Ring of Fire 12/24 HR

At the end of RAO, Team Tartan was asked, what was next? Well, silly questions have obvious answers, with the obvious answer being Ring of Fire 12/24. But unlike last years Fireweed and this years RAO, Team Tartan, won't be entering as a two man. Instead Team Tartans has a much bigger goal, simply to sweep the medals in both solo categories.

Team Tartan Extrodinar, Ben Larson, will be tackling the solo-24 hr. Our pre-race voodoo suggest, that while ROF isn't a RAAM qualifier, Ben might ride more then enough miles to qualify. Think you can out pedal Ben? My guess is not in this life time, but unless your at the 24hr you will never know for sure.

Team Tartan "16% Fatty" Philbrick has his own goals in laying some sweet prep down on the 12 hr "Sprint Distance" for the upcoming 508. Philbrick's plans are to use ROF as a training race. So, if one of us were to fall in our quest for dual gold it would most likely be me cause unlike Ben, these legs will not have seen even the faintest taper going into ROF. ..

Think you got the stuff to send us packing at ROF? We'd honestly like to see you try. Cause, Rain or Shine, Ring of Fire is Tartan Time!

RAO News From Ben..

Here's a quick note I wanted to share with all of you. I just finished tallying up a spreadsheet of exchange points, times, and temperatures for this year's race. I figure this will be great for future reference. I also was curious to see how we varied our pull lengths with respect to temperature and terrain and how it affected our riding. Kenneth and I will need to get together on that one more later. For now, though, here is the amazing piece of info: in totaling up our pull times I found we spent the same amount of time on the bike! 14.5 hrs each! There was one point where I don't have the exact times (Bakeoven) so I guessed best I could there. I also don't have ride times going up Timberline where we blew everything apart. I'm glad no one was recording there but the times have to be about even there as well. The time difference overall was perhaps a 5 minute spread. This is incredible given we had pulls as short as 7 minutes on Fossil (shorter on Timberline) and as long as 72-90 minutes around Monument. If someone can tell me how we did this, let me know. I'm pretty much floored. You guys all rock! I'm working on a race report and putting together this statistics spreadsheet. I'll send it along as soon as it's finished. Don't hold your breath though - there's a lot to write. Anyway, I was super excited about this tidbit and wanted to share it right away.

- Ben Larson

Oregon State Time Trial Championships, - RESULTS!

The Oregon State Time Trial Championships went down today and more importantly both Kenneth and his MOM were there in their respective catagories for a Total Tartan Smack Down! Yes, thats right, Kenneth Got his TT groove on and drove the Lethal Wepon, Co-Motion, in for another nice finish, powering in with a sub hour 41km time, and grabbing a first place finish. There was a slight 30 second timming difference between what team philbrick time the TT at and what the offical recordered but regardless of which pipe you smoke Kenneth pounded down a sub hour 41KM TT.

Not to be missed from the medals, Cathey Philbrick, in her first 20 KM trial, no make that first bike race ever! Kicked the gears big time and drove in a steller finish taking a very strong third place, bring home a BRONZE, which I might add looks very much like gold..

Resuts:
Kenneth Philbrick 1st Place Cat IV Men 40KM
offical 59 min 6 sec, our unoffical timing 58 min 36 sec

Cathey Philbrick, 3rd Place Masters Women (55-59) 20 KM
offical: 39 min 4 sec

It's Tartan Time!

Training Update

Kellie said do an easy hour, but with the car parked 40 miles away, there wasn't much choice but do two. So I just cruised in with a tail wind. Picked up a flat tire on the way in. Nothing too macho with the State TT this weekend. Planning on doing some stretching this evening and possibly snagging a massage tomorrow.

Coaching

Until now, I've never really worked with a coach. Going into RAO 2005 I tried to set something up only to find my to be coach was no longer accepting clients. So I did what I always had done self coached, I set goals, planned milestone events, and then sort of filled in the gaps. In the end it all worked out, but I know it could have been better, and there were a few moments when I wondered what exactly I should be doing.

With the 508 now firmly on the horizon and with my secret personal goals for the race, I felt I needed to change my approach to raise my performance to the next level, by bringing in some outside consultation, motivation, and expertise. Without further ado, Team Tartan, er the Titanium Triceratops, is pleased to announce that Lance may have Carmichael but I've got Kellie Moylan from RPMCoaching, ready or not here I come!

It’s Tartan Time!

Tartan Secrets

Before the 2006 RAO, Fantabulous RAO Race Promoter Terri Gooch asked me to share a Team Tartan Training Secret. Going into RAO I was mum, as going into any A+ race its best to be humble. But with the 2006 RAO now in the record books I think I can share one, yes one of the tartan training secrets.

Commuting to Work

Many ride to work, but most don't do it glued in the aero position. Going into the 2006 RAO, Team Tartan was sweating it big time, as always the there were big guns lining up for the 2006 RAO in all categories, ours included. To do well we knew we would need to bring back some of the 2005 race mojo and race to perfection. In Tartan lingo, racing perfectly means doing everything in ones arsenal to propel the team forwards: Training, recovering perfectly, using the most optimal equipment, and recruiting the best dam crew period. We knew to have the race we wanted I would need to be able to ride to the ends of the earth and back while tucked tight in the aero position. With that goal in mind, in the weeks leading up to RAO, I began commutating the 80 miles (Keizer->Corvallis and back) glued in aero bars on my lethal weapon, a Co-Motion TT bike. Did it pay off? Well, at RAO I road the Co-Motion TT bike over 2/3 the time, including the entire climb up monument.

Now before I forget, back to my commute. Until today I could honestly say I had never hit a small fuzzy animal, but today while commuting in to school that all came to an abrupt end. As the tragedy would un-roll, I was pedaling down the bike path about to merge on to highway 20 heading out towards Corvallis; with the wind at my back I was flying. Then the bushes to my right began to move, and then this gray streak of fuzzy fluffiness came darting out. It tried to run the gauntlet between my front and rear wheel under the spinning crank arms of death. But alas, what ever it was didn't make it, my rear wheel went thump, then crunch, as my fat ass distributed over a 120 PSI rear tire bore down. Almost immediately after the crunch there was a shrill cry and then glancing back the once darting grey mass was static.

It's Tartan Time!

Training Update

Tuesday

- Did a chill ride back from Corvallis to Salem, motored into a slight headwind. ~2 Hours, Hooked up with the Scott’s cycle evening ride, and kicked it for another 2 hours at TT pace.. So all and all 4+ hours and a little lactic acid..

Today (Wednesday)

Keizer->Corvallis-> Keizer Nothing to hard just light tempo.. ~80 miles ~4 hrs..

Chilling..

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