2013: The Beginning

Now is that interesting time of year as an endurance athlete. The race season is long since passed. You've taken time off, lost fitness, gained 'too much' weight, and let the mind wander. The 'off-season' was a haphazard compilation of fun riding, no riding, frustrating riding, and dreams of lots of riding. It was also a time to catch up on things that were but a figment of the imagination in the sweet-spot of summer racing and training: beer, late nights, that extra couple hours of doing something for no reason...essentially what everyone I know calls "life" or "fun". Aside from the extra time spent with friends -whether it is spent going out to dinner at 9PM or sitting at home catching up - I have few qualms with the dissipation of such things. This past week was the culmination of apathy for the structure and intensity by which I normally construct my training and general life planning. I had a hell of a lot of fun, saw many good friends (I'd like to 'give thanks' to the holiday bringing so many great people back home), indulged in good food and libations, and really let my training fall from a priority to a daily supplement. I ran in a race and played football the day after - two things I know make my body recoil in soreness...from Thursday through Saturday, I actually had to hold the railing while going down stairs. I went out to the bahhhsss with friends three times this week and shockingly enjoyed every bit of it (except almost falling asleep Saturday night!).

Some would think that these things signify that I am far from being prepared to re-enter training, or that it was such a "detox" that I will struggle to maintain focus upon an abrupt return to my daily toil. Neither of these are true. This ability to detach is critical in understanding the importance of every day's work and still being able to maintain focus on goals that are months or years away. Without an ability to step away from every minor detail, we lose sight of the entire picture. That doesn't mean that if a workout goes poorly then nothing matters or if a workout goes uncharacteristically well that all is perfect. It means you step away, understand the outcome, and grow. It's the beauty we experience as dedicated athletes while training: we wake up every single day knowing, not thinking, that we are better than we were yesterday. It's not always physical improvements though; every day offers different types and magnitudes of growth.

Today marks the day that I officially step into my training for 2013 and beyond (because what I do next season is more relevant to my future than the present). I am taking a variety of critical steps in improving my health, fitness, guidance, emotional strength, and my surroundings - both on and off the bike.

I leave you with something I saw this morning and see every morning when I wake up:

It is time to not only slowly 'return to glory', but to lay the foundation of the rest of my life. It would be foolish and simplistic to say that all this training is only for benefiting my future in cycling or even sport in general. Unlike many others, I do not carry the hope or idea that 2013 will 'go beyond my wildest dreams'. Thus, here is to 2013 reflecting the work, the dedication, the persistence that will lay a foundation of growth and fulfillment for years to come.

Cycling Bars: The Making of a Double Batch!

So, you like the cycling bars, right? Well I like them a LOT, and go through so many of them that I needed to make a double batch. I'm going to figure out the cost of a batch & per bar once I remember to save all my receipts!

The Making of a Double Batch! :)

Big bowl, lots of yummy.

Mix it up good! Once that binder is in, not much is going to change.

Put the binders in, and heat it up!

Continually stir, once it bubbles like this (or has big bubbles in the middle) you're ready to pour! If you're keen, you may have notice I switched where I was heating it...I went to gas - if you do this it is really easy to burn the mixture, and agave nectar + almond butter is not cheap!

A good trick is to pour some then mix, then pour more, etc until you have empty the pot. It makes mixing much easier and a lot smoother and, most of all, more even. The bigger the batch, the more critical it is to do this - such as tonight's double batch!

That would be a 17.5"x11" pan and is about 1" deep. Lots of bars.

I had some extra from the big bowl, so I made some Power Balls. Some sports require one ball, cycling requires a lot of them.
One critical note: the balls do not hold together well, you need more heavy binder (almond butter, etc) for them to actually hold shape well. These were pretty fragile!

Just wanted to give y'all a little foodie goodness!

PROduct Giveaway!! PROBAR: Review of The Best Bar Out There

First off. PROBARs rock. Comment on the post with your name if you would like to be in the drawing for a giveaway of a full sleeve (12) of PROBARS! At the end of the post I'll list the types of bars that I chose for my special mixed sleeve. I promise, they're all awesome (and I haven't even tried them all yet).

From PROBAR's homepage:  "PROBAR creates delicious, convenient, healthy plant based food products.  We strive to become the leading provider of REAL FOOD choices while maintaining our commitment to quality, sustainability, and fantastic taste." Trust me, they mean what they say.

PROBARs galore. Will they be all yours?

Just a few weeks ago I became an Ambassador for PROBAR, a whole food bar. The cool thing is that I didn't seek out PROBAR because I wanted free food. My first exposure to the brand was when I was riding with a friend and he bought a PROBAR. The first thought I had was "woah these things are calorie dense" (at 350-400kcal per bar). I checked it out, doing the classic ingredient review I do with most new foods I come across. It was just a bunch of stuff you could get at your local natural foods store. None of the extra junk that is unnecessary for a bar. So I bought one the next time I saw one, then I bought some more. Soon enough I would have 2-3 on long rides and avoid eaten them out of the cabinet as a snack so I could save them for cycling! I liked the bars so much I shared pictures on facebook, and that's when PROBAR asked if I would like to be a social ambassador. Where do I can I please sign?!

I'd like to say that the only reason I'm set up with PROBAR now is because I honestly love their stuff so much that they saw my excitement for the product. What I discovered was very well put by a friend who hates eating while riding (she was also just in Vegas for 70.3 Worlds). She said that they fill you up pretty well and sit very comfortably, not like how a CLIF bar sits like a complete brick in your stomach. (Also note that a PROBAR is 1.5 times the calories of a Clif bar.) Another friend pointed out that it's just like eating good natural food, and you don't get the awkward texture or weird acidic taste when you eat something that is more processed.

PROBAR calls itself the "whole food meal bar". This name is very fitting, as it is far separated from the 'energy' bars, protein bars, and meal replacement bars that are so strongly pushed in both the worlds of athletics and everyday use. The problem with almost every option (and many of the high volume/advertised brands) are that they really aren't made of stuff that is all around great for you. Many of them use processed carbohydrates, sugar substitutes, and other less than natural or unnecessary components.

"simply real"

On the other hand there are a few that truly stand out. Vega, Larabar, and PROBAR are the only three that I can recall and give full "approval". Vega comes from a line of mostly raw, extremely health-focused foods and supplements. Larabar is very simply made of dates, nuts, and a couple other basic add-ins. PROBAR has a lot more ingredients than Larabar and thus has a brilliant variety of flavors. The ingredients are of the same nature - almost entirely organic or raw - and are things you can pronounce and know from day to day food encounters. However, the flavors are amazing and widespread and never get old (I can tell you it takes 1 or 2 Powerbars and I'll call it a year, plus they don't even feel like food when you eat them).

Take your pick. I know mine!

Now you might not get why I feel these bars are not created equal...if you look at the ingredients on a PowerBar you'll see the ol' "Contains 2% or less" that can include more than 50% of the ingredients. What's the deal with that? Why do you need less than 2% of Nonfat Milk Powder and "Partially Defatted Peanut Butter"? Clif bars, which are definitely more natural than PowerBars, have mostly organic ingredients but uses soy protein isolate, which is highly refined and often treated with extreme levels of heat (275F to kill bacterias), to increase protein without adding fat. Most fat is not bad, it is actually very good for both athletes and non-athletes alike. Especially when it comes from high quality nuts! However, PROBAR uses the natural protein in nuts to provide nutrition. Most things you come across in this world of nutrition and sports energy are things that have been refined and refined (not to be confused with optimized or perfected), making them increasingly processed and more difficult for the body to use as energy. All the while they are being advertised as better than any of the competition because they have "proprietary" components, when those are the parts that put them below the more natural and complete options.

