Sweet Potato Stew

On a whim, with a smattering of ingredients, I made a sweet potato stew in the crock pot. I just got my last farm share and had too many to put in my fridge. The celeriac (celery root) I had no idea what to do with and didn't want to throw it out...so I chopped the rooty third off and just sat the cut side down into the stew so the top stuck out a little. I did this on a complete whim so I have no clue how much of the spices are in it. So, go by the ingredients then spice to taste!

Ingredients:
2 Sweet potatoes (at least medium), into 1cm cubes
24oz can Crushed Tomatoes or sauce (all I had was Hunt's Pasta Sauce Vegetable Medley)
2 small (1 Large) Red Onion
3 cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 Leek stalk, somewhat chopped
1 large bunch Kale, chopped
1 can of Beets (with juice!!)
1 Celeriac (Celery Root), with rooty part chopped off
~2tsp Cumin
1tsp dried basil
1/2tsp Ginger
1/2tsp Chili Powder
1tsp sea salt (more or less depending on how you like your flavor)
Water, to cover almost all

I'd suggest adding something for spice, whether it is ground chipotle chili pepper or Frank's Red Hot
I threw in 2 jalapenos, chopped thinly. I'd highly recommend starting with 1 or omitting all seeds.

Directions:
It's a dang crock pot. Put everything in, add water to almost everything is submerged. Then turn it on. Low 6-7 hours should do well...but High for 3 worked great (as I was going to be nearby and didn't want to wait 6 hours). Serve and I suppose you could garnish with Leek greens, but I wasn't that patient when it was done...

Enjoy!

Return to Glory 2.0: Lake Auburn RR

It has been a very long time since my last post. Over a month and a half. Ouch. Luckily this doesn't mean that everything was going poorly, although things could have been a bit better. Battenkill was a blast (how could it not be!), but after that I had a flare up with my Achilles, then an obnoxiously confusing finish to Blue Hills which left me in 12th rather than top 5. The upturn was the last race of the Scarborough Crit series.

With about 8 laps to go (of 20), Hank and Chris Green got off the front. A few people tried to make moves but nothing stuck. Jurgen and I then decided it was time to give it a go. We attacked on the back stretch, but got hauled back in by none other than Ed Sebok. So we went again, Jurgen up the left off the front of the field and I went up the gutter on the right - away from the pack. Jurgen and I put in a really heavy chase for Chris and Hank that lasted a couple laps. They (if you have any idea who Hank and Chris are) were hitting it hard. Finally, up the little incline they were right in front of us - 25 meters - and I was burning...just hoping Jurgen would come around to close the last bit. Sadly he didn't (a massive 5 hour ride the day before finally got to him) and I gave A LOT to finish it off, bummed that I lost him in the process but it was my only hope of closing the last little bit. I tried to settle in, but my recovery wasn't coming along. I took pretty even pulls the rest of the way. With 4 to go Chris pulled past me and said, "Travis, it's all or nothing now". We held the break and I got the sprint. So I got the win on the first and last SIPC races in a breakaway, which I am pleased with. I ended up 3rd overall for the series with missing 3 races and 2 of my races were after another race, and I am also quite happy with that.

Fast forward a few weeks and it is the Lake Auburn Road Race. I had a grudge going into this one thanks to a dropped chain and the remaining 1.25 laps of TTing with people on my wheel, so at least I had some good practice hammering...that could be a foreshadow. The weather was classic crap: 55F, raining, windy. However, in my history of racing, bad weather yields a good result. I had 2 very decisive wins and 2 second places in bad weather (the two wins being ugly rain and cold).

Thus, small field (nowhere to hide) and people generally unwilling to work in a pack (good thing). At the line we were informed that we would be doing only 4 laps (w/ 3 potential King of the Walls - KOW). I ditched my 'jetpack' (extra water bottle in the back pocket, terminology cred to Jurgen as I have never heard this before) as the race was going to be just under my "3 bottle threshold". I tried to warm up for the race, didn't really work haha. The first downhill I was shivering so bad I kept checking to make sure nobody was encroaching on my space for concern of causing a pile up. First time up the wall we went slow. It was pretty lackadaisical for the whole first lap. I took a couple pulls just to keep from freezing. I talked to a CCB guy and we planned to attack the following lap.

