The Rapha Gentlemen's Race....oh god what have we done?

Racers, friends, co-conspirators,

I believe St Westerberg said it best "it's too late to turn back, 

here we go....Portland". Of course Paul was right, probably not sober but 

right on the money. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's catch up.

This week I got an email from our new favorite director sportif

Slate Olsen from Rapha USA, offering us a slot in the Gentlemen's Race,

in Portland!! yes cycling mecca. I quickly confirmed that he was not 

shipping me off to Maine(which I hear is quite nice). Then the message went out to the usual suspects. 

you know who you are.

As we get the logistics ready for this September event of a lifetime, I'll keep you up to date.

Mr Hawkins summed it up nicely, saying that its just an epic ride with your blokes, then drinking.

No, I didn't know he was english either.  the things you learn.  I'll also get to hang w Mr Duroy of the indesiderati.

That will probably only be at the start and when my slow ass finishes, but good stuff nonetheless.

It'll be helpful to have him there as he is a dr and I may need to unearth some childhood issues.

Just thought I'd warn him.

More to come, racers names to be unveiled(after wives are asked and all),  you'll see. this'll be good. I promise.

Why are you looking at me like that?

weekend update

Jane you ignorant slut...sorry, I always think that when I hear "weekend update".

This past wknd, as you return viewers know, we had a series of races involving folks from "the projects".
the derby festival mini marathon was the hottest I can remember. 84-85 degrees at the finish. 12k starters and 9k finishers. That kind of hot. Cyclist-hating-ari and I started off w special K, but separated in the crowd. I was holding back his pace so that he would finish strong. It was a gamble, w him being seriously under trained, but he wanted it badly so we stuck to plan. We got thru the first section w hills and drunken friends on the sidelines w/out a lot of fuss. We even passed the guys in the elvis suits!
Going thru Churchill Downs we saw, in the span on 100 yds
-a rescue inhaler being used emergently
-a woman vomiting so violently I expected to see her shoes come out of her mouth
-another person on an IV, we'd seen quite a few of those.
We saw tallgirl at the 10m mark and she said kelly was just ahead and looking good.
As we got to the turn where I knew the domestic goddess/reluctant cheerleader would be waiting w the haters family, we upped the pace. We ran past them like champs and it was cool to see how proud the haters wife was. We sprinted the finish and let the heat stroke really set in. I suffered way more than I expected in the heat, so I know what it must have taken a guy who hadn't trained enough to be able to finish.
We watched dr onedood finish the marathon(or at least cross over and back on the bridge) looking like he was just out for a jog, not 22 m into a mararthon! Rage makes you fast apparently. I must need more.

Dug ran the Nashville Marathon and Large Hair Festival and from what I hear turned in a pretty gutty performance running thru serious heat cramps to finish right around the 4 hour mark. Not bad for an event where someone actually died trying to finish.
MeesuzDug ran a strong half in the wretched heat, hotter there than in the village. And remember, way more humid there than here! It was the kind of day where you throw out the time goals and just try to finish strong. No PR's, just knock it out.

Congrats to all, sorry to those I didn't mention. Lauren(dulin's way better half) ran past us to finish the marathon and made it too easy to comment w/out sounding really jealous.
I'll have a picture or 2 up later, but that's the story.
Oh, and my strategy for re-hydrating w a mixture of gin, followed by red wine, followed by beer? Did not work out so well. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Back in Black

So you can see a few things here.  First, obviously the new RogueRacingProject kits have arrived and look really great.  Plus ten to MrSeiler for all the hard work. These actually came out better than I was expecting, and I had relatively high hopes to begin with.

Secondly, you can tell that this is somewhat of a "mature" team.  All that means is we have people I can actually drink a beer with and relate to as humans.  I'll take that deal.

Just to clear up what is becoming a common misconception about our relationship w BikeClicks/Team Louisville, we actually don't exist primarily to hurl feces in their direction.  I spent all of last weekend riding, racing and having a great time with those guys. So any of you bitterly hoping to catch us crouched, hands cupped in the receiving position getting ready to hurl some, look elsewhere and get a freaking hobby.  Trust me, the village is big enough for more idiots.  We are just those idiots.