No need to enlarge to show the amazing natural texture on these bad boys.

The lucky winner's sampler pack will include the following:

• 2 Superfruit Slam
• 2 Superfood Slam
• 2 Whole Berry Blast
• 1 Koka Moka
• 1 Double Chocolate
• 1 Apple Cinnamon
• 1 Nutty Banana Boom
• 1 Cran-Lemon Twister
• 1 Cocoa Pistachio (Sweet/Savory)

Comment on this post with your name for your chance to win some Mighty PROBARs! And get out there and try it, whether it is during activity or a delectable snack/mini-meal, your body will thank you graciously. A big thanks to PROBAR for supplying me with the extra case so I could do a giveaway.

Ultimate Cycling Food/Daily Snack - take your pick!

It's been a long hiatus. And how better to get back to it than by talking about food & cycling? You probably can think of a lot of ways, but you'll definitely enjoy this one.

One natural food bar that I absolutely love is PROBAR - if you haven't tried one, do it! They're an extremely tasty, well balanced, and energy-filled bar. I first saw this when Doug (a damn good coach of all endurance sports) and I were on a ride and he got one. A new recipe I found from Neil Bedzek's Homemade Cycling Bars is awesome and reminds me a lot of PROBARs but you get to eat the "batter" while you make them. They're an amazing bar for cycling, up to a moderate intensity. On a long, easy ride you could pretty much intake more Calories than you burn if you have enough of these with you...they're that good. I've been twisting it around a few different ways to test out different fat-carb-protein ratios. The base recipe binds so well that even in your sweaty back pocket (inside a plastic bag) it stays in a block!

So here it is - super easy to make GF/Vegan.

Binder - heat up in a pan until it starts to bubble, make sure you stir it consistently or it can burn/caramelize.
1 Cup sweetener (Agave Nectar, Honey, Maple Syrup, Brown Rice Syrup, or the 'financially efficient way' with Corn Syrup)
1/2 Cup Nut Butter (Almond, Peanut, Cashew, etc)

Dry Ingredients:
2 C Rolled Oats - not quick oats
2 C Cereal - I love Mesa Sunrise Cereal (GF) by Nature's Pride Organics
1/2 to 1 C of whatever mix-ins you desire (Raisins, Craisins, other dried fruit, Sunflower Seeds, Nuts, Chocolate Chips)
Salt for taste, if desired (or extra sodium if you sweat as heavy as I do)

Mix Dry Ingredients in a large bowl until evenly distributed...once that binder goes in the mixing isn't nearly as easy. Pour the hot binder over the dry ingredients and mix until everything is soaked up. Always, always (!!!) taste the 'batter': A) It's yummy and B) you can fine tune the mix-ins or add more binder before finishing. Once it's glorious, press into a 13x9 or large pan so it is 1 inch thick. It doesn't matter if you don't fill the whole pan, it's gooey enough that it won't spread once you form it. Toss it in the fridge for 30mins to solidify the binder and you have a glorious set of homemade bars for cycling or snack. I hope once I get my food processor back up and running I'll be able to get some dates finely ground up (a big part of PROBARs) and toss those in to top it off.

EDIT For Advanced Progress of bars, inspired but oncoming summer and warmer temperatures (3/10/2013): Recently I've been trialing these bars in a better "heat-friendly" form. I bake these on 350F for 10-15mins, just until the edges very slightly brown. You want the heat to bind them more strongly, but not make them brittle. There is a fine line here...especially when I start posting amended recipes where I reduce fat content in the bars. I botched a batch last week, and the were brittle enough that eating them with one hand while riding was doable but difficult - bumps knocked pieces loose :(...which is not fun when a piece could be 50-100kcal!!

Not enlarged to show texture - false advertising not necessary here.
(Test batch in the pan, ready to be cut into squares or simply eaten with a fork.)

My test recipe from last night (to be unveiled next week) was a huge hit at the SMR group ride this morning. Jeff, who in particular is tough to please with homemade stuff, was a big fan...that's how I know I really did it right.

Hope you enjoy! Feel free to post the variations you make that work best. I'll post a few variations of this recipe next week once I do more experimenting.

EDIT #2: Here's the "Nutrition Label" for 1/12 batch. A medium sized (I'd say 2.5"x3" bar). A BIG bar is 1/9 batch and is 3.25"x3.25". I have to go ride my bike now. 4.5 hours, 86 miles, and I will be bringing a BIG bar with me (and a PBJ sandwich and a sweet potato muffin). 200kcal/hour, kids.
Cost: Price per bar. Yes. they are ~$0.45 EACH. Beats a store bought item by, say 400%?

Tour of Washington County 2012 Kick-Off Criterium (Cat 3/4) Race Report

This whole 'plan' was decided on Tuesday, I drove to DC to stay with my buddy Rob Thursday, and raced Friday through Sunday. Jeff suggested I add in the Kick-Off Crit on Friday because I was making the trip anyway. I was worried that this would take too much out of my legs for the weekend, but he advised me to trust the race to stay together and, if it did, go for the sprint. My drive to DC was miserable. I got stuck in traffic in NYC on midday Thursday for 2 hours, nearly running out of gas so I shut off my AC and was pouring sweat as I got fried in my car. In traffic an 18 wheeler kept rolling backwards as we were on a slight uphill...it very very nearly rolled right into my hood. Thankfully another 18 wheeler saw this and laid on his horn. Just when I had used up all the area of reversing towards the car behind me the driver decided it'd be a good time to put on his brakes. I was freaking out as there was absolutely nothing at all I could do to get out of his way, except back into the vehicle behind me! The drive took a miserable 12 hours (with water/pee breaks and gas). Luckily I brought all my food with me or it would have added even more time.


Arriving to the outskirts of DC at 8:45PM, I picked up Rob at work. We hit the grocery store (Rob has seriously gained some cooking capacity/knowledge since he's been in DC - I was pleased) and got home before 10PM. I had talked to someone through a friend about selling my Trek in DC, so I headed out on the 2 mile drive to sell it quick before eating dinner. I met Sam at his house. As we walked to his apartment - Trek in hand - I realized I locked my keys in my car. I called AAA ASAP. They said 40 minutes, which is reasonable. It took 95 minutes, which is excessively unreasonable. I had to call 3 extra times to figure out what the heck went wrong. This was my first ever bad experience with AAA...excellent timing, now I was going to eat dinner at midnight the night before my biggest ever weekend of bike racing (I am very specific about food/timing around cycling). I sold the bike and had some delicious dinner at Rob's (thanks Rob!!).

Fuel for the fire.

