Rosser Chiropractic

Not that I had really set it as a goal or anything, but after a 70 mile ride on Saturday with the team and the opportunity to ride again on Sunday, 100 miles seemed like the obvious choice as a stopping place. The best news of the year so far is that compared to last year, I’m feeling like a different (read: better) rider.

About twelve months ago, I braved my first team rides and would end up being wiped out from a 40 or 50 mile weekend. Many of those rides I ended up coming home alone because I couldn’t keep up without
feeling like I was going to throw up or pass out. Going in to work on Monday, feeling “less than fresh” made me wonder what I was doing to myself, but kept at it anyway. A year of solid riding, good mentoring, and a season of racing looks like it may have paid off for this beginner. But, really, folks, I think that’s quite enough jinxing for one post…

Saturday’s ride was 28 or so strong as it left from the Valley. I didn’t count, but I think the group was half men, half women. The route patched together a few rides that I’ve done many times, but never all at once. As always, I’m totally impressed by the route leaders who seem to know every rural turn that exists and can work through course options on the fly. My inability to find my way around is one of my biggest motivations for building my fitness, truth be known.

I almost couldn’t remember what it felt like to ride my carbon bike after riding my cyclocross bike for months and months now. It felt cushy after all the road miles on my fendered cross bike this year! Still, by the end of it, going up French Loop, I did have nasty little cramps in my quads when I tried to stand up. Guess that’s show biz! Oh, I also didn’t mind the pauses in intensity as we had to stop for several flats along the way.
Day 2 of my weekend was riding down past Millersylvania State Park for about an hour out and an hour back. I rode with the CBC Fitness ride from The Bike Stand. Besides feeling my legs from the day before, I felt good and was perfectly happy to sit in the back of this group and let them muscle forward so I could just cruise along. I think they went on to Tenino and back

Johnson Creek Loop returning on Delphi Rd

Total Time: 3hrs 17min
Total Distance: 59.25miles
Ave Speed: 18.10mph

Today I was able to get out for the team ride starting from The Valley. A large group assembled with a good mix of riders, some of whom I hadn’t seen since October for our Meet the Team ride. Most of them, however, are part of the core of the team that make the rides every time. So far, I’ve had a flakey start. (Kinda like a lawn mower that doesn’t start for the first time in the spring and blows out a little too much black smoke when it does.)

Our ride worked a bit like a caterpillar for a while as the group tried to find a decent pace for all, which is nearly an impossible task, given that the group does have varying levels of fitness and ranges of what constitutes Zone 1-2. My favorite part of the ride was when a small group of us stopped for a minor mechanical. Suddenly I looked around and discovered that I was surrounded by Cat 1-2s and another rider who has quads as big as both of mine put together. Hmm, I thought, where’s my bungie cord. There were 5 of us to bridge back up to the main group. Since this was less than halfway through the ride, I sure wasn’t looking forward to breaking the bank too early. As it turned out, though, our trip back up was speedy and lots of fun, even though I wasn’t exactly planning on pushing my heartrate up so high. Oh, well. Good times!

Not long after, we came up through Millersylvania St. Park and the choice to go straight up Tilly to Olympia or take the turn towards Delphi/Black Lake. Well, I chose the left turn, slowed down to about 10mph up the hill and finally made it over only to suffer a flat within about a minute of coming down the hill. Robbed by destiny? Nope, the flat was a welcomed reason to stop watching the rest of the group vanishing in the distance. I came up Little Rock Rd. and am now warm at home, already looking forward to riding with the group again next week.

Cheers, Andy

Today, the team held a ride to Centralia via the Steam Plant. I’d never tried this ride before, so I thought it would be a great day to do it given the time available for the holiday. I’ve also been very excited about getting my training plan started for the year.

My goal was to stay low in my heart rate zones (Zones 1 & 2) for the entire ride. And all went well for the first half of the ride, but I really started feeling tiredness in my legs when I stopped in Centralia to get something to drink. I went through two large bottles during the first 30 miles of the ride.

On the way back out of Centralia and heading for home, I started to feel my legs a lot and it felt very much like my road racing experience. The feeling of hanging with the peloton followed by rapid fizzling of the legs and then a long lonely ride by myself. This happened today, after discussion with the group, and I shooed them along. I’d ultimately make my way home, but not after a lot of pain in my legs. Guess I should have ridden about half the mileage I did today, in retrospect.

There is a P.S. to the story: I had a flat right after being dropped and broke my pump in the process of pumping up the tire… “Epic” is all that comes to mind, but not in a good way!

Cheers! Andy

Seattle International Raceway.

On Nov 16, 2008, I got to race in the Cat 4 men’s 35+ race for the state championship of cyclocross. Let me just say that I learned a lot in a very short time about racing. Read on to see what happens when a guy gets used to starting at 9:30 and ends up racing at 9:00 at the State Championship race.