This event was going to happen elsewhere but the rider now known as Scheduler Prime, didn't check a calendar and we went with plan b-my house(dood you knew we were going to milk this one for a while longer right?).  So new kit and a viewing of the new Cyclofile 2 dvd, perfection. Of course the domestic goddess had book club/drinking on the schedule, and when she heard the magic words "team meeting" and "cyclocross dvd" she was gone in a ball of dust.  (she was looking forward to gossiping w tallgirl but they seem to find ways)

Getting kit that you paid for a long time ago is like Hanukkah except you get all the presents at one time.  I'm certain that you people(pronounced goyim) have a correlate of some kind.

After distribution of kits and pizza was accomplished, we sat down to watch Cyclofile 2.

It was extra special for Dug and I because it had great footage of the 2007 USGP in Louisville, which was my first cx race and where we met Myerson for the first time.  We were his pit crew, which shows you how lean these guys travel.  Several of us took to drinking every time Adam appeared on screen.   A fitting tribute. He seems to approve. Or he's mocking me on facebook, knowing I don't participate.  I have eyes everywhere, my man. Don't forget.

I'm looking forward to pinning a number on the RRP  singlet tomorrow for the Mini w cyclist -hating Ari, while Dug is several hours south doing the Nashville Country Music and Large Hair and Fashion Accessory Marathon.  

Speaking of mr roemer, he did want me to clear up the fact that the picture of the sofa-king (below)is not an actual picture of him tapering.  It's just a cartoon, any resemblance to Dug, real or imagined is your problem, not ours.

Best txt message of the week? Duane-"can I stop by your house and drop off a log?" we love Duane but this did seem awfully familiar, until I remembered that he had a perfect log for me to use for building the mtn bike skills.  Turns out it wasn't scatological,  just a damn fine offer

So good luck runners, riders and racers of all kinds.  Be careful in the heat this weekend. 

Am I Ready For Spring?

I am sofa king ready!!

Good luck to all in the Mini, The Derby Marathon and the Nashville "what the hell did I drive 3 hours to run this far?" Marathon and Half.

Good luck to everyone in the Brown County Road Race, think of me on the hills won't you?

Get ready for the race report of my morning, heckling cyclist-hating Ari,  as we struggle thru the Mini.

That should be quite a read. Yessir.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong With This?

Hot Yoga (doug)

Nothing funny or profound to say tonight, but I happened to be at the computer, catching up on the days of work I've missed being "in the field" as I've now been asked to be. I'm sure Brian will cover the witty requirement in his sure-to-come post about the "Dirty TT" he and Aaron put on. I missed that race for an uncountable number of reasons, including, but not limited to:

1. I was stuck in a meeting that lasted (I'm not kidding) 9 f-ing hours that lasted past the starting time of the race.

2. The race was set in "the hood", with no parking, so you had to park downtown and ride to the "venue". If you didn't leave with the group, you would apparently be riding through Louisville's bad side (picture Compton, but a smaller area with more crime and murders per capita) on your own, in spandex...

3. Actually, 1 and 2 just about cover it.

That said, I wanted to add to my "journal" how much I loved the hot yoga thing.

http://www.hotspotyoga.com/

I've never done any yoga at all, but need flexibility (I'm the least flexible person on earth) and a way to feel like I've "worked out" even on my off days.
Because of the Knee (ITBS), I'm just not running beyond the bare minimum, and even the most recent spinning class bothered my knee, so I've resolved myself to these "non-impact" things for the next few weeks. Perfect timing to try out this Hot Yoga (Bikram). I liked it alot! It's essentially 90 minutes of yoga (26 poses x 2) in a big 120 degree sauna.

I've never done yoga before (but for a few positions on the wii FIT), but it was excellent! Obviously I couldn't get all the positions, but nor could everyone else. The point, according to the teacher (and I love that he specifically used this word), was to Suffer through the class, doing your best to attempt each position while withstanding the heat. I did, and it was great. I sweated more than I can explain, and found a couple of muscles that I didn't know existed. What a great way to "recover" from a race or serious training.