Friday comes along, the race at 6:30PM. I left Rob's at 3P to pick him up at work. DC traffic is hideous even during the day. The race was about 1.5 hours away from his apartment, so with traffic we were expecting a 5PM arrival time. Traffic was far worse and out ETA dropped back to 5:30PM, which was still comfortable for me. Until my car "broke down". Being in traffic and with the heat, my driver's front brake locked up. I didn't notice at first as we were in traffic, but as the traffic subsided it was immediately apparent that something was wrong...I couldn't exceed 25mph. Luckily I pulled over, because when I did the wheel well was smoking - tasty, black smoke. It tasted like brakes (not really, but it was nasty). I looked at the clock - 5:05 - and our ETA - 5:35. Making the race was going to be extremely tight!! Even if the director permitted me checking in after 6PM (registration usually closes at 30min before the race). I called my Dad to see what I should do (get towed to the race, then deal with the car later...or get towed to DC and bag the race). He said that as I had come all this way to race my bike, I should at least see about getting to the race. Basically I needed his OK so if I got Rob and I stranded in Hagerstown, then I could say it wasn't just me blindly wanting to race and nothing else. I called AAA (second time in 24 hours!) - they would be able to reach me for towing at 5:45 at latest. Uh oh...that means getting to the race at 6:15 - enough time to make it to the start line without a warm up (I was planning on warming up in the race anyway to save for the weekend). While on the phone with AAA I was talking to Rob - I told him we were likely bagging the race and just going to DC as there were no shops near Hagerstown that were open even after 6PM. I considered getting a taxi from the highway to the race...but then my car, with $$$$ of bikes was sitting on the side of the road. While on the phone with AAA I told them to cancel the call to Hagerstown and just bring me back to DC, I had officially mentally bailed 100% on the race, which was pretty crappy...there was just no way I was going to make it. Now, if I'm going into this much stupid detail about a race I didn't race that'd be weird, right? Right after I edited the AAA call to go to DC I turned on the car and prayed to whatever gods of cycling may or may not exist. I shifted into Drive and released the brake. The brake was not rubbing!! It had cooled off enough! I told AAA to cancel the entire call and that they would hopefully not be hearing back from me in 5 minutes. Rob asked "How are you going to use your brakes?". I told him I wasn't. Haha! I was going to use the E-Brake foot pedal and hold the Brake release lever to slow the car. Our ETA to the race was now 5:50. It was going to be tight even without traffic anymore. I kept distance from other cars and drove with the most efficiency I have ever in my life!


We made it to Hagerstown at 5:48. I ran to registration, got my bib, and ran back to the car. I changed up while Rob mixed up my bike racing cocktails, and was on my bike a little after 6:00. I ditched the idea of throwing on the GoPRO that Jamie @ GBS lent me...I needed to focus on the task and get my head into the race. I usually am emotionally prepared to race many hours before a race. Today, I had bagged the race just over 1 hour before the start time...and now 20 minutes before the race I had finally gotten into my place of Zen - saddled up on Slice of Life.


The crit course was PACKED! It was an event that was more populated than the Clam Fest here in Maine. People were cheering, out on restaurant patios, etc - it was going to be a fun race. Too bad I wasn't ready and had the stage race on my mind. Two laps of noodling around the course and m head was in it. I was ecstatic to be here and the car troubles and midnight dinner last night were a thing of an entirely different existence. I was in Hagerstown to race; nothing more, nothing less. I had a quick chat with Rob during my warm up as I traded out a half-empty bottle and kept 2 full bottles on the rig (gotta keep in the fluid for the weekend). One sprint on the finishing straightaway and a 2 minute steady effort and I was primed! We waited 50m from the start/finish for some weird reason. Then someone called my name to see if I was present...not sure why though. Then they started announcing riders' names. I realized I was getting a call up, woohoo! The top 12 ranked riders were called up, I think I was 8th or so out of ~100...not bad, but I definitely didn't come here to get 8th place!

0.8mi/1.3K. Races clockwise.
4 Right turns and the left-hand chicane into a quick steep pitch. Finish is just slightly uphill even though it says flat.

The race went off, the tempo was much faster than I expected as I had heard that New England crit racing outdoes most of the country. My first experience was to the contrary...we were hauling and there were pretty regular attacks. My plan was to sit in and let it stay together. I did my very best to not cover any moves, but when 4 guys started to get distance my instincts took over. I jumped the gap. We held only a lap or two. It was almost definitely going to stay together. "Good" I thought "Save it for the sprint". All was well until some guy went hard off the front at 8 to go. I took a short pull in the process to not disrupt the pack's chase. He had a good gap and not much was happening. Finally some people got anxious and it shrunk. We were Gruppo Compacto at 3 to go...yesssss it was playing out just as Jeff had hoped for me in order to save my legs for the weekend. Although the base effort was much higher than expected. 2 to go. On the last 2 corners a couple guys jump. I'm now second wheel and they're gaining. No choice but to close. With less than a mile to go I was going to blow my saved energy. I reeled it in by the start line and it was clear it'd be a tight group finish. On the back stretch I was 4th wheel, one guy paced it for about the past half lap and started to lag - reasonably so. I stayed alert and kept access to respond to anything at all, knowing a move had to happen. My legs and lungs were close to red-lined from staying up front after pulling back the attack only a minute before. It was the classic way Jeff describes a crit finish: if your lungs should feel like they're going to bleed, then you're in the right position...stay calm, it's supposed to feel like that. At this point you have two choices: give in to the intensity, burn, and give in to the idea that you can't sprint off of fiery legs and burning lungs...or trust in your fitness, training, and capabilities.


I heard a click 10-15 feet off my back to the right (we were lined up on the left side for the upcoming right turn in 300m). Before looking I knew it was a serious acceleration, so before looking for it I jumped, accelerating for a few seconds. I looked right and sure enough one guy (Luis) was blazing up the right side. Another acceleration and I was nearly on his wheel. Now it was seriously burning. If he laid down much more wattage I would be using my final sprint just to hold his wheel. The turn came and we hit it crazy fast, but smooth. The guys stood out of the turn and sprinted. Only one thing was clear at this point: hold that damn wheel and it's your express ticket to a win...nobody was going to be making moves past us before the final 90 degree turn to the 150m finish. There's only one thing I like more than a 400m drag race, and this was it: I knew everyone was going insanely deep just to be in it for the finish. Which meant sprinting off burning legs and out of breath. As we came into the turn (which had brick through the corner) my wheel bounced around - as expected - but held okay. Luis had a good 5-10m on me due to a better corner. I hammered, when you get a perfect gear into a sprint it is a beautiful thing...in this case it was also known as invincibility. Sometimes you don't even know when you're 1 inch from the line, other times you are pretty damn sure over 100m away. This was of the latter type. I was already gaining on Luis fast and had no concern of those behind me - it was up to me and the white line to settle this battle. I finished strong, accelerating or maintaining all the way through the line. With closing the gap just before the final lap and the way Luis attacked it was the most I've ever been cooked at the end of a crit. It was completely worth it.


It was apparently a big deal winning this race. The townspeople and the crowed were both awesome - totally into the race, and surprisingly excited to have been there! A couple people came up to me a little later and congratulated me. One guy asked if I had a pen, I said 'sorry I do not I was just in the bike race' and asked him why. He said for an autograph. I laughed and said "you're kidding me, right?". He was dead serious. He never did get a pen, luckily for him as he would've had some useless scribbles on his hat!


The podium presentation was awesome. They gave me a bottle of champagne to pop on the podium. The guy who ended up in second asked if the director had just given alcohol to a minor; I assured him that I was in fact 23 (both real age and racing age :p haha).

Cat 3/4 Podium. Perfectly timed picture by Rob!

This race was great all around. I finally raced somewhat "smart" for a crit and didn't blow myself up during the race. It's amazing how good of a finish you can have if you don't waste energy foolishly or uselessly. The awareness and preparedness I had for the final attack on the last half lap while red-lined definitely shows that I am gaining skills mentally when racing. All-around I'm very pleased about the race. And, don't worry, I saved the Champagne bottle! It's now hanging out next to the Witches' Cup Criterium trophy from 2011 (my very similar big win last summer).

Purgatory Road Race 2012

Here is a debrief I wrote to an email group regarding the Purgatory Road Race in Sutton, MA on 6/10. I need a filler report before I delve into my write-up for the Tour of Washington County Stage Race (and Friday's Kick-Off Criterium).

Purgatory Cat 3 Race Report: A lesson on how not to race bikes (unless you are working for a teammate in the peloton. But even then, such racing is highly discouraged haha).