Next lap comes around and Connor Cushman (PVC) takes the KOW and I'm second. I push after the hill to cause separation and stir things up. It worked...a little. The pack pulled back to me and Conner, but not easily - it was strung out. I sat up and someone else went off the front, a few of us pulled them in. It was clear it was about to hit a tipping point: it just wasn't going to be ping pong. Either attackers would be at bay, or the field would separate enough for a break. The latter happened, thankfully. It was seven of us to start. After the next KOW, which I happened to take (essentially sealing the KOW win), I took a huge pull. I felt the pace wasn't quite elevated enough and needed to at least feel like I had a strong gap. I'm guessing it was around a mile. I think we only lost one guy through that section. But over the next couple laps it was down to 4. I wanted to press steady through the hills, but the break was lagging a bit. We regrouped and were at 2 to go. Nothing interesting happened until after the 1 to go bell. On the downhill, our 4th man dropped. I later discovered his chain popped off and he was unable to reset it without stopping (a feeling of which I am all too aware). He easily held to take 4th place though, so that was a silver lining, as he deserved it.

The last lap I took the KOW and tried to keep the intensity up. The two Zipcar guys were not as keen on the constant rotating paceline and we settled into a 15-25sec pull scenario. I got anxious here and took the pull because the pace was lagging slightly (and we had no information on our gap). I also was comfortable being at the steady effort and didn't want to sit up and "get cold"...or allow my fellow riders to get rested. We came into the hills and I elevated the tempo. One Zipcar guy dropped and said "Take it" to his teammate. I thought one thing, "Good luck, bud". I wasn't cocky, I was just feeling great and unless this guy was seriously pulling a Lance-style Alpe D'Huez faux-tired then the likelihood of my winning was quite high.

After the two step climbs, he held tight with me through the false flat...I was hoping I'd be able to gap him. At least I had him breathing pretty good. But this was definitely not going to be as simple as I initially evaluated. Fair enough, I thought, he is a strong rider and he damn well better be going deep to win!! Through the false flat and up the last climb/feed zone he was right with me. After the climb he moved past me and I pulled behind him. This lasted two seconds, I knew I could hammer as hard as anyone dare challenge me for the last 1500m+. I attacked him without any hesitation. A gap opened and it was pretty clear I had it in the bag because I was still feeling strong. Secretly I wanted him to surge up and fight me, but alas you can't always get what you want.

I rode out the rest pretty hard and won by a clean margin. My first serious solo finish since a little over a year ago at Bristol Mountain RR.

Low-res image grabbed from my Dad's cell phone video.

I'm pleased with the results, but let down by the field size. Doesn't do as much for upgrade points as I had planned on 10 points today. Regardless it was a great day of racing despite the cold/rain and I felt great. So I'm happy.

Also: big shout out to Eliot Pitney, fellow Base36 teammate, who took the W in the Cat 5 race (and should be racing alongside myself...or at least out Cat 4 contingent!). Also, well done to Steve & Liam in the 4's. Definitely happy everyone stayed safe with the given weather conditions.

The Return to Glory. Alas.

I've been on a hiatus, both athletically and by means of blogging. The two tend to go hand-in-hand. I have felt very out of shape, hitting a lifetime high of approximately 170lbs while still maintaining okay training. I nearly got discouraged, but was aware that I was still somewhat strong and just needed to regain some mental (and some physical) structure. I cleaned up my diet, finally utilizing Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes - eliminating high saturated fat foods and rotating days of non-meat eating. I started eating more before AND during workouts and focused on eating for recovery, which is much different than eating to refill the tank. With this plan and an earlier sleep schedule, I was headed I. The right direction. Then I worked on having a purpose in training...rather than 'biking a lot'.

My Saviori here were a few individuals: first of whom is Jeff Dixon, our fearless Cat 2 leader of Base-36, who gave me a painful sprint workout, a boatload of his knowledge and advice (only a portion of which I have utilized and absorbed), and a tune-up workout. More impressive than anything is he got me to take a day off. By the way, I do NOT take days off. Also, Bill Black, an older local rider who has been around quite some time gave me advice on training, physiology, and ideas on threshold work. Third is Doug Welling, a fellow employee, awesome person overall, and Elite Level Cycling coach (but you'd know if you saw his resume...not by him telling you). Numerous others include the Base-36 teammates, and friends/family putting up with my annoying eating plan and blabberings!

