Cherry Pie Crit: Pack Finish

UPDATE: 34th of 66 finishers. Wow, exactly mid pack. http://www.eaglecyclingclub.org/cherrypie%20resultswebsite.htm . Congrats to Jane on her sixth place finish!

I was admittedly nervous about my first race of the season. The unknowns were my fitness, pack skills, or racing ability. The race taught me that the legs are fine. For me, crit racing is a software, not a hardware, problem.

Cherry Pie is a perennial NorCal cycling event. The first race of the season, it means that nothing is really for sure. Team alignments change, bikes change, and fitness is all over the place. Top 3 means you bring home a delicious cherry pie.

The race started fast and never slowed. Multiple groups tried to organize a break but nothing was able to stick. With 3 to go, I motored and gained a top 15 pack position. It looked like everything was strung out. I got stuck behind a rider who was unable to maintain the pace as the pack came around. With one to go there was little I could do, so I just sat in and finished with the group.

Positives:
- Weather. Conditions were a dry, sunny 25 C with 10 MPH winds. What a gorgeous day.
- Bike. The SL3 with Zipp 303s was stable, predictable, light, and fast. No cracked wheels, either.
- Fitness. I had no trouble accelerating out of turns, passing the group on the climb, or pulling into the wind. At one point I saw 55 kph on the computer. We were moving.
- No crashes.

Lessons:
- Pack skills. I was consistently about 30th-40th wheel in a pack of 80-90 riders. I've been called "unstable". Pack skills improve with time, and I know the improvements can be made.
- Course. This was my first time at Cherry Pie, so I know the lines a little better for next year. Best places to attack are the right hand turn at the bottom of the hill, just before the chicane, and on the hill.
- Individuals. Specific strong riders and teams comprise the NorCal peloton. I am more familiar with individuals, which enables me to better read the race.

Next race in two weeks?

16:06 - New Personal Best Up Old La Honda Road

Old La Honda Road [1] is a local benchmark climb. The local roadies use it to challenge themselves and heckle each other. Well, today, recovering from a back injury, I made it up in 16 minutes and 6 seconds. This beats my previous PR of 16:14, and brings me ever closer to sub-16 minute territory.

The dieting and training are starting to pay off. This morning, I was 174.4 lbs (79.1 kg). Bike weight was 14 lbs, 1 oz (6.37 kg). My average wattage was 419 W, yielding 5.3 W/kg. Impressive, but not enough to beat one Eric Lau, a Stanford senior who made it up in 15:27. An honorable mention goes to Elliot Hawkes (16:03) and Keith Wong (16:08).

Of course, I have a ways to go before I can beat Eric Heiden's 14:10 record:

One step at a time. I'm just glad that I don't weigh over 200 lbs anymore.

[1] http://graphics.stanford.edu/~lucasp/grade/oldlahonda.html

The Long, Mostly Flat Road to Recovery

My lower back injury was a frustrating setback that meant several weeks away from normal training, and thus, a major setback in the start of my racing season. The good news is that it is healing, slowly but surely.

Until very recently, most of my "training" was really just trying to fight off a massive loss in fitness, with sessions on the rollers and short, flat, easy rides. I went for my first 3 hour ride in a while yesterday, which involved a climb up Highway 9 (all 1790 feet [1] of it) and didn't notice any real soreness.

I've taken the downtime as an opportunity to lose some weight. The goal is increased power to weight, and if I can't improve power, may as well drop weight. I've dropped 6 lbs thusfar and hope to continue the trend. More on that later.

[1] http://cycling.stanford.edu/

Thoughts on Social Media Integration Tools

I've recently started integrating my blog with popular social media tools. Now, when I update my blog, posts make their way to Facebook[1] via RSS Graffiti[2], and Twitter[3] via twitterfeed[4]. All of this happens through the magic of the RSS Feed[5], which you, too, can use to see blog updates in your e-mail client. (I was even able to configure Google Reader using my RSS feed, so that my mother gets an e-mail every time I update my blog. She appreciated that.)

Now, social networks have been the focus of much attention, good and bad. One of main tenets is privacy. As I see it, this blog is a public site, and these are new distribution channels.

In the near future, I have some neat articles up my sleeve. I recently bought an Edge 800 to compare with my old Edge 705, and have started counting calories using Tap&Track, an iOS "app". The race season is nigh and - once the back heals - it will be a good season. Plus, there are some good articles I wrote a while ago on books, routing, course reviews, and my race bikes, that may resurface when the time comes.