We were also set for a good 5 laps at 11 miles each, totaling ~4500ft gain. The course has a seemingly MASSIVE elevation loss and a noticeable, but not nearly as massive gain. (Hank et al, correct me if this seems incorrect). After the neutral start 12 riders got away, no one cared to ride faster than 20mph. The first thing Joe, myself, and a few friends of mine (who were planning an attack after the climb on lap 3 of 5) heard was 1:30 gap with 12 riders in the break. I had no idea this even happened because I - for the first time in my racing career - took the advice of many to stay away from the front as I tend to work myself for no reason.

The gap got to 2:25 (I think) and I was sick of the field making no effort. I slipped off the front when taking a pull and no one did anything, mini effort and I had 50m. I stuck my head down and rode hard. Quickly I had 30s on the field and half a lap later as the legs were getting quite heavy I was within 60sec (!!!) of the break. Sadly I was not fresh due to the Nutmeg races the day before, or I would have laid it all on the line in effort to make it onto the climb and go to war on that 1K hill to latch onto the break. However, the pack swallowed me up, but we were now withing 80sec of the break - which was slowly falling apart. Very few wanted to work aside from myself and sir Joe Lynch. We knew a couple things: 1) if we sat it wasn't going to come back and our best placement possible would be 8, even with the falling apart breakaway and 2) we didn't come this far to sit around with a pack of individuals satisfied with a poor placing.

Joe and I made attacks and drilled the field for the remaining two laps, each of us gapping the field on multiple occasions. The efforts Joe put in were (as expected) massive and unforgiving. At one point on the backside of the course where there was the 250m 3% climb, I thought I popped - I started to get the chills/goosebumps/cramps - and told Joe and another fellow whom we were off the front with that I had officially imploded. I slowed to something shy of 5mph and the field was on me before I could relax. I barely latched on and somehow recovered to continue to assault with Joe.

Now we were within 60 sec once again after falling back to 90+ sec on the third lap. It was clear we were devouring the pavement between ourselves and the breakaway because while taking a pull on a long straight I saw SRAM Neutral Support. 1K later, it was pulled into a driveway. As Bob Roll would say, "The referees have declared that the breakaway will be caught, the team cars are being stopped along the road." I must note that during the last feedzone a gutsy individual took it upon himself to win. He broke away from the breakaway and won cleanly.

We passed the SRAM car and it was on to the final climb. Taking the right-hander to the 1K climb, Joe was fully exploded and I was rendered something just shy of dead. We eased up the rest of the climb and called it a day.

Final result: the breakaway (except for the valiant lone ranger who went solo) did not survive and nor did we. The friends I had in the field and was hoping I would help did not have sufficient legs to place or collect money. Joe displayed his classic capacity to endure and endure, especially on a course that wasn't quite his forte. Although, when you can dig deep like Joe every course is your course. I made an effort to do (what I feel is) one of the most amazing feats in cycling, bridge the gap to a break. However, I could not sustain the effort and am a bit stronger because of it.

The End of a Glorious Age

I knew it was going to happen as soon as I sat upon Slice of Life - my Giant TCR Advanced SL 2. My 2006 Trek Madone 5.2 was going to be a machine of the past. I considered keeping it around as a training bike, but the feel was so different I knew that training on it at all would inhibit my capacity on the new bike. So it was set aside and eventually up for sale. Last month, I sold the SRM that was my trusty training partner. Then I got really lucky. I was going down to DC to stay with my buddy Rob for a stage race in Maryland, and another friend down in DC knew someone who was looking for a bike! How about them apples! And it was the right size. So I eventually met with him last night and did the old money/bike switcheroo. It was nice to finally sell something I hadn't used, but I can honestly say it was a little sad to part with Lamia.

Not just because I spent so many hours riding, or the races I did (and the many during which I was so fortunate to actually cross that pretty white line first), or the people I met in the community. But the main reason I was saddened was because that chunk of well-aligned carbon fiber and efficient drivetrain was where I began to love cycling. Before Lamia cycling was much less a "sport" than "cross training", a method of maintaining fitness during my injuries as a runner. But all that changed on Lamia, which was intended as my entry into the world of triathlon in 2010. I fully decided that I was going to focus primarily on cycling just one year ago when I was living in Boston at my brother's apartment after graduating; in part due to my lack of spring swimming and in part due to my joy of cycling. And now - a year later - I am within striking distance of my Category 2 upgrade within less than 2 months of Category 3 racing.

I'm racing the Tour of Washington County, which was initially going to be a solo race with no one I knew. Luckily, Tim Durrin was easily convinced into racing with me this weekend. While we are both going to be racing for GC contention, it will be good to have a strong athlete with whom I am comfortable racing and in whose abilities I am confident. It's going to be a slugfest...especially because I'm throwing in a crit tonight on top of the stage race. Let's hope the body is recovered after last weekend! I'll find out in 7 hours' time.

Slice of Life. Officially Unveiled. (Post 2A of 3 post series)

So, I had this post completely written out. It was about 3 times as long...and went to post it via the mobile app today and it deleted most of the post.

Thus, I will have to completely re-write the post (~3 hours solid work) where I talk about the bike itself, the technology behind it, and the wonderful feel of riding it. This is now the "naming" post for my new bike, because that is the only part that was not cut off and deleted. Enjoy!!

I don't even know how to write this post. I've put so much time and effort into thinking about purchasing a bike that verbalizing the actual culmination of physically having and riding THE bike is difficult. All I can say is that I could not be one bit more pleased with going through on buying the bike. I had a couple points of "unsure-ness" along the way: 1) When I had my Madone tuned at Gorham Bike and it felt like a completely new bike. So good that I considered I might not actually need a new one - but then at the end of my first ride on it, a mechanical issue occurred that was inherent with the bike itself. This once again clarified how much of a step up getting a new bike would truly be. 2) When I first was on the new bike, it felt weird. The best analogy I can come up with is like an exponential form of how a first time customer at Maine Running Company feels when he or she wears an actual running shoe that is properly fit for the first time ever: it feels so different the individual is not sure it is 'right'. But as soon as he or she gets a few minutes on it or goes for the first run, it makes whatever they felt previous to this new shoe like a completely different activity than running.

This is what I felt once I had a few miles on the bike. It was a world of difference. But every single difference was a massive improvement. So much so that at first the bike even felt awkward to turn (I'm not kidding. My first turn out of the GBS parking lot onto Congress St was sketchy at best. I'm glad no one from the shop saw or they would think they just sold this beautiful bike to someone who struggled making a simple turn!)

Now to unveil the official name of my Giant TCR Advanced SL 2: Slice of Life. I was really set on naming my bike 'Dexter' because that was my (at first) humorous cycling/athletic alter-ego that began with the CompuTrainer workouts in December. However, I was calling myself Dexter and not my bike. My Trek was named "Lamia", Latin for 'witch', 'demon', or 'child-eater'. I named her on the way down to the 2011 Witches Cup, as my plan going into that race was to win it. It was a bold move (I don't think I told a soul about the name at first). Had I not won the race, the name of my bike would have been a constant reminder of failure. Had I won, it would have been a very fitting name. As for the 'child-eater' translation: I was a Category 4 cyclist, and was still not racing with the 'big boys'. Thus, with the bike, I was not taking down the MEN with her...I was taking down the kids who look up to the Cat 3's, 2's, and 1's (whom the 4's and 5's admire).

Slice of Life is a reference to Dexter the TV show. Dexter is a blood spatter analyst at a Miami police station, and just happens to be an assassin as well. Warning: Do not think I am going "off the deep end" or getting "dark and evil" with this name. It all started because about 5 years ago when my uncle and cousins pointed out that I look A LOT like Dexter in the show. Then friends in college picked up on it pretty quickly too. The pictures below are me from Halloween 2010.