I had a bit of a scare in the morning as I was lining up to race. I had a very low front tire and thought that I had a pinch flat from hitting a rock on my warm-up lap. I freaked out and cursed the fact that I haven’t gotten a new set of wheels to act as spares. Maybe when I am rich and famous or maybe after another mishap.

Anyway, I panicked and all I could come up with was pumping the tire up and waiting to see if it would hold. There wasn’t time to change the tube or I would miss my start. Who needs THAT kind of stress, eh? Anyway, the short story is that the tire has the same pressure in it now as it did 3 weeks ago during this race. I never had the flat I had diagnosed. My rookie move had me rolling around the course with a very hard front tire which made my cornering a little slippery. I did fine, though, despite a slight mistrust of my wheel. The good news is that I had better rolling resistance than most, which turned out to be an advantage for much of this course!

Coming across the line was a great joy because I was fairly certain I had made another top 20 finish. This time in the State Championship race! Wow. Not bad for a guy who was finishing more than 10 minutes behind the leaders last year. I got 17th and only 2 minutes behind the race leader’s finish.

Until next race… Cheers! Dr. Andy

Well, it seems kinda pathetic that I can’t seem to find a way to keep this blog updated, but here is my first post since April…

November 9, 2008- Seattle Cyclocross Race Report for Bremerton Fairgrounds (SCC #6)

Michael Lewis and I spent about 30 minutes on our trainers under rainy, but not pouring, conditions and fairly mild temperature. We found a dry spot near the fairgrounds pavillion building. After a ride around the course, which revealed an awesome mix of mud, singletrack, barnstorming, gravel flats and field riding, we gathered with the rest for our departure.

At the whistle, everyone took off fairly slowly going into the first barriers but then the race was on and the strung out quickly. i was able to get free of much of the crowd fairly quickly, but the race leaders were off and away, and not necessarily what I was after anyway. I found a few riders who I know have been finishing in the top 20 through the series and decided to have them pace me since when I ride by myself I generally ride slower. It worked, and I was able to keep a steady pace through all of the barns, single track, and mud pits. Actually, I lost several places in the muddy swamp as it sucked all of the energy in my legs.

In the end, though, I held on long enough to get to the final sprint where I won back a few positions on riders who were cruising across the line. After all was said and done, I finished 19th and moved to 33rd in the series standings.

Michael finished higher up on his standings from his previous race and enjoyed the mud. We met up after the race and were able to get some pictures with other Valley riders who were out for the day (noteably the Jeffs.)

Next week is the State Cyclocross Championship race. Who knows what that race holds for me…

Race Report: I spent my Sunday morning in the shadow of the cooling
towers at the Satsop Nuclear Site. Well, if the sun were out there
would have been a shadow. Our group consisted of 68 category 4/5
riders, three of us (myself, Corey Nunlist, and Brian Forn) being
Valley Club riders. As we rolled out from the staging area, and within
the first mile or so of racing, there was a small pile-up of what
looked like about 5-10 bikes in the middle of the pack. There was more
than a little screaming and the smell of burnt rubber. I was roughly 5
bike lengths behind this and was able to maneuver around it to the
right without having to brake much. I was grateful for this, as we
were travelling quickly downhill. To the right of me, some riders were
being pinned to the guardrail, including Corey N. He appeared to fair
better than others, though who got caught in deep gravel.

I was able to stay in contact with the main group as it reassembled,
moving into a position near the first 1/3 of the pack. From here, I
caught my breath, as I must have been holding it through this crash
situation, but all was well for now. From here, as we rolled into the
valley floor below, things tightened up and the pace slowed
dramatically. I found myself in position to continue working myself up
in the pack. After a short time, I found myself in the front 15 or so
riders. I was able to see small breaks of one or two off the front,
but surges quickly dissolved this. Since it was so slow, I think that
some were trying to push the pace. There were some on the left side of
the road trying to make positions where it was clear, but they were
called down by other riders for this maneuver. My positioning was not
hard to defend until the hill rose before us. As we came up to the
top of the hill, I held my position, but perhaps a bit aggressively.
I held off my fatigue until the steep pitch at the end, where I
finallhy lost it. I was soon being passed, and so close to holding it
together… If I had recovered more quickly, I would have been able to
climb with Corey, but as it happened, he passed me with some
appreciated words of encouragement.

As I didn’t want to blow everything I had, I slowed down to recover.
As there was a downhill coming, I knew this would be accomplished. I
was disappointed to have lost the group, but I had plenty of company
around me and groups were forming quickly. I found a rider who was
willing to work together, and we did so for most of the rest of two
laps with others joining us as we went along. Somewhere near
approximately the last half of lap 3, this group broke up. I rode
along until I was met by Brain F. From here, we finished out our day
together on the climb.

