 100 pages).  The basis gist is, show up, do the work and don't let failure stop you.  Most initiatives fail, but push the envelope and keep going.

 Poking doesn't mean right. It means action.  Godin takes issue with Yoda from Star Wars ("Do or do not, there is no try.")  Instead, try and if you fail, try again.  Saying or thinking, "This might not work" is OK and actually, is expected.

 There are a few quotes that I really like: 

* Starting implies FINISHING.

* Keep starting until you finish.

 * When in doubt__look at the fear.  That's almost always the source of your doubt.

 * Don't succumb to the challenge of expectations.  Get back to the reason you set out to do whatever it is you do in the first place.

 * Failure is an event, and with rare exceptions, is not fatal. 

 * There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth.  Not going all the way and not starting." (Siddhartha Gautama)

Year 2010 Totals

Yeah, I'm a bit late with all this.

Year 2010 Totals:

Bike: 3,742 mi (2nd highest volume ever)
Trainer: 34:39 (being limited to the trainer last Feb. bumped this up)
Walk/jog: 221.9 mi (mostly walk as the ortho banned running)
Total time: 426:58 (biggest volume since I took up bike racing)

Resolved for 2011:

Work on power/wt ratio.
Do more rides and races where I am not in my comfort zone, mentally and physically.
Get training hours up over 500 for the year.
Revise my goals so that they are process oriented. Work on the habits and the process and the goal results will follow.

RR: Get Ready for Summer #1

This past Saturday was the first real day of racing on the track for the year!  YEA!!  And really my first time back mass racing on the track in close to two years.  I did a couple of races last year, but more half hearted than anything and then TEAM CLM all decided that mass star racing wasn't such a great idea while still doing knee surgery rehab so I didn't do any more mass start races.  The goal for the day Saturday was to just get through the races and get used to being back out there.

GRFS is a day with 4 different races and my field, Cat. 4/5, was sold out with pre-reg but a couple of no shows meant the two junior girls who showed up day of got to race. One other gal whom I'd not seen before was there in the 4/5s. The rest were all guys. 21 people total. There were also a pretty full Cat. 3/4 field and a P123 field which included a couple of pro men (or ex-pro), a couple of fast juniors, and a pro woman from Switzerland who has been here training and racing. So some fast laps going on!  And some folks I hadn't see for quite a while (Ben, Deano and Katie), so it was nice to see some friendly faces.  There were quite a few new people there whom I didn't know.

The coach wants me to work on spinning more, so I rode a smaller gear than normal. But it was windy so that was probably a very good call. 

Race #1 - Keirin: [follow the motorcycle then sprint]

My heat was me + 6 guys. Thanks again Rick for putting me in with the guys. I drew #6 and slotted in #6 with a good throw from Ben. I was able to hang with the group the entire time on the motor, but when the motor pulled off (going into turn 1 instead of on the back side so a full 2 lap sprint instead of 1.5 laps) I was only able to hang on to the group for about a half lap, then got gapped off. Dude on my wheel sits on my wheel for another lap and then passes me on the back side and I couldn't go with him either. But I had a good hard effort and I was happy with how I rode.  And man, I forgot how hard track racing is!

A lot of time in between all the other keirin heats, rep and final rides, so I jumped on the rollers for a bit and also was a holder twice.

Race #2 - Snowball:

We do this race so infrequently, I'm still not sure how it works, but it's like a freaking 15 lap sprint! With the full field of 21, I was a bit nervous on the line, but once the race got going, everything became totally strung out and then splintered into many groups. I got on with the two junior girls and we started doing half lap pulls and then picked up another guy and we rode the rest of the way in. I looked at it as team pursuit practice as we rode hard the entire way.

Race #3 - Miss-n-Out: [musical chairs on bikes]

With the big field, my intention was to go to the pole/inside lane and sit there as long as possible and stay out of any possible craziness in the back. And that's what I did for about 6-8 laps. Think of it as pursuit training. Once the speed picked up more, I got passed, so I ended up about 14th out of 20.  Super happy to not be one of the first ones out!

Race #4 - Points (15 laps/sprints @ 5): [math on bikes]

The field had dwindled by this point and I'm not sure how many started. The junior girls did not, but one of the Master riders did start and once we got gapped off on the first sprint, he and I worked together to not get lapped. Mission accomplished.

Did a cool down on the rollers and then it was time to head off to a party.

Goal was met and the day was fun.  As the Coach said, "Not a bad start".  We had a 45 minute conversation this morning and we are rethinking the plans for the year.  Just might mix things up and do something different.  I'll keep you posted.

February Totals

Bike miles: 168.1

Trainer time: 7:30

Bike total time: 21:06

Weights: 11:15

Total training time: 32:21

Total work time:  195.55 hrs

Long Time, No Post

Not sure why.  Just haven't been in the mood.  But I'm back training and lifting and life is good!

The new Roaring Mouse Cycles shop is now open in the Presidio (end of Chrissy Field).  And the Mouse Women are front and center!  We are larger than life.  Every time I go into the shop and look at this, I just giggle.