Dexter only kills people who 'deserve' it by his father's standards and moral code, and only kills when he has complete proof of the victim's wrongdoing. His boat is named "Slice of Life", which is blatantly fitting for both his profession (blood spatter analyst) and his hobby (assassinating bad human beings). This late name-change from Dexter to Slice of Life (SoL) is because Dexter is the person and Slice of Life is the boat. Also, Slice of Life is fitting because it represents both a sliver and a huge part of my life. Cycling both breaks up and completes my day, nearly every day - as I just completed a half year of not missing a single day of cardio (including the period of having a broken clavicle!) As Dexter does his work on Slice of Life, I do mine. He typically disposes of his victims on his boat, while I plan to make my competitors (victims) suffer on my bike. So it all works out pretty darn well, and I can still be 'Dexter' without naming my bike Dexter as well. My bike is Slice of Life, a beautiful and stealthy Giant TCR Advanced SL 2, and I am the assassin that operates her as we take names and (hopefully!) kick asses.

Slice of Life. Hanging out at her favorite stomping grounds...Gorham Bike and Ski!

The scary part about investing thousands of dollars into anything, especially something you "already have" to some extent, is that you don't fully know that it would all be worth it until you get that feeling: the pure feeling of completeness and perfection. When I took my first ride on my new bike, at first I felt concern. The bike felt sweet(!!!) but not insanely awesome like I expected. Then I hit bumps in the road, exceeded 30MPH, took some corners hard, hung out in the drops, did a few sprints. It was literally an out of bike and out of body experience. I was feeling something 100% different than I was used to. I was feeling a true machine that was set just right for me. The combination of a top-end bike and a great fit finally melded with me. Last fall Jamie Wright (owner of Gorham Bike and Ski (AKA GBS), and fellow teammate on the Base-36/GBS squad) told me, "We have to get you on a 'real' bike." My response, "What's wrong with my bike [Trek Madone 5.2]?" He told me the difference in stiffness alone will amaze me and, almost more importantly, my competitors. I knew he was serious, as I now have the exact same bike that he has...and he's the owner of a bike shop with access to multiple brands and every tier of bike imaginable. Obviously I didn't get this bike because it was what he had, I got it because it is the absolute best and best for me and my purposes (argue about Shimano Di2 or Campy EPS all you want...then give me $5000+ so I can upgrade to that model and I will gladly shut up...maybe...because I love my new SRAM RED soo much! By the way: SRAM RED, my new component set, is post 3 of 3 in this series). Many of you might see an apparent "conflict of interest" as he is the bike shop owner of my team's sponsor and he's telling me a new bike will make a world of difference. Well, to all you haters out there, the bike is a world of difference...and as with any team at any (decent) bike shop we get some level of a discount on purchases. Thus, Jamie was 1) advising me as a friend 2) advising me as a teammate 3) making a smaller margin of profit on my purchase than other customers 4) I was pretty obviously going to buy my next bike from GBS regardless of what he said 5) he honestly wants me to have every single possible advantage of performance, comfort, and enjoyment in cycling because as teammates we feed off of each other's energy and successes. Example: when Jamie led out for me this past fall, he was the reason I won sprints...sometimes I barely even had to work to win sprints. Once, I took the final sprint of the Saturday Morning Ride (SMR) at the cookie jar with a sprint effort I would deem about 75%. That is absolutely nothing, especially for such a strong group of cyclists in such great late-season shape. Jamie just absolutely hammered out the pace into the sprint that no one had the ability to accelerate and challenge me for the sprint. This was no way a sign of my strength, it was a display of execution on his part. Do you believe me now? I would hope so, haha!

Our first real ride together. Beasting some 20% grades :).

All I can say is that Slice of Life is a beautiful machine and we will have many wonderful miles together as a team. The bike feels amazing and has already proven itself to produce some amazing results...I'll try to get back to work on my full-fledged post regarding no only how amazing of a bike it is, but why it is such an amazing machine.

2011: Year in Brief Review

One of the greatest aspects of having a successful year of training is looking back at last year. It is very easy to say "I did well in that race because I won" or "I did poorly because I beat this guy handily a few times but he beat me in that one race". But, something along the lines of "after completing a very difficult workout, my confidence increased noticeably and may have led to my great execution to win the field sprint". While the last line seems more arbitrary with saying "may have", it is much more helpful in looking towards how to improve next year: Why was I not confident before? What physiological advancements gave me the capacity to come out on top once I could mentally execute? What components of positioning played into that finish?

There can be hundreds of questions for every scenario; and to better oneself he or she must consider every one of these...even the seemingly obvious ones.

As both a benefit to myself and anyone who wants to see deeper into my results/training: I'll leave myself open for some Q&A - feel free to leave comments or email me at travis.b.kroot@gmail.com, if there are enough (or any at all) questions, I will do a follow up post to answer those questions.

Now for a quick rundown of 2011.

Started with the intent to focus on Olympic Triathlon, but changed to pure cycling in May due to situation, success in cycling, and enjoyment in cycling.
5th place and 1st place in GVCC Spring Giro's B Group (Cat 4/5).
2nd place at Bloomfield, NY Road Race - Cat 5
Collegiate ECCC Championships @ PSU: Champion in Road Race and Criterium (Class D)
12th Place at Hollenbeck, NY Road Race - Cat 4/5 (8th place for Cat 5)
1st place at NY Road Race State Championships @ Bristol, NY - Cat 5
**Upgraded to Cat 4**
Auburn Road Race - Mechanical resulted in losing the field
5th place at Concord Criterium - Cat 4
1st place at Witches' Cup in Salem, MA - Cat 4/5

Other notable achievements were:
Having a great team (Base36 Cycling/Gorham Bike and Ski) to work with during races and group rides.
Winning my first sprints on the PVC Saturday Morning Ride. One day in which I won 2 of 4 sprints.

By the numbers:
I cycled 8012 miles last year, and ran a mere 775 miles as I only focused on running in January-May and December. My biggest training weeks were:
Multisport: May 8-14: 20.2 Hours; Cycling - 228mi, Run - 49mi, Swim - 4.5mi
Cycling: June 12-18: 20.5 Hours; Cycling - 359mi, Run - 10.2mi

For 2012: I plan to exceed well beyond 10,000 miles, and 12,000 miles would be a stretch - but not impossible. As my focus is going to be more on quality than it was last year, I am not reaching for a specific number...just progress and, eventually, results.

Once again, feel free to throw any questions my way - I'll be more than glad to answer. As my Biotransport Phenomena professor loved to say "No question is a bad question".

Game On

Be weary to take this as some of that New Year's resolution stuff. When I say "Game On", I mean it. The only asterisk here is that I will be almost 100% coaching myself for the time being...I am utilizing knowledge I've gained in training but also from some very intelligent people (read: Doug Welling) and friends who have decades of cycling under their belts. However, dictating my own workouts has fared extremely well in the past. I have been in a mostly constant state of improvement since I quit varsity Track/XC at Rochester in 2010. I had an excellent coach, Doug Welling as I have mentioned on many accounts, who prepped me unbelievably well for the PVC Double Loop - where I was planning on racking in a couple wins, some loot, and a great day with my teammate on Base-36 Cycling/Gorham Bike & Ski Race Team. I had to focus on just training alone once I broke my collarbone, and having a coach was not feasible at that time. But financially and situationally right now, dictating my own schedule is the best option at the moment. No telling what happens in the coming months though...

I know I will be able to continue to make big gains, because with simply training in an unstructured fashion with a broken collarbone I've gone from my FTP being in the mid-290W's when peaking for a race in November...to 301W on 12/15, and over 310W on Friday. The only "workouts" I have done cycling were those all out efforts and some technique work. Enough talking about the past.