So enough for the overly drawn out lead-in. Time for the good stuff. While I was working my way back to fitness, I figured I could get in some races...especially if my teammates were going. We headed down to the Cat 4 Concord Crit last weekend on August 6th. I had not taken proper rest leading into the race and was thus unintentionally training through it: Tuesday was a very hard hilly group ride, Wednesday was a sprint workout then a harder than expected evening ride, and Thursday was supposed to be easy but I made some solid efforts in the group ride. Friday I did take easy, doing one hour very slow. The Concord Crit is hilly (for a crit) but still quite fast. I felt rather flat most of the race, but managed an okay position into the final turn (8th or so) and made up a few spots in the sprint to finish 4th in the field and 5th overall. This race showed me that if I came into a race feeling fairly fresh and raced smart, good things were bound to happen.

On Wednesday (August 10th) three of us on Base-36 headed down to the Witches Cup in Salem, MA. Chris Jordan hasn't been on the bike as much as he would like to and was kind enough to actually give me his race entry as I did not know the Cat 4/5 race sold out in hours. Chris was not merely a spectator, he was extremely vocal throughout the race and let me know when I needed to move up or when the pace slowed and I didn't notice as the recovery felt too nice to consider making a move. Liam Somers also came down with us for the race. I heard this was a 'fast' crit, but thought to myself "well, aren't all crits pretty fast - this is probably going to be like Concord without the hills". I was very wrong. As Liam and I took a few laps I scouted out the competitors as normal...but soon found out that I was tagging every 3rd or 4th person as looking strong, with many contenders in mind. I immediately focused on myself and my own race, as this was clearly not the place to "go" only on one person's move. I took one extra lap to relax and missed the line-up. Thanks to Liam, I was saved. He had a great spot for me...I jumped from 6th row outside to 2nd row inside. The last couple minutes my heart rate naturally jumped and I started to enjoy being at the race.

The race started, and I missed clipping in two times. I lost contact with Liam immediately, however, the sheer fact that I had a teammate up ahead to work to get back to saved me! By the start of the 4th lap I was back into position with Liam. Without Liam up there and the courtesy you get from a teammate, I would have used a lot more energy getting up front or, worse, been stuck in the back. Throughout the race I stayed within the top 15 most of the time, and any time I got pushed back I worked to move up. When it got mid-race and my focus ever drifted for a lap or two, Chris was right there to yell at me to make a move. The race was interesting. We were either going 30mph or 23mph, and it didn't hold at either pace for long. Looking back, on some laps my HR was dangerously high - probably in the fast laps when I moved up or went on attack. There was little going on in the sense of breaks, only twice did anyone make a legitimate effort. The first was coming off of a prime at lap 14 or so, when 6 of us (who did not go for the prime) just rolled out of the first turn with a 15m gap. One guy yelled to hit it, so we laid down the pressure in an effort to create a significant gap. the field responded quickly as they did not want such a large group to gap the field. Within 1.5 laps it was back together. But the pace was really ramped up. Once we were back together for a couple laps it settled, and I was able to take 2nd place in a 2 place prime with very minimal effort. I did this by coming hard out of turn 2 in the lead by 5m or so. I let one guy pass me by putting in a sprint.

With about 9 laps to go one guy made a hard effort at a break, but only held until 5 to go. The race began to get jittery, with everyone jockeying for position. I stayed in the top 5-8 for laps 5,4, and part of 3 as Jeff had advised to do so by any means. On the second to last lap I prepared to emulate my line for the finish: top 3 coming into turn 3, pedal through as much of the turn as humanly possible without crashing myself, then the rest would be guts and waiting til I got past the pearly white line for the 32nd time. In this preparation, I scuffed my inside pedal pretty hard; it surprised me but I was expecting it to be a close call. I now knew exactly how much I could pedal through the turn.

Last Lap: Bell rings. You can feel the guys around you switching between seated and standing, internally debating whether taking the pull for position will bonk him or if it will be the move that sets up a top 5 finish. I kept the throttle on, not even backing if the guy in front of me came back. I held the inside for turn 1 and on the sweeping bend. Guys came around the outside trying to wizz by effectively putting me back to almost 10th, but with my position I was not at all concerned. I was left to take the inside alone with the head/cross wind to avoid feathering my brakes. The guy from MIT and I hit hands in our drops, but leaned into it and used each other to avoid an ugly crash. In the intensity of it all I said 'watch it' but was almost emotionally detached, my focus clearly elsewhere. Around turn 2, slipping right into third wheel as planned. I let off for the first time the whole lap and got about 1.5 feet in between the 2nd wheel and myself; just enough backing off to take the turn as planned, but keeping the pressure on enough to not sacrifice position on the inside. I give a final check to the inside of my rear wheel. Clear - but they were three wide right on my tail. No one was stupid enough to fly into the last turn and risk taking out the entire field (sadly someone around 25th thought it was worth it and took a bunch of guys out). I am in one of my top two gears. I accept the fact that coming out of the turn I will be without a wheel in front of me, and I disregard any other option. Pedal twice HARD into the turn, keep my foot up, two more on the apex, hold. As expected, I came out of the turn without a wheel in front of me and I knew I had people on my wheel. So I laid it all down, in an effort to create a gap and then hold it. I hammered with only one sliver of the white line in my focus and wouldn't stop until my wheel crossed it. With about 5m to go I internally knew I had the win, but didn't want to let up one bit because people had been on my wheel and could have made their move late. I yelled as I crossed the line in excitement and joy. I didn't even feel tired, I felt stronger and faster and more ready than I had at any moment of the race...but I knew if I tried to pedal it'd be laughable.



