I ended up not going up to the first schedueled race of the year due to weather.  It was 29 and raining up there.  No Thanks.

So the first race of the year ended up being Hillsboro.

Going into it I was very nervous and had high expectations of myself.  Too high, too keyed up.  

The first problem of the day started when lining up.  We lined up at the back thinking this is a 65 mile race no need to get to excited and try to get to the front right away.  WRONG.   The cat 3 field was 105 riders, way too big for the roads they are racing on.  The roads are very narrow and 105 cyclists three wide makes for a long pack, especially when you are at the back.  Right off the bat a group of 9 went up the road without much resistance from the pack.  When they had about 30 seconds on the pack the race director stopped the pack and threatened to DQ us all because we were violating the center line rule so badly(we were taking up the whole road at that point).   Now the break had 3 to 5 minutes on us.

At this point Zink and I got to the front and tried to get away to bridge to the pack.  Wasn't gonna happen.  We towed the bunch around for 5 or 6 miles.   No one else was really interested in helping pull back the break, so we dropped back for a while. 

Going through town I tried very hard with 2 other guys to get away.  The group wouldn't let us go though.   I continued to work hard up front for the next half lap and then started cramping pretty good.  At that point the race was over for me.  I could not get rid of the cramps the rest of the race.

I ended up 40th after I lost contact with pack on the last hill into town with a mile to go.  Very disappointing day.

I learned a few lessons that day.  

1.  In a big field, you must be up front from the gun on roads like that.

2.  Eating and Drinking is a must even in a nervous pack(isn't that obvious?) .

3.  Huge field on narrow roads are not a good combo.

Stats for the day:

 Time: 2:57:40

 Avg pwr: 255 watts

Norm pwr:  301watts

Avg HR:  167

Avg speed: 22.6

Ain't it funny how you can have the best laid plans and goals and if Life doesn't want you to do them you sure as hell wont? 

This winter has kinda been that way for me.  I started out with some pretty ambitious goals in November.  Started off very strong.  Then life came up and smacked me off my routine.  That scenario has played out multiple times during the winter.  Just start getting into a groove and WHAMO. 

On the brightside I have been able to remain somewhat consistent.  My power numbers are as good as they have ever been, my weight is decent(plenty of room for improvement).  I think I'm ready to rock the first race in less than two weeks.  By rock I mean finish in the pack, it's a 1/2/3 race and my first real race as a Cat 3.

My current weight, 173.  The lightest I have been in January since my Senior year of high school. 

What does that mean?  I don't know really.  Last year I was 185 at this time and thought that was light for january.  I would like to see 165 by March 28th(first race of the year).

My bike will be lightened up quite a bit this year as well!!  I started building up a Specialized Tarmac Pro SL on Saturday down at the the shop.  I'm guessing it will drop my bike weight by at least 4lbs.  I weighed the old bitch before we started tearing her down and she was a beefy 20lb 8oz.  I'm guessing the new girl will come in around 16.5lbs with my new reynolds deep V ultralights.  We shall see.

October  -  Took off after the last race of the season.  Let body and mind heal.

November - had a good start of the month with a FTP test that I thought was great considering I took october off.  Rocked the rest of the month.  It ended up being the 2nd biggest month of the year in terms of hours ridden.

 December - motivation wanned, I pussed out for a while, lost focus.

January - back on the horse...

My first race back after letting my ribs heal was the State RR champ in Oak Brook.  On our way up to the race Mr. McCombs was screwing with his new GPS that wasn't working and didn't notice the construction zone we were heading into at 70mph.  Hi Mr. State Trooper...  Whoops.  Better get some primes to cover that ticket.

The race started pretty hecticly  after the registration process was screwed up by some pissy computers.  No warmup for anyone.  

 Aaron and I helped push the pace the whole time.  Being very vocal and spending ALOT of time at the front.  Aparently that was a good thing.  

The final stretch was a wide open 2 lane road about 600m long that you could see the finish line from the whole time.  When we turned onto it on the last lap I was 3 wheels back.  Well aparently none of those guys wanted to lead out the sprint.  The pulled off quickly and I found my nose in the wind with 500 meters to go.  I guess I better go.  That was the most painful 500m I've ever done.   Somehow, I managed to hold off everyone including Aaron who I barely nipped at the line.  We went 1, 2. AWESOME!!!  

  Me on the left, Aaron on the far right.

Me after realizing Aaron and I had gone 1,2.  

Stats for the race :

Time:  58:12

Avg mph: 26.2

Avg Pwr: 274

Norm Pwr: 327

Avg HR:  179

I was in great shape after proctor, and wanted to get some more points so I could upgrade by the end of the season.  So I went and did a Cat 4 superweek race in Olympia Fields.  I went up there only because it was supposed to be a 25 mile crit.  They were running behind and shortened it to 12 miles.  BS.  I ended up winning, which made the shortening of the race a little easier to take.

About a week later R. Michels and I drove 4 hrs during the midde of the week up to a Super Week Road Race.  Bad decision.  When you find yourself debating about doing a superweek race, DON'T DO IT!!  The races are horribly organized.  It ran about 1.5 hrs behind schedule.  On the second of 8 laps, we turned up the steepest of the hills on the course and I looked up to see some dbag COMPLETELY STOPPED right in front of me.  I played a game of human pin ball then and found myself laying on my side in the ditch. F*** that hurt.  I chased for a lap to try and catch the group but I was over a minute down and didn't close the gap any.  I pulled the plug, DNF.  Ryan ended up 7th.

I was out for 3 weeks after that with no riding.

Went out tonight to do the 20 min FTP test per the Training & Racing with power book/bible...

Went well.  Legs felt much better than yeserday. 

20 min stats:

Avg Pwr:  341!!!!!!!

Avg HR: 172 

Weight 171 lb (77.7kg)

Using the 95% conversion that puts me at a FTP of 324.  With a Power to Weight ratio of 4.17w/kg.  That's a much bigger improvement than I expected.  I was secretly hoping to be at that by the end of this summer 2 months away...  Now being there, I'm uping the ante.  Seeing as my training has only been consistently good in May and June, I think I can still make some big gains yet this summer.

48hrs 18min

904 miles

3322 TSS

Peak Pwr:

5" 1305w, 1' 621w, 5'  384, 20' 319

Great ride, felt good the whole time.  Good power throughout.  Got 2nd in first sprint, was sitting in the back when zink broke away.  Once you lose his wheel there's no getting back to it.  In the 2nd section Zink and I took off on one of the steep hills.  Sprint was a good one, he smoked me though.   3rd section I sat back let attacks go hoping to get pulled back up to them by somebody and sprint in the end.  didnt get back up to the attackers ..

I always look at the first section on every Tuesday ride powerwise.  Here's the stats

8.3 mi

17'45"

Avg Pwr:  291

Norm Pwr: 354