My overall goals are to improve as quickly and effectively as I can in the next few months to be prepared to get a super early season upgrade to Category 3, and then come into The Tour of the Battenkill ("America's toughest 1-day race") in good form for such an early race. The big thing I'm awaiting is getting my SRM sent out and returned from Colorado so I have a fresh battery and wonderfully accurate data, until then I will likely do quality work on a CompuTrainer.

What I plan to build into over the next month (from pretty intent to rather strict) is as follows:

1. Exercise with a Purpose: Anyone who is not in a top tier of athletics will make noticeable gains from maintaining a good quantity of exercise. (Note: I gained about 6% on my FTP while doing almost all 'easy miles' with a broken collarbone...in about 1 month since the first 2 weeks of my fracture I was quite useless athletically).
   Bottom Line: So, here is the critical point in improving effectively. I'm working on building a structured repertoire of workouts that I will essentially be testing on myself "in the field". This isn't purely physically stimulating, it's exciting to make something and test it yourself, it's both sides of learning and benefiting from your own knowledge. Some of the stuff I am bouncing off and having friends try out as well.
2. Nutrition: I have a really good grasp on nutrition in general. The only things I can put good work into is reducing fat intake slightly to keep total of my calories from fat under 25% (during high volume base training, you can definitely put in over 30% calories from fat...but when working on weight loss - cut some, not a lot, of fat). Therefore I'm aiming for about 20% calories from fat. Once real workouts and strength training are back on (pending how the clavicle feels) I'm going to need to increase protein intake.
   From a 2 week period where I logged everything I ate and was pretty intent on training/eating for best results (not necessarily weight loss as it was mid-peak season), here's the data:
   Looking back - I'm pretty darn pleased: 57% Carbs, 18% Protein, 25% Fat. Quite well for that time of season.
   BL: Eliminate meats high in fat, increase micronutrients, and eat enough early in the day (night loading calories is a classic flaw of mine). And ditch the alcohol, aside from a drink or two per week - and only the good stuff!
3. Weight: to quote a Bible of Running (Once a Runner. If you haven't read it, go do it. Now. This post is of much less value of your time. Even if you don't like running.): "Gaunt is Beautiful". It is also a classic line by the Men of the URXC team, and seen on many t-shirts. But in realistic terms, weight is one of the ultimate maximization problems known to athletes...especially those who utilize numbers such as "watts per kilogram". All athletes who are serious (and almost any athlete at all) wants to lose weight. And almost all of these people will benefit from at least some weight loss (the rarities are those who naturally have excessively low body fat %age, are already at their optimum - ususally a professional, or people who need gains in muscle mass). I am none of these, and if anything - the opposite. I am naturally built strong, stocky, and the professional thing is clear haha. I could benefit from trimming down fat and losing some (but not a lot) upper body mass.
   BL: Lose weight steadily, and not too much. Maintain enough caloric intake to not sacrifice recovery from exercise.
   I'm not afraid to talk numbers: today I weighed in at 164.0lb at home. I plan to be under 150lb fairly (reasonably though!) soon. My current FTP is around 310W and gave me an estimated power to weight ratio @ FTP of 4.29 W/kg, which (according to cycling charts) matches up to the lower end of Category 2 cyclists. Now I just have to prove it where it counts, which is the only place it truly matters.
4. Core/Lifting: I need to kick these into gear once my shoulder feels the situation is viable.
   BL: Get after it. I know what to do, just doing it is the issue. The only category in which my motivation doesn't get me all jacked up to do it. Once I get in the groove it will move along better.

Other things I want to work on are more life related and also quite important:

1. Reading: I've never been much of a person who is into reading, but I've gone through phases. It's something I enjoy but don't put all that much time into because I'm bad at remaining still.
2. Learn Organic Chemistry: It's something I never took in college and always wanted to. Had I overloaded at the right time(s) I could have taken it without sacrificing too much. But being on a varsity team and overloading wasn't a pleasing thought. Could I have done it? Sure, but not at the sacrifice at enjoying myself. And I like the challenge of learning something thought to be so "difficult" on my own. It's exciting, kind of like building cycling workouts from scratch and seeing how they pan out. (Note: If anyone has a spare Organic Chem textbook...let me know! It'd be a massive help :p)
3. Sleep/Schedule: I will be working (hopefully full-time) in the near future...so I plan to get on a normal sleep schedule. With the training volume I plan to sustain, 5AM may become a relatively normal wake-up time. And with 14+ hours per week training alone, I like 8 hours...add work on top of that, and I'll have to be very efficient with my time scheduling. Bring on the challenge.
4. Pick Up a Hobby: Not sure where to go with this. But it will be a nice, pleasant time-filler.

Today it all begins: Nothing changes, but the focus is different...and thus everything is different, because mentality is everything (almost, haha). Go ahead and read the intro to Jack Daniel's Running Formula, it sums up athletic capacity quite well...and it applies to every aspect of life that has limiting factors and situational benefits.

I leave you with a quote from a phenomenal athlete: Mirinda Carfrae, 2010 Ironman World Champion, 2009 & 2011 Runner-up, 2005 ITU Long Course World Champion. And she's the fastest female Ironman runner out there. She's smart, strong, and whose bite rivals the level of Ali's bark. This quote is from an interview around the time of Ironman Kona 2011.

"You have to be willing to hurt to that next level. Yeah, there are people that go out there and say, you know, 'I'm just gonna go and do my best'. I think that those athletes are not ready to put everything on the line because they're scared; those athletes never win."

Pushing Through..and Finding that "Extra Gear"

As you all know, I broke my clavicle just over 4 weeks ago (to be exact: 4 weeks and 3 days), and I was doing my best to continue training through all of it. At points it did hurt a fair amount - and when it did I listened to my Doc's instructions of "Do not do anything that causes pain". So whatever actually hurt, I had to hold off on. Luckily, this was really only walking fast, running, and things that required range of motion (ie: reaching bike handlebars was way out of the question). Basically my biggest issue was sleeping and keeping comfortable throughout the day; putting on clothes and showering were more like a challenging game than a problem...and keeping a lot of tasks as independent as possible probably was my own form of early recovery PT. I quickly learned how far I could reach and what rate it was progressing at and also what I could carry in that arm and what I would be able to hold without pain in a week's time.

The one thing I did not let up on, was keeping myself active...even if it meant I could only withstand 25-30 minutes of high discomfort while on the trainer. Sometimes it isn't what you do, it's why you're doing it. I kept going because that's just a part of me and I've never let anything get in the way of what I enjoy on the most fundamental of levels. That is not to say nothing is more important (clearly, that is a different story), but usually a half hour is viable regardless of situation.

So I kept it up. And I progressed pretty damn quickly compared to what I expected - and what I had heard from a lot of other people. I was on the exercise bike the day after I crashed (and couldn't walk faster than 25:00min/mi without pain), I awkwardly jogged 0.5 miles for the first time 15 days after the crash, did my first bike workout on day 16, and ran just 23 days after the break. Today I did a brick and it was my third run of the week...my arm swing is even coming back!

What surprised even me (I usually have pretty lofty goals of recovering from injury and returning to good form) was a workout yesterday. A few of us at Maine Running had a Time Trial race on the CompuTrainers, it was a 19.7mi moderately hilly course with a noticeable net elevation gain overall. I knew I was going up against Ryan and Adam, but figured out once I got there that Doug Welling would be participating...so instantly I thought I was going to be absolutely destroyed in this race. It was all out of good fun, so I welcomed the challenge and I will be the last one to ever not want someone to push me to a new level. I had a pretty solid cold and little use of holding onto the handlebars, so it was going to be difficult no matter how I cut it (unless I dogged it, but that option is deemed erroneous before even being contemplated). I figured I should at least go out with hitting my date FTP, and then go from there. (For those of you who don't use power...FTP is functional threshold power: a wattage that was estimated from a workout a couple months back, and is the expected power output I can sustain for an all out 45-60 minute effort). I had never done a 1 hour TT and was both excited for it as a whole and a bit nervous for how the last 15 minutes would feel.