I plan on running 2 small 5k runs, and one 10k before the marathon. Other than that, the Hot Bikram Yoga is all I'll do, hopefully 4-5 more times before Nashville.

Coastal Superiority

Despite the fact that this comes from a blog that very well should've been the name of ours, I felt compelled to post the link. My friend in Seattle still swears that the residents there are more intelligent than all of us, and that not even their genius could manuever these icy roads. I just wonder why they all kept trying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dooKpdIwwR4

It has come....

Like it says, crazy stuff will happen and be seen. Meet at Waterfront Park at 5:30.

Ouch (doug)

PSA (because I care): do you know what hurts worse than an ITB issue? OK, nothing I know of, but you know what comes damn close? Using your styptic stick on your cracked, chapped lips, because they started bleeding slightly. Don't do that.


Sent from my Sprint Blackberry.

don't hate me 'cause Im grateful

Im sitting in the sunshine, drinking a mamosa w my lovely bride after a 10 mile run through Greensboro, NC. This is a beautiful city and after brunch we are going to shake it down w the Dead.

After a nap, probably.

Don't hate me, even I know I don't deserve this.

All Hail Cho-Pat (doug)

Just a quick post to rave about the Cho-Pat ITB strap. Contrary to the name of this Blog, I don't really LOVE "pain" per se. I love good, old fashioned suffering, as it pertains to exertion levels, but actual teeth grinding, feels-like-an-ice-pick-in-the-side-of-the-knee pain...not so much. So, in addition to the ice, and the Voltaren gel, and the Naproxin, and the resting, I ordered a Cho-Pat brand ITB strap after seeing an add in Runner's World Mag.

Without going into too much detail about the Papa John's 10 Miler today (although there's a decent story about a port-a-john, a long line, and me almost being "disqualified" for not getting across the start line within 15 minutes of the starting gun - you may only get that story in a bar over beers), I started late, in a crowd of walkers, and after my first mile at 8:41 pace, was already feeling the IT band twinging. I thought the race was essentially over. I had the Cho-Pat strap on, but apparently hadn't tightened it enough, as I could still feel the ITB raking across the outside of my knee. In a sort of last ditch effort, I stopped briefly, reached down, and tightened the strap as hard as I could pull - so hard it actually started hurting the back of my knee b/c the bracket was nearly cutting in to the back of my leg. I started running again, and realized that THIS is how this thing is supposed to work. The tight pressure pinned the band in front of the knee. No more rubbing. That's literally all it took. I ran another mile or so, waiting for the pain to return, but it didn't. I spent the next few miles weaving in and out of traffic (starting in the back, you have all of the walkers, as well as everyone else to pass), and still being pretty careful of the knee going up and down the hills of Iroquois Park. The steeper hills and off camber roads still bugged me a little bit, but nothing a conscious stride adjustment couldn't overcome easily. I hit the 5 mile timing pads at 42:00 even, and knew I had to speed it up if I was going to beat last year's time. The last 5 miles (down and out of the park and then flat to the finish) went great. No knee pain, and I turned off the iPod, which sometimes slows me down due to the tempo of the music I keep 0n it. I finished the race in 1:21:40 (chip time -- 1:34:something clock time), an 8:03 pace, and 1:20 faster than last year. Ideally I would've run under 1:20:00, but all things considered, I'm thrilled. My last two miles were actually my fastest, at 7:26 and 7:30 respectively, so I know I had more left. I think, with some intelligent pacing and no knee issues (knock on wood), that the 9:07 average pace required to get a sub 4 hour marathon is entirely reasonable in two weeks. Thanks Cho-Pat. If you happened to run across this post/blog as the result of a search for ITBS treatment methods, 1) I'm sorry, and 2) get a Cho-Pat strap.

Short Track - You know it

2 Much Monkey Business

There's way too much good stuff coming up over the next week or 2. Most of it's cycling related even! Here's the run-down.