 

And speaking of Mice, a new kit for 2011! 

 

RR: Early Bird Track Race

The coach said we are resuming track workouts, starting this past Sunday, and it was so GREAT to be back on the track!  I hadn't done a real workout since September post-nats/pre-whooping cough, so Sunday was just about getting back into the routine. Since the EB track race was right after the morning workout, we decided that I'd race some and see how things went.

Workout was a 15-20 minute warm-up, plus a jump or two in a small gear (81").

2 x 10 laps in the 50x15 (90") in the aerobars.  For the first one, Lala sat on my wheel which made me ride hard and it was good to have her push me.  I don't have a speedo on the track bike yet so I'm not sure what we ended up at but Lala said we started out a bit aggressive…29 mph.  Oops.  Second one was solo and the wind had picked up.

Last was 3 x 1 lap flying, which was fun.

Then it was time to get ready to race.  There were 18 Cat. 4/5s and only two women (me and a Tibco gal), plus a younger junior girl.  Lots of fixie types who were racing for the first time EVER. 

Race #1 - keirin, 3 heats.  I was in heat #2.  Did Rick put me in the heat with the Tibco gal and the junior? No.  It was me + 4 guys.  Mr. Official says, "Who has raced a keirin before?"  Look around and only clm has her hand raised.  Crap.  Please let me draw #1 so I can take the motor.  (You draw for starting positions and #1 is obligated to take the first spot behind the motor.)  Draw is #5.  Crap!  Alex F. gives me a good shove at the start, but I slot in in the last spot in the line.  Not sure that rider #1 has ever been behind a motor before so there is a pretty big gap, then a very raggedy pace line behind.  4.5 laps in and Peter pulls off and they all shoot away and I get gapped.  It was windy so I geared down to an 88" but should have stayed at the 90 or maybe even higher.  Top 2 go to the final, 3-4 go to the rep ride, 5th (me) is out. 

I thought about doing the rest of the races, but after the keirin final the official called every single rider over to discuss.  I told Rick to scratch me from the rest of the races and called it a day.

Super Bowl Sunday 2009:  Crash at the Early Bird crit and Izumi and I spent all day and half the evening in the ER.

Super Bowl Sunday 2010:  Crash on the Sausalito bike path when a jogger w/headphones cut across the path in front of me.  I'd only been riding outside a month and the surgeon then banned me from riding outside for another 6 weeks.

Super Bowl Sunday 2011:  Not taking any chances with a bunch of new riders.  I'm STILL going to PT and can't afford any more medical bills.

And besides, I had a game to watch!  PACKERS WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kind of long winded for a short race.  But I am so excited to be back on the track!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Afternoon at Specialized

A number of Mice teammates and I got to go down to Specialized in Morgan Hill to shoot some photos for the new Mouse shop yesterday.  What a fun time riding some SWEET bikes!   My ride was the lone time trial bike in the group, a Transition Pro, with SRAM components and Zipp wheels.  That baby motored!  A really nice ride.

We ended up doing a 20 mile loop (Morgan Hill out Watsonville Road to the Uvas Reservoir loop), most at a pretty peppy pace since we were running up against daylight.

Thanks Chris and thanks Specialized!  Now how about an above-entry-level track bike?????

100 Books

INSTRUCTIONS: Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt and * means I have it in my “waiting to read pile”.  

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen 

2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien 

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling (all) 

5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee 

6 The Bible 

7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell 

9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens 

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller 

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 

15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier 

16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien 

 17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger 

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch – George Eliot  

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald 

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck 

29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll  *

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame  

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

34 Emma – Jane Austen

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis - This is a Chronicles of Narnia Book

37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown 

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51  Life of Pi – Yann Martel  [and I HATED this!]

52 Dune – Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov  *

63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville 

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72 Dracula – Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses – James Joyce 

76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal – Emile Zola 

79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession – AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell 

83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton 

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad  

92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94 Watership Down – Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl  

100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

QOTD (a couple of months worth)

Take your rightful place on your own stage.

When in doubt, throw it out.

A loss becomes a gain.

"A true cyclist sometimes has to bite the dust before he can reach the stars. Win. Survive. Hang in there"__Laurent Fignon

"As soon as you move fear aside, that's when fun really happens."__Carlos Santana

"You can't just want it; you've got to go earn it."

Wherever you go, you have to take your own head with you.

True competition - striving for excellence. False competition - the need to prove something to someone else.

"ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY, just remember you have already been invited to the dance so have a good time dancing."__Jimmy R.

One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus. ~ Tony Robbins

In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. ~ Tony Robbins

" Picture yourself in your minds eye as having already achieved this goal." ~ E. Nightingale

"Jens Voigt's Suitcase of Courage will not fit in the overhead compartment."

"If something is important, do it every day; if it’s not important, don’t do it at all."

"It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right". ~ W. Churchill.