We took off riding pretty solidly, and about 15 minutes in my Avg Power was in the low-mid 290's...elevating a bit on climbs, dropping a bit on descents. I had developed a good lead, but Doug had been holding in the mid-280W range (despite having done a murderous bike workout the day before) and I knew he wasn't going anywhere. I hit the last good descent to the lowest elevation and was averaging 23.6MPH, but knew that a lot of climbing was ahead. I tried to hold above 23.0MPH. That quickly was out the window. Then, like I should have been doing all along,  I turned my complete focus to my power - even effort yields the best result. Sadly, as I suspected, it started to burn pretty bad with 15 minutes remaining. With about 3.5 miles (mostly climbing) to go, Doug tells me to go for 300W...this means I would have to average somewhere over 320W, something that was unmanageable for much time no-handed. So I sucked it up and held the bars, with surprisingly no pain and some moderate (but bearable) discomfort. I kept pushing with all I could, and the 295W jumped to 296W...and was miserably slowly working it's way up. With just over a mile left it was at 299W, so I started giving it my last surge. It hit 300W with about .3 miles to go, and with .2 left I started pushing all out and sprinted with .1 left. Only issue...in my effort I think I became slightly delirious and though the finish was at 19.3 miles. I literally had just blown all of my reserve and had just went far beyond my red line...and I had .4 miles to go. I forgot about everything else and just gave every last bit I had to keep that power over 300W. It dipped into the 280's and 260's a couple times, and I got to the point where I actually was putting out less power when I tried to stand up. I was about to pop. Finally I crossed the line (and thank goodness we were on trainers or I may legitimately have fallen over before I stopped) and stopped pedaling. My legs were shaking more than I could ever recall.

I ended up averaging 301W for almost 55 minutes, well above my expected value of 291W. I was very surprised to see this after a lackluster few weeks of training. One thing stands, I would have been nowhere near this level had I just taken time off...looks like I saved myself a month or two by training through for a few weeks.

That TT was pure joy. I had never before given my all for a final effort, then somehow dug deeper and continued pushing. For the first time in all my athletic experiences, I have proof that there is always just a little more to give...I guess the thing is you have to bypass logic (or trick yourself) to find that it's there.

The picture below is the results for the race: I'm rider #2 AKA Dexter.

My First Crash: 31.8MPH+Asphalt+Travis = ....

For those of you who know me personally, you probably already know that I broke my clavicle on Tuesday. I figured I would give a quick update before I meet with my orthopedic surgeon tomorrow. It appears as though it is going to be an optional surgery or non-surgery situation, but I will definitely listen to the advice of my surgeon and family friend (who happens to be an excellent surgeon and even better person) very closely.

Rewind to midday Tuesday. It was gorgeous out. Best weather imaginable: low-60's, light wind, cloudy. I opted to wear arm warmers and knee warmers for my easy-ish 30min warm-up to make sure my body was properly heated up for a killer 8x30sec all out accelerations from an approximate lead out speed of 26mph. I use a little hill (50m, 3-4% grade) so I can accelerate easily - as if I were drafting my 6 foot teammate :). Then, about 10m into the flat, I hammer. All out for just over a quarter mile, or 30 seconds, 'til my heart feels like it's going to pop. Did the warm up and shed my arm and knee warmers at my house. Spun lightly to the short, slight hill, pulled a 180 and was in my lead-in to interval #1. For a workout like this with 8 reps, they are misery for intervals #1 & #2 because the effort is insanely high and foreign. You feel like you're killing it for 3, 4, and the start of #5, because you hit the groove and haven't built up too much lactic acid. Then it is back to misery, but it hurts because of lactic acid...and you dig deeper each interval. It starts at midway through #5, then you're not recovered for #6 so it hurts within about 10 seconds. #7 you're lucky if the acceleration has any snap whatsoever. #8 feels like you got no rest after 7. Numbers 7 and 8 are what a lot of people say is what "separates the men from the boys". But this doesn't do it justice, because everyone is doing it. Getting yourself to the point where the legs feel like they're bleeding and your lungs burn is only the set-up, every one hits this. The key is denying it, being insulted by the pain, and digging deeper than you did the last time you did this workout. This is that beautiful place where races are won. Not by wheel-lengths, or meters. By centimeters, on a good day. To quote a classic movie (Fast and Furious, the Original) "It doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning."

So, this is pretty much how excited I was for this workout, my last effort before a race Saturday where I planned to capture one sprint at a minimum. I was going through the workout just as described above. First two sucked. Then I settled in, #3 wasn't as fast as I hoped but still felt good. #4 came along and my heart rate was not fully recovered in the 3 minute window (started #4's lead-in at an HR of 132...for me, I consider rested mid-120's). I was working on properly gearing into the sprint and shifting as necessary (as, if you've been keeping up on my posts, this has caused me to spin out or not be able to accelerated properly in recent sprints). I started the sprint in my 53-15 (4th biggest gear), immediately went into the 53-14, a couple seconds later into the 53-13. This brings me up to just over 30mph on a flat in the headwind I was set-up with (that conveniently simulates the first sprint of Saturdays race!) at a cadence of right about 100rpm. Then comes the best part...that very moment you're spinning fast and smooth and put it into the very last gear you have. Where there is no concern but cranking every last watt, utilizing every ounce of muscle in your legs, core, and arms...something that is unique to cycling from almost any other sport in this exact moment - the no-cylinders-left-behind dead sprint. This, when fresh, can get me to 36mph in such a situation...but in a training cycle with a few intervals in me, I'll hit 34mph or so with that pleasant headwind.

I click the last gear. It hesitates (which has happened before...and with a recently replaced rear shifter and shifter cable is not a rarity), but it usually engages after 1 second. This time it didn't. Just before I would have shifted down then up again, it completely skips. This rockets my cadence up somewhere around 150rpm (my SRM showed 144rpm at this very moment), which is well above my capabilities...I think I can max it out at 135rpm, which is obnoxiously bouncy and dangerous at best. As my legs accelerate beyond their capacity, my chain catches in the 53-12. The sheer force from 150rpm and my biggest gear torques myself and my bike far more intensely than any theme park ride, ski crash, or personal experience I have ever had. I'm guessing it was something like the jerk of a pedal to the floor acceleration of a Ferrari. (Note: I'm not kidding). What happened next was the quickest turn of events of my life: the whole this happened crazy fast but when thinking back seem like freeze-frames. I was looking directly at the ground and within milliseconds I was pummeled into the ground at precisely 31.8MPH. Direct to my head and left shoulder. Going completely rag-doll, my hip lashes into the pavement and I slide on the pavement for a few seconds while my bike catapults off the side of the road; losing the bottles and my cell phone/ID/cash bag departing my back pocket as quickly as my Oakley Raders jumped off my face.

Here's the frame-by-frame low down: The torque lifted my rear wheel off the ground and I started rotating around my front wheel. This was far more torque than I could possibly put out in any normal circumstances (too bad my power meter wasn't working properly...). Think about full on revving your engine in neutral and jumping it into 5th gear. Your car would literally lift off. This is precisely what me and my wonderful Madone 5.2 did. So I'm riding on my front wheel, knowing nothing good can come of this, and then the bike drops to the left, the front wheel slips out, and bam! my head and shoulder crash into the asphalt. There wasn't really any pain. I knew it was going to hurt within seconds once the thrill/fright halted and I had my wits back about me. My whole body hit the ground. Yard saleeee! And I slid, relatively quickly, to a stop.