After the warm down lap, Chris came right out and congratulated me. The photographer was there and told me that the above picture would be gracing The Salem News Sports Section the following morning.

It was so exciting just to be at the race. It was awesome to finish and win the race...I didn't even realize it was a 'big' race. I was later informed that this is one of the top crits in New England/The Northeast, which pretty much just topped off the day. When I was with Chris I told him "Sweet! I just actually made money racing my bike!" I though the actual concept was far cooler than actually winning some dough. I thought the prize was $60 and with a $35 entry and $10 of gas, I netted $15. Boy, was I wrong. I got a trophy, which was sweet, then went to get my prize (expecting an envelope) and they pulled out a large carboard box, a canister of endurox, and a handlebar mounted light (for the prime). I tell them they must be mistaken and that I won the 4.5 race and not the Pro race. They tell me, "Yes, this is yours". My jaw dropped. It was a pair of Origin-8 Road Speed Pro Wheels that list over $700, which alone is about $640 more than I was expecting to win. Needless to say it was an awesome surprise!

Overall, I am glad that my recent change in mentality has yielded positive results. I have taken on the challange of losing weight while gaining strength and netting a huge performance boost. This tactic is very difficult to do mid-season, and weight loss is best saved for the build phase. But it all is working out and I plan on gaining even more ground in the next month. I have a couple more races coming up and don't plan on letting up an inch of ground. My goal is another top place to get upgrade points, and then work for my teammates and put in work for them to get a couple wins. Winning this race was an awesome experience, but most of the time I feel like I am a great workhorse and would be able to benefit my teammates in that respect quite a bit. However and wherever it goes I am all smiles and just gonna keep on rolling.

My (Hopefully) Last Cat 5 Race: Bristol RR

I was very excited for this race. The previous weekend had been lackluster and I was irking for some real racing - primarily from myself, as I had been surrounded by strong athletes last weekend. So the only logical option was step up and stick it to it! My excitement for the race extended being needing to do well: this race was going to be 37 miles and with 2.5 times through some legitimate hills. 37 miles isn't "all that much" by standards of many other Categories, but it represents what one might start to see in the Cat 4 level, where I hope to be in my next cycling race.

I had a pretty solid week of training going into this race, with a track workout and a couple good OTB (off the bike) efforts running. I made a point to not taper for the race as it is not a multisport race and this mindset is critical to maintain focus on tri's. So I took Thursday fairly strong (after 2.5 hours on the trainer Wednesday) by swimming, then doing the Bristol course to a pretty hard 2.5-mile tempo, due to time limitations. Friday I took as an easy 7 miler, which felt insanely relaxed (too relaxed, in fact). The one good thing is that I finally got a good night's rest the night before a race. Two nights before, again, was pretty bad. I had an econ exam Friday and hadn't been to class for the second half of the semester (I know, I'm a bad person...but what can I say, I was busy training...). I got under 5 hours of sleep, but the test went fine and I was glad to be finished with exams!

Now for the fun stuff: race day! Woke up at about 7:45 in an effort to get as much sleep as I could manage without being late or screwing up the race day schedule. Got stuff together and made it to Bristol at 9:35 and check-in was closing at 9:40 (cut it close because I forgot to get gas Friday). Got situated and set out on a warm up, towards the finish line. Felt about as flat as I had felt relaxed Friday on my run - I knew it was too good. Chatted with Mike, Kevin, and Chris about planning for the race as we had a MASSIVE team (10 of ~30 total). Because the race was 2 laps and change, we figured keep the first lap steady but in control, and move if people moved.