This weekend we'll be celebrating Easter the best way I know how- the domestic goddess/total enabler and I will be catching the first show of The Dead's 09 run in Greensboro, NC. Who knows maybe Jerry will rise for the occasion? I don't really understand how Easter works anyway. I know you people blame us for taking out your lead guy, then there's bunnies and chocolate? I'll stick w the odd food and suffering we based our religion on. We don't have anybody w abs like the J-man(until Dug converts) but the holidays are so deeply based on guilt that they seem to make sense.

Next comes the Dirty TT/cyclocross individual pursuit/hecklefest on the 16th. This should be a ball. Aaron's searched far and wide to find a challenging course w the most dangerous possible drive home.

On the 19th i have my first Mtn Bike race. The White Lightning XC race at Land btw the Lakes. We're planning on getting down there the day before and camping out. If I'm going to suffer, I might as well be tired and hung-over, no?

Then comes the Mini-Marathon, or 13.2 miles heckling cyclist-hater-Ari. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Sorry to those that think I've moved under a rock. Between work and training for the numerous ridiculocities, I guess my mailing address could be subterranean.

Details as they come.

"2 steps fwd...", you know the rest. (doug)

Well, unlike Brian, I just went 20 miles this wknd. I unfortunately, didn't have wheels (or a right knee as it turned out). After the last 20 miler, I thought I'd figured out what was causing the ITB issue, and made steps to correct it. I took some time off, skipped a few runs, got some new kicks with more stability, ran more often, but shorter, faster runs to keep up the fitness w/o putting stress on the recovering ITB. I stretched and iced it, and loaded up on anti-inflamatories. By the time I ran 10 miles in the new kicks last Monday with no pain (and felt amazing afterwards to boot), I thought I had it beat.

Then came Saturday. I met the group in the park for a 20 mile group run. The first 9 miles went great (albeit a bit slower than I'd have liked), and I was feeling good. At the 9:00 pace the group runs in the beginnings, my HR monitor doesn't usually get above a 145 or so. But then, crossing the bridge into Indiana, I felt that unfortunately oh so common burn outside my right knee. "How could this be happening", I thought. I just ran 10 on Monday without so much as twinge. Those of you who've ever had an ITB issue know the drill after that. It takes about 20 strides from the first "rub" until the pain is fully excruciating. "Great", I thought, "How am I going to get home from here?". I was essentially at the farthest point from our start/finish as I could get. I stopped, and stretched, and walked, as the others in the group caught up and then passed me, one by one, each asking if I was o.k. I wasn't going to hold them up, I was either going to walk the next 11 miles, or figure out a way to deal with it.

So, what did I learn? I can "run" a 10:30/mile pace for at least 11 miles without bending my right knee (or let's say barely bending it). Actually, we probably ran a little faster than that, as I kept up (on average) with the last runners in the group, who were doing somewhere between 10 and 10:30 per mile. I was able to limp/jog, straight-legged, at about a 9:15-9:30 pace, for about 7 or 8 minutes at a time before the pain got too much to bear. At that point, I could walk 2-3 minutes to give it a break, and then jog again. Again, those who've ever had the issue know what I'm talking about. It is such a weird "injury". When you're walking it doesn't seem to hurt at all, but even the slightest jog starts that rub that becomes unbearable in just minutes. I hate it. Anyway, we finished. I definitely wasn't "sore", except for the knee, and really wasn't even sweating/winded, considering I'd just really walked fast for 11 miles, for all intents and purposes. I don't know if I got the training I needed out of the experience, but I'm glad to know that I will be able to finish the race no matter what in 3 weeks. I could've done the limp/jog/walk thing all day if needed.

Anyway, a bit dissapointing, and very frustrating, but now I have another 3 weeks to keep stretching, icing, resting, and OTC drugging until the big race. I will probably still do the 10 mile race this coming weekend to gauge how things are going, but will do it in my old shoes to see if that helps. After that, I'll have 2 weeks without a run longer than 6 or 8 miles (which don't effect the ITB anyway). I've also got the new swim lessons continuing and will probably get on the bike/spinner more over these next few weeks to keep the fitness/stamina up.

May not post again until the Marathon, but I'll try to if anything changes significantly.