(The last thing my SRM saw: 31.8MPH, HR = 178bpm, then the low-balling cadence and power thanks to a toast SRM battery: 144rpm, 728W)

Considering this was my first cycling crash I was surprisingly, IMHO, very well collected. Being used to pretty solid spills while freestyle skiing, I had been shaken up before...but nothing at all like this crash. My first instinct has always been: "Inventory". This is that critical moment, immediately after such an event when you assess 1) your head/brain 2) your body 3) your situation. Yes, situation comes third...because if you have no brain or body, there's no concern if a car is coming. Fortunately, I was just a bit to the right of the white line and was, only moments before, travelling at approximately the 35MPH speed limit - so if I car was coming behind me it wouldn't be flying at 20MPH more than me...I hope. Back to the inventory: 1A) I was sprinting, my gear slipped, then I went down hard. I could recall being on just my front wheel and being flipped over and seeing behind me as I slid on the pavement. Brain, check!, no serious initial head injury. 1B) I 'feel' okay. I know exactly where I am (RT88, 0.5mi south of home, ocean-side of the road). I can see completely straight. Brain test 2, check!, likely no concussion at all. (Aside: if you're asking "did he seriously do this" the answer is a resounding yes) Next up...body: Left side is burning/numb, head is throbbing a bit. Body: intact, but quite shaken up...well beyond any previous experience...but nothing that freaks me out. Thirdly, situation: I'm definitely not in the middle of the road, I'm just to the safe side of the white line ("phew!"), and people are already getting out of their cars. At this point I know I'm safe, and I'm going to be totally fine. I remain laying down while two individuals (a kind fellow name Tom Patterson and a woman, named Liz, who was clearly more freaked out and reasonably more concerned than me). I collected my breath, wits, and relaxed a bit. At this point I was nearly certain my head was fine I told the two people I knew everything that happened and everything that was going on at the moment...and informed them I was likely going to miss my race on Saturday. Tom asked if he should call an ambulance, but I told him to wait as I felt fairly good considering and wanted a couple minutes to assess the situation before I made such a decision. At this point I didn't think I had really hurt myself. Head was good. Body was still resetting and felt like some bruising and solid road-rash (Yes! Badass points!). I removed my helmet (glasses had decided to remove themselves already) and then looked at it and said, fully audibly "Thank You".

Next, I stood up. Retrospectively this was a bad idea because had I actually (despite such certainty) knocked my brain around, I could have instantly collapsed, further injuring my body and head. As I stood I was very light-headed, but I managed to stumble and stay upright. At this point my sense of 'feel' was coming back and I felt something weird in my shoulder: it was definitely no pain (yet), but was an awkward tingly sensation that (looking back at it) reminded me of when I had a super small break to my wrist. I slowly reached with my right hand towards the most reasonable spot for any non-blacked out cyclist would: the good ol' clavicle. I touched it, felt a rather rigid bump under the skin, and came to the quick conclusion that I had some level of a fractured clavicle. This meant I was not going anywhere fast. I decided it was wise to return to my location on the cool, leafy pavement. In combination with being shaken up, the realization I broke a bone put me over the edge and my return to the pavement was choppy at very best. Controlled fall is a better description. Tom and Liz insisted that I not use a phone...thus, I had Tom call my Dad, tell him that I had crashed my bike and was fine, and was 0.5 miles south of the house on route 88. Because I knew the next stop was the hospital (and Tom only got my Dad's voicemail) I figured it was most intelligent to call an ambulance as no professional had cleared me of major head or back injuries...although I am clearly a reliable reference. So I grabbed a few sips of water while I waited, asked what sort of condition my baby (aka bike) was in, and the lady who lived across the street, Lisa Nolan, offered me a towel to keep me warm. Initially I said I was all set, but that's before the 60F pavement had settled in. I later took her up on this offer as we waited for the meat wagon to arrive. Tom said I busted a front spoke and thus it was totally out of true, but the frame looked okay (aka no major cracks). I have since looked over it and it appears okay, yay!

(Weaksauce road rash. Teaser pic...X-Rays are wayyy cooler)

As we "hung out" some cars whizzed by...literally everyone was saying 'what could people be in such a rush for that they don't slow down when cars are parked on the road and people are huddled around a person laying on the road'. Even though I was on the shoulder, I audibly agreed. Regarding the drivers, "what fools" I thought to myself "what if your son or daughter was laying here?" Tom called the Falmouth rescue, which is fair...because there is a station 1.25 miles from the 'crash site'. But they had to refer to Cumberland rescue, as we were in Cumberland, but that station is a good 5 miles away down Tuttle Rd. I knew it was going to be a while, which was fine because nothing was critical. But I was getting antsy...and, worse, pain was starting to set in and I wanted to get the hell off the ground. I talked to my Dad on my phone, which I located when the others were looking around for it (haha). Told him all was well and I busted my collar bone, but it was fine (fine to me equals no compound fracture or unbearable pain, thus no compound fracture. I don't know how a compound feels...but I don't want to. My guess is more like shock than pain lol). Made sure to let him know my head was perfectly fine: which was proven to the few onlookers when I eventually rattled off address, DOB, SSN, my exact location, how exactly the crash occurred (which I don't think a single person actually understood), no car was involved, and, yes, I crashed completely unaided by terrain/potholes or other vehicles...the only thing that actually sucked to admit. One other thing I told my Dad was the classic "Sorry for scaring you!" I also talked to Jason briefly. He asked if he should come back from business in NH, I laughed and told him "Dude, I appreciate the gesture, but seriously I am fine".

The first (preliminary) paramedic was a guy named George, who assured me that the 'big guys' were going to arrive momentarily, but he was nearby when the call came in. I figured it would be another 2 minutes or so. George basically ensured I was mentally aware and got the details of what happened first hand. The one thing I had difficulty remembering is who arrived first...my Dad or the ambulance...because it was a flurry of questions and concerns at that point haha. My Dad gave me the "Awwww shit, really?!" look when he first saw me. I'm sure he could tell I was in good spirits on the phone, whether he thought it was true or to comfort him is up in the air...but he usually has a good read on me so I'm guessing he was pretty sure I was okay. But I know he would be concerned even if I called him safely from home excitedly saying "Yo bud, I got some road rash today!". What can I say, he's a great guy :). I am pretty sure he beat the ambulance...and set a WR (yes, a world record) for fastest time from Allen Ave to the Foreside...absolutely destroying my brother's former WR/PR of XX minutes (Jason's secret remains safe). You might not think beating his time is impressive...but he had a girlfriend who lived over there and they were together for like a decade, which included highschool and collegiate shenanagans. My brother's time is 'erroneous on all accounts' as my Dad's was surely in the single digits, thanks to that Saab 9.5 Aero's killer engine! As my Dad's car pulled in behind where I was laying, on of the kind ladies said "Oh my god this person is coming in fast". I laughed and said "what kind of car?". She said, "it's black". I asked "does the license plate start with 113?". She said "Yes", confirming it was, in fact, my father. I told her it was my Dad and he can come in as fast as he wants as long as he doesn't hurt anyone. Knowing my Dad's licence plate further proved to me, and everyone else, I was fine. I was relieved to see my Dad more for his own good than my own, as I knew everything was okay...but he needed to see it to know I was okay. Lesson about my Dad: He's badass and awesome and will be by one of his children's sides in record time....even if he is told very firmly by me "TAKE YOUR TIME. I AM FINE. I WON'T LEAVE BEFORE YOU GET HERE!"

So there's Part 1 of my exciting sprint workout gone awry! Part 2 is going to discuss all the fun stuff of hanging out with the paramedics, the first two days of recovery, how freakin' lame pain meds are, and my consult with my orthopedic surgeon. Oh yeah, and a meeting regarding a potential job!