"...but I tried with everything I had and that is the most important thing for me."___Carlos Sastre

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity ~ Andrew Carnegie

"Today I did it for me."___Chris Horner

"The genius controls the chaos."___Jens

"“My ribs are hurting but hey, broken ribs are overrated anyway. Fortunately, I didn’t land on my face this time and I’m still alive."__Jens again

Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think. ~ Tim Ferriss

"There are no safety nets in the sport of professional cycling."___Paul Sherwin

He who is destined for power does not have to fight for it.___African proverb

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up ~ Thomas Edison

If you fear something you give it power over you.__African proverb

It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently. ~ Tony Robbins

If Jens Voigt was a country, his principle exports would be Pain, Suffering, and Agony.

Be willing to see the existence of mental self-interference.

Seize that moment. That moment is a crossroads where everything you want will collide with everything standing in your way.

RR: Track Masters Nats - 500TT and Team Sprint

500 TT:

A race against the clock, two laps of the track from a standing start.

Saturday I didn't have any races and the coach said to go to the track during the break between the sessions and do a workout to get more comfortable on the track.  Warm up, then do 10 laps in the aerobars in the middle of the track (at the blue/stayer's line), then 10 laps in the aerobars in the pole (down near the bottom of the track) and then 10 laps at the rail (the very top of the track).  I did this on Saturday and it helped A LOT. 

Sunday morning I woke up and felt OK and ready to race.  I drank some coffee, ate some eggs and veggies and got everything organinzed to head over to the track.  I wasn't racing until later in the session and you don't want to be out in the heat all day.  I got ready and then suddenly I started feeling sick.  I ended up getting a late start and did not feel good at all.  I got to the track and it was sunny and getting hot, but not too humid.  Since they changed the schedule (stupid idea!), for Sunday there were the kilos and then the 500s and then the team stuff and then madison, with awards intermixed in between, plus a break scheduled mid-afternoon.  Since so many people were racing that day, the place was packed with people so I set up the rollers outside next to the fence.  I got in a warm up on the warm up gear and felt so-so, actually wishing I was back at the hotel in the bed.  After an abbreviated warm up, I went to get off the rollers and the bike to change wheels to finish my warm up on the race gear and the bike was facing the "wrong" direction (which means I got off the bike on the right side) and ended up toppling over.  Dammit.  Never get on/off a bike or a horse on the wrong side!

 I brushed myself off (at least I fell into the grass) and changed wheels and had to rush to finish my warm up, plus I was still feeling like crap.  I got the bike checked and it was time to go to the ready area (like the baseball on-deck circle).  I was first to go in my age group, riding solo.  I used a gear that I normally ride since it wasn't windy but, that wasn't the best idea.  I got an OK start and stood up over halfway around the track and got into the aerobars after coming out of turn 4 and rode the rest in the aerobars (a big win!)  I crossed the finish line and felt like I'd had a decent ride but the announcer 48 seconds.  I couldn't believe it!   That was so freaking slow and I was SO SO SO disappointed.  I got off the track and stopped the bike and went to get off and SHIT…I toppled over AGAIN!  This time in front of everyone and on the concrete!  I walked over to where the Hellyer people were and lost it, sobbing my head off into a towel, still holding onto the bike.  The folks still in the area came over to see if I was OK and Keith came over to put my bike away.  After about 10 minutes I walked outside to call the coach but he didn't answer so I left a sobbing message on his voicemail.  What was done, was done and I ended up 4th.  Nice to be on the podium, but I'm still not happy with the time I rode.

 

 Team Sprint:

 I'd paid for the TS long ago and was planning to do it with Donna, but after her crash at Districts, I needed to find another partner.  I ended up getting Tracy from Tucson who is in my age group to race with me.  She was pretty gunshy about the steep track but I told her she only needed to do one lap in the pole lane and we were doing it for fun. (Yes, really!)

After talking to Kenny, he said to work on my start and chase Tracy down since there was a differential between our speed.  I told Tracy that I was going to delay my start just a bit but for her to go as fast as she could and I'd run up on her.  She said, "No problem" and we were riding around the warm up circle and heard them DQ one team, then we went up to the ready and watched Beth and Steph from Hellyer ride right before us and THEY got DQed!  The official said something about a zone violation so I asked him what they'd done to get DQed and he said they weren't a meter apart before the end of the pull-off zone, so I told Tracy to really pull off when it was time.  [TS is two riders who start together, one does one lap and pulls off in the zone and the second rider does a second lap solo.  Fastest time amongst the teams wins.]

On the start, I delayed just a bit but still caught her before turn 2 and sat in behind her, resting until my solo lap.  Once she pulled off, I stood up and hit the gas, pedaling through the turn like it was a bell lap in a points race, and rode hard the rest of the way.  We ended up 4th and had fun.

 

They tally everyone's results and award the BAR to the best all-round rider.  There were 4 of us tied with 16 points and then going to the tie-break, I ended up tied for 3rd (or 4th depending on which print out you look at) out of 7.  Pretty happy with that since that's the highest I've ever finished.  And, I have a clear idea of what I need to do in the next 8 weeks.  I submitted the online entry today for Masters Worlds in late October in Portugal.  That's when the competition gets really tough so I definitely need to step it up.