References:

[1] http://facebook.com/jsoltren

[2] http://www.facebook.com/RSS.Graffiti

[3] http://twitter.com/jsoltren

[4] http://twitterfeed.com/

[5] http://bikefleet.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/

Heckling the NorCal Peloton

It looks like the 2011 round trash talk has already begun in the NorCal peloton, just in time for the first race of the season. I suppose that, in this case, "trash talk" consists of diligent fact finding and presentation of results in an entertaining manner.

NorCalCyclingNews.com does a good job analyzing the peloton in this article [1]. There is even a line or two about me in there, buried deep within the text. It is a fun read as an insider, and hopefully, sheds some light on the not-so-hidden structure in the pack.

[1] http://norcalcyclingnews.com/2011/01/02/2011-rosters-the-old-the-young-and-those-that-show-up/

PT! PT! Good for you! Good for me!

On December 16, during a weight lifting workout, I lost control of the bar and experienced a flexion/rotation injury between my L4 and L5 vertebrae, on the left side. The ensuing pain has left me unable to complete my normal training regimen. I am forced to take some time off, when I should be peaking for early season races.

I saw Renee Songer of Agile PT in Palo Alto on December 28. With her help, I am recovering faster than I would have otherwise.

Hopefully this is just a minor setback, and I will be in top shape for early season stage races. At this point, strength training has done more harm than good.

Welcome Back

This is my first post in a while - long enough, in fact, that I ought to "re-introduce" my blog for potential new readers.

My name is Jose. I am a software engineer for the Bejerano Lab at Stanford University (as of last Monday). I work on software that helps us understand how the genome works, in humans and other creatures as well. With this new position, I hope to have more time to maintain this blog.

Most importantly (for the purposes of this blog), I am a racing cyclist. Specifically, I am a Cat 2, racing in the Northern California district on the road and track, and consider myself a time trial specialist. I've had a few decent results in the past year. My goals for 2011 are to upgrade to Cat 1, and to be on the podium at a national championship event.

In July of 2010, I started working with coach Dan Smith of SportVelo. It took me a long time to understand why I ought to work with a coach, and longer still to find someone who had an approach to sport and training that I could enjoy. Working with Dan, I look forward to a productive 2011 race season. Look for my calendar soon.

As part of winter training, Dan has me doing a bunch of work I would not otherwise do, including a long Wednesday ride, biweekly workouts at Defiance Crossfit, and technique work on the rollers. Yesterday evening, I spent 90 minutes on the rollers in the aero bars, refining my position and gaining comfort and confidence. Here is a video - though it's not pretty!

A final caveat: there are articles on this site dating back to early 2008. Some are quite useful: my personal favorites are the cyclist's bibliography,some of my articles in March-May 2008 on using the Edge 705, and any race course preview with a topographic profile. However, please understand that some may express opinions, formerly my own, which which I no longer agree. Be forewarned!

Drive Safely

My girlfriend almost got hit by a car yesterday, and a friend of hers actually did get hit, in separate incidents. Both were a result of a "left hook": a motorist turning left across the road at full speed through a gap in automotive traffic, without seeing a cyclist.

Motorists: Always signal and slow when turning left (or at all). Double check for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and make sure you have an all clear before proceeding.

Cyclists: It is nearly impossible to guess that a car will turn left across the lane, even with good visibility. This seems to happen most when there is a 5-second gap between you and the end of a wave of motor traffic. If this ever happens, make sure to write down the make/model/color/license plate of the car, and report them as a drunk driver (they very well might be).

Course preview: WCCC Championship Criterium/Slug Cycling Criterium

This weekend, I'm heading to Monterey for the Slug Cycling crit. Hopefully the Wente road race will attract the strongest teams, leaving me with a fighting chance!

My recon work shows that this is a 0.5 mile loop (2679 feet) around an athletic field. The course features four turns, one tighter than 90 degrees, and an uphill finish. I expect it will be fast and furious from the gun, and it will take an early attack and a good position through that last corner to win the race.

Advanced Projects

As always, I'm up to something. I try to only report on things that I've done, not things that are in the works. This time, I have some exciting, though minor, projects in the pipeline:

- upgrades to the TT bike
- a new training bike
- some power meter upgrades
- re-thinking fit on the road and TT bikes
- getting rid of some more equipment

I'll post more about these projects as they come to fruition.