Although I didn’t know what to expect during this race, I did set out
to accomplish a few specific things. One was to be in somewhere within
the front half of the group for part of the race, because I wanted to
challenge my tendancy to hang near the back. My second goal was to
focus on fueling/hydrating while racing. Unfortunately, this is
something that takes a lot of attention for me. Third, I wanted to
improve my average speed, which I did by about 2 mph over this 40 mile
ride. It was a good day of racing for me.

Since last post, I did indeed race at the Independance Valley Road Race. I faired better than expected… I didn’t finish with the pack, but I definately finished stronger than I thought. On the first hill, someone pulled out of a pedal and stalled on the hill right in front of me. It quickly broke up the group. I got around him, but by a hair. I bridged up to the group, which may have been my mistake that ultimatedly led to being dropped off with about 1/3 of the group. After about a mile of riding in a pretty disorganized group, I called for 1 minute pulls or less, and we started riding in a nice steady pace and gaining speed. Although I wasn’t thinking about getting back into the main group, it was nice to be going faster than I could alone.

After about 20 miles of this, it was clear that some of the other riders were wearing out from the pace, and three of us led off on a hill. I kept nice and steady on this hill which felt great now that I was warmed up. I even passed a few people while sitting down! After this hill, I caught on with another rider and we paced each other along. Somewhere close to the last 10 miles of the ride, we were passed by the women’s leaders, and our Ladies in Green (Valley) were at the front. Never a more inspiring moment. This meant that they had made at least 5 minutes on us! Nice work!

in the end, I upped my pace, passed a few who had flagged out, and crossed the finish line feeling spent but proud.

It’s true, sometimes, that you never know how good you’ve got it until you don’t have it any more. Last weekend I took a trip to meet up with family in Eastern Texas. Originally, I had hatched an elaborate plan to rent a bike in Dallas, then take it with me so I could ride in the mornings in the warmth of a Texas spring. Sounds great, right? Well, here’s how it played out in reality:

First, I wouldn’t have traded any of those precious seconds that I had to share with my family, because, really, I can ride any time I want. I rarely get to see my family.

Second, riding in East Texas would have scared the Lycra right off my butt! The lanes we were driving on were way undersized for the vehicles, and the posted speeds were in the 70mph range! Not a good mix in my experience. It sure was beautiful, though, and sans large format tires, would have been lovely riding.

One other quick note… Don’t step out in front of vehicles in Texas, even if you have a pedestrian crossing and pedestrian crossing signs. It’s fine to wave, but don’t try crossing the street. Wait until there isn’t a car in sight!

I’m back at my home-based riding program again, and anticipating racing tomorrow morning at the Independance Valley Road Race in Rochester, WA. The route is mapped here:

Since I got to see my new bike at the Expo, I’ve been thinking a lot about it. There is just something to be said for a new bike that isn’t like anything else. I’ve pretty much loved every bike I’ve ever owned, except for one 35 pound piece of junk that I just couldn’t stand for a minute, even though it was my only bike for four years! Anyway, been doing a little dreaming about racing next cyclocross season on my new ride.

I also want to expand on something else I have been thinking about since Saturday’s presentation by Chris Carmichael. It is in regards to his comment about creating an environment around yourself that allows you to even consider the achievement of goals. He told a story about Lance Armstrong that demonstrates this. According to Chris, Lance would go out and check his bike and ride it around even after his world-class mechanics had already completed their meticulous work for the night. Sometimes all would be well, other times, something would be adjusted or changed in the set-up. How would you feel if someone like this was checking your work? What it offered him, though, was absolute confidence in the controllable factors of his game. Chris offered that lance’s attention to these details was one of the factors that went into achieving his ultimate goal. It’s also contributed to the unbelievable fact that he only had one flat tire during 7 consecutive TDF rides/victories. What does it mean to me if I have 7 flats during 1 ride? Something to ponder.

I spent all day Saturday in Seattle at Cascade Bicycle Club’s Bike Expo. Among their guest presenters, I was there to mostly to see Chris Carmichael, but of course thoroughly enjoyed seeing presentations by Katie Compton (of cyclocross fame), Craig Undem (from CycleU), and Paul Swift/Dr. Katrina Vogler from BikeFit, and others.

One of my favorite presentations came from Chris Carmichael in a talk that he gave entitled “Achieving Unrelenting Excellence.” Of course this was inspired by his work with Lance Armstrong and the other athletes that he coaches in his company Carmichael Training Systems. Here’s the skinny, short and sweet. These are the characteristics necessary for achieving what you set out to do:

~Possess an Unrelenting Desire for Excellence
~Create an Environment of Achieving Excellence
~Never Stop Looking for Innovations
~Develop a Passion for the Process of Achievement
~Nurture Your Talents
~Don’t Get Into a Position of Defense, Keep Moving Forward
~Provide Clear Leadership
~Fulfill the Promises of Leadership, be a Role Model

I also got to see my new cyclocross bike, which I should be able to get before summer starts. It’s the CX1 by Norco.