Hard Way to Buck's Pocket(with apologies for the "doug-like post length))

It was Spring break and with two little boys, it was time for a family camping trip. We gathered all the gear in the den and tried to figure out a way to stuff all of it into the family truckster and still fit the kids and the road bike. The bike has to come because I'm training as hard as I can for the Rapha Gentlemen's Race, and the kids have to come because they are the reason for the trip.  We also needed to pay a visit to the in-laws in Birmingham so figuring out a campground was fairly easy. The domestic goddess/tent bait suggested we head for Lake Guntersville State Park. We knew the area because it was near the site of our first camping trip together, back in college. This was back in the day when all the camping list needed to include was girlfriend, guitar, beer(liquid charm) and tent. Lo those many years ago we had set up shop at Buck's Pocket State Park. I was a classic example of a guy in  way over his head trying to impress his girlfriend. Woefully unprepared, we ended up arriving late and just got the tent pitched at sunset. We then set about getting the fire going to no avail. Luckily, we had befriended a biker camped across the way who helped out with some unknown accerlant that had the fire roaring scary fast.  Evening saved thanks to our semi-outlaw neighbor, who stayed for a beer and moved on,  we ended up w a great trip, a great story and a lot of memories.

Fast fwd, way fwd, and here we are at a campground closer to , but near the site of that wknd. As we pulled into the park entrance we caught site of a sign, Buck's Pocket 18m. At just short of 40 miles round trip it was too short to be an epic, but a tough ride thru the foothills of the appalacians lay ahead. Memories flashed and we tried to tell as much of the story as we figured the kids could handle without using it against us later. But the nxt days training ride came w/ motivation preloaded on the route. I really wanted to see the place again. Anytime I start retracing the past and chasing old ghosts like this I always think of "walking in the footsteps of Phaedrus" from "Zen & the art of motorcycle maintenance". It's kind of fun revisiting the people you used to be, I guess thats what Facebook's all about.  I would definitely be doing a lot of retracing today, thinking about what music we would have had in the car, conversations we would have had about the people from that time. We started the day old school w bacon and eggs and coffee on the camp stove. I was feeling good like a character out of "a dog in a hat". I thought about writing some stones lyrics on the Pave's, Bob Roll style, but figured I'd better get out & back before the heavy weather blew in.
After re-rigging the kids fishing rods and getting everyone situated, I took off, turned rt and started chasing down the past. As a sidebar, we knew a storm was heading our way but were rolling the dice that day. The head wind was so strong that even on steep downhills, I had a hard time maintaining speed.  The thing that kept me pushing on, even as the pwr tap showed large(for me) wattage at some alarmingly low speeds, was the thought of seeing a piece of my past that I hadn't seen in many years. That and the idea that surely this headwind would be a helpful tailwind on the way back. It was so bad that I pulled over halfway expecting to see either someone holding onto my saddle or a flat tire. Neither. Just a spring storm blowing across the South and making every pedal stroke more work i was ready for. I kept trying to lose  myself in the beauty of my surroundings w egrets, cranes, woodpeckers and some very confused cattle. I don't think they have that many roadies out this way.  The toughness of the hills kept breaking my concentration. Finally, I saw the sign for Buck's Pocket,
I turned and out sprinted a few farm dogs(apparently in poor health-didn't catch me) and descended deep into the forrest down to the campground. Empty but beautiful, I wondered why no one was camping in this outcropping of woods and stones. I did a decent Clark Griswold impression and got a good look around before remounting & climbing out of the valley. Luckily the ride that had taken me 1:15 on the way out took around 35 min with the wind blowing me home(yes Seiler, I just said that). The painful climbs on the way out became screaming descents topping 40mph and carrying me easily over the rises that followed. I do love momentum. The ride back was fast and fun,  and I didn't notice that there was even less traffic than before. I was totally losing myself in college memories and made a mental list of people to call & email when we got home. I pulled back into the campsite, feeling the gravel crunch under my wheels and was greeted by the eerie feeling of seeing a place that had been teeming with people completely empty, except for my family and a ranger in a golf cart. The weather was bearing down on us and it was time to hustle. We packed the car just before the rain hit. Perfect timing, now I had a rainy drive with nothing to do but tell my tale as we searched for a dry place to hang and wait out the storm.