Old La Honda Road in 16m14s

I skipped racing this weekend to hang out at home, do some much needed cleaning, and of course, attack Old La Honda Road. For my record attempt, I pared down all unneeded weight. I rode my SL3 with the Zipp 303s, and removed the bottle cages and bolts. I left my helmet at the base of the climb, and wore the lightest shoes, socks, shorts, and jersey I own. The only weight concession was leaving the SRM on the bike.

I averaged 407 watts for the 16m14s it took to climb OLH. This is good, but not a personal best. I think I could be sub-16 at some point. It is all a matter of pacing. The record is supposedly sub-14: Kalen tells me "Scott Moniger did it in 13:50 and Eric Heiden did it in 13:55", although I've heard elsewhere that Heiden's best was 14:10.

Race Report: Menlo Park Grand Prix, Menlo Park, CA

After some repairs and recovery from yesterday, I was ready for a good race today. Unfortunately, the weather decided otherwise. It was about 8 C in the middle of an absolute downpour. Demoralized and afraid of rain after yesterday, my only goal was to not crash. At least the guys who did race, for once, raced like gentlemen, instead of pushy jerks.

I'm not racing crits in the rain anymore, unless they're part of a stage race or something. They are a waste of time and money at best.

This really seems to be the year of stupid crashes. Rasaan Bahati crashed out of the Dana Point crit this weekend as well.

I'm skipping Sea Otter and the Santa Cruz crit next weekend, in favor of an Old La Honda Road PR attempt.

My goal for this season is to upgrade to Cat 1. To do this, I need to find races that don't force me to race against the best Pros and 1s in California. I'm focusing on smaller races, and stage races with Cat 2 only fields (i.e. Fitchburg and Green Mountain). Once I become a Cat 1, I'll start doing some bigger races for fun, and slowly work to start winning them.

I'll race again in two weekends at the WCCC crit, and the Wente crit. I expect all the teams to be occupied with the Wente road race so I hope to do well at the WCCC crit. The Wente crit will be another Pro-1-2 crit: unless I work with a team, I'm pack fodder.

Race Report: Apple Pie Criterium, Santa Rosa, CA

This was my first race after the big crash in Copperopolis. It had been two weeks since then. I was on edge, as the last crash left my body and my bike in expensive disrepair. All I wanted to do was not crash; unfortunately, I did.

I did two races today. The first was a Cat 2 only crit, the second was a Pro-1-2-3 crit. The course was an office park: dead flat, wide turns, and little opportunity for selection. The weather was cloudy and gray, about 12 C. Everyone says this is the worst winter the area has seen in many years, with cold rainy weather lasting through mid to late April. I guess we brought Boston's weather with us.

The Cat 2 crit felt like a Cat 4 crit: sketchy riding, no teamwork, and no organization whatsoever. I managed to stay in the pack, but skidded out on the last lap. It had just started raining, and I leaned a little too hard into a turn. I was on my Zipp wheels with Vittoria tubulars. I don't like to ride this setup in the rain. The forecast had no mention of wet weather, and the only rain of the day was during this one race. Great. The crash destroyed my Toupe saddle and yet another derailleur hanger.

The Pro-1-2-3 crit was another repeated experience: teamwork from the Yahoo guys caused a split to happen, and there was more sketchy riding with wet roads in the pack. I just wanted to finish - I almost didn't start. At the finish, Filip and I came into contact and Filip went down. Great. I should have guessed that the pro teams would be here - there are two races in Santa Rosa and race pairs tend to attract the teams.

This was a terrible race for me. It was beyond a waste of time - I would have been better off had I not come at all. Jane managed to do well in her races.

Cleaning Out The Closet

Time to clear out the surplus! I've just posted a bunch of extras from the bike room to eBay. Look for things sold by user "jsoltren" for full details, or click here to search for my items. I'm selling some very nice handlebars, a wheel, and countless small items.

Support a Velodrome in NYC!

A friend of mine from back home is polling interest for a velodrome in New York City. Someone floats the idea every few years, but it is always tough to generate interest. Show your support by joining the "NYC Velodrome" Facebook group (dreaded Facebook...), and telling everyone you know.

I think it makes sense to make the infrastructure investment for a world-class velodrome in a major population center. I'd love to see the day where there is a permanent indoor velodrome on prime real estate in New York, readily accessible by public transit. With the number of internationals living in the city, and the spectator friendliness of track, I'm amazed this has not yet happened.