A quick bit about the course (visual provided below):

• Staging/Official Start: Just before 14 Mile mark
• Lap/Finish: 17 Mile Mark
• Solid 3 mile climb (14-17) then good descent, then constant climb (4-6), then FAST descent (50+MPH)

We set out from the staging and the pace was pedestrian. However, I felt like crap so I decided to sit in rather than take a relaxed spot out front with Mike at a pace that would actually help me warm up had I been feeling good. We hit the first section of hill and things remained very calm, but I felt pretty bad still. We passed the lap/finish (2 laps/34 miles to go) and cruised the downhill, which was when the pace definitely went into normal racing tempo. Coming into Egypt road (mile 4.25) there was some basic positioning going on, into the hill a U of Buffalo guy swung out left and blew his tire right in front of me. He started to slow and looked like he was coming right and I quickly yelled for him to just hold his line, which saved me from making a drastic maneuver. We hit the hill at a fair pace, and a Buffalo Velo guy led it out a bit. The bulk of the group was able to maintain contact for the first time around, or reattached shortly after the peak. Kevin, Mike, and Liam all looked real good up the hill the first time - I was working to hold on and would let a gap open up knowing I could seal it on the next flat/downhill safely.

We took the downhill fast, in the sense we didn't ride our brakes. When we were going about 50MPH I heard a flat pretty loud and it was Mike Hoffman's - not cool. Apparently it ripped a couple inch gash in his sidewall and he had a near-life threatening speed wobble, and his chain dropped at the same time. Luckily, by a lot of cleat dragging and well maintained control he came to a stop without crashing. Mike, who I believed to be a (or the) top contender was now sadly out of the race. I really wanted him in it to see what damage he could do. On the next set of hills everything started to split. By the time we hit the finish line (1 lap to go) there were about 10 of us remaining, including Liam, Kevin, and myself. We came into Egypt road fast and hit the hill much harder this time. Midway through it was down to 6 of us: Liam, Kevin, Overlook guy, White kit, Buffalo Velo, and myself. Went hit the hill hard enough that the Buffalo Velo guy started swerving and eventually bonked and toppled over towards the top. Only problem was, he nearly took Kevin and I out once and actually took out Liam. He fell perfectly into Liam's line and Liam didn't have a chance to react. He fell as well, but was uninjured. Sadly, Kevin and I were forced to keep going as the two others kept pushing. As we hit the crest it was Kevin, white kit, and me - with the Overlook guy about 15 meters back. We pushed and were able to finally drop the Overlook guy.

And then there were three. We kept in a paceline and were cruising pretty good - making sure to keep a strong pace and work together. Pulls started out fairly long, but shortened as we neared the staging area and got hit with some unfavorable weather. At about 4.5 miles from the finish, a crazy downpour came upon us - with pretty killer winds. It was nasty and wet, and made drafting almost worse than pulling. Before coming into the final turn ~2 miles from the finish, I took a pull and continually downshifted as I felt like I was running out of gas...not a good sign with so little to go. We moved along, more as an amoeba now, towards the finish and up the beginning hills. No one made a move and Kevin and I spoke briefly - he mentioned making a move to me as we were coming up to the "kill zone" that we had determined would be the time to make a move to seal the deal. It was the last kicker leading up to the false flat that was the finish. Once we hit the hill - I hit the gas hard, not having any idea if I'd blow up. I put in some real hard work and was nervous to see if anyone was with me (I couldn't hear anyone). After a good 20 seconds I checked back as I sat down to recover a bit and knew, to a fairly high certainty, that the race was mine. I had gotten a good 20 meters on Kevin and the other guy, who started to drop Kevin. I made sure to keep the pedal down and check my back often, as I did go very early (considering how toasted I felt) - especially if the other guy had planned to make a substantial counter on the false flat. When I was 150m out it was for sure I had won and I pushed it hard through the finish - winning by 12 seconds. Kevin took 3rd (1st for NYS Championships, I am Maine, 2nd place was CO) and Liam took 5th.

A nice bonus was the shwag! I got a new Lazer O2 Helmet, which lists for $110! So pumped about it. Wore it today (Monday on a 40 mile ride and love it, definitely a massive upgrade). Overall it was a great race and I liked that it was nearly 2 hours - felt more realistic and less like a sprint. Can't wait to get to 40+ mile races! So I'll be sending in a request to Cat up to 4's, as I now have 8 races - 5 of which are wins. I can't wait to get into some races where I can get my ass handed to me, looking forward to it (seriously!).