Racing Ultra's with Kenneth Philbrick

TT-Fest Race Recap

2009-04-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Deschuttes River Valley TT Fest. Awesome Race, took first as a Cat 3 in all three races, and GC for the Cat 3's. Finished 3rd overall, right behind Chris Swan and Seth Patla Cat 1/2 super studs! Jim Fisher and Heather Paris put in a tremendous effort and took 2nd in the mixed tandem division! What's next? Estacada race 3 and the coburg ITT series of course..

Time Trial Fest Update

2009-04-26T06:24:00.000-07:00

Took first in the cat 3's on the first stage. Stage 2.. Wind kicked up.. Some one said 40 mph gusts.. I believe it.. My 202's were catching air like an Americas cup vessel.. At 2 min slower than last year. But since all that really matters is the standings.. 1st in the Cat 3's and now 3rd overall.. Less than three hours till the big show on Bakeoven.. Fish and Heather my Pac-Power team mates and rommies here in Maupin are racing the tandem.. Rumor is that they have something special planned for this after-noon.. Watch out tandems are freeky fast, especially when the stoker has carries a whip!

Keeping it real, K-man out!

Pounding the Pedals at the TT-Fest!

2009-04-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

Just finished Stage one of the BEST OBRA Time Trial event of the year aka the Deschutes TT-Fest. Stage one was a 40k on a course I know well, but wow was today a bruiser. It started off with a little hill climb, the maupin assent, nothing more than say 4-5 miles. Hard but not too bad.. The hill climb tapered off into what should be a relatively easy decent but today the devil was blowing and the side winds had me grabbing my aero bar ends for dear life as I tried to keep the bike on the straight and narrow.. Then it was a short decent before wrapping it around through some rollers, river crossing, and then 10 big ones back into the wind.. I think I tend to do better when the courses are hard.. Todays first race wasn't a course PR... But the starting times for stage II, 8.1 mile hill climb, will reveal todays damage.. Stay Tuned!

Jack Frost Race Results

2009-02-23T00:04:00.000-08:00

Kenneth Philbrick: 1st in the Cat 3's 27:59

Mom (Cathey Philbrick): 1st in Masters Women 60+ 38:43

Dad (David Philbrick): 11th in Masters Men 60+ 36:02

Jack Frost TT

2009-02-22T15:19:00.000-08:00

Just back from the Jack Frost ITT. I had a great race, the course felt fast this year, but I will have to wait and see the offical results.. Both my parents were bitten by the ITT bug this year. Mom, took first, and dad had a great finish, racing against none other then RAO vetran Bill Nicolai. No big supprise, the RAO family was out representing in style. Had a great time talking with the Gapay's before the race.. Watchout, ULRA riders both Hugh and Angela are have been training /w the Tedder's and Team Hammer and are both looking freeky fast.

A few photo's of Hugh and Angela follow..

Best, Kenneth

Rocky Training

2008-07-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

Mid-June I left the State for a slow trip to a cousin's wedding in Denver. At one of the first stops along the way I explored parts of the 75 mile Coeur d'Alene bike path. A rails-to-trails path, the Coeur d'Alene path is fairly tame with grades rarely exceeding 2-3%. In-spite of this, I highly recommend the area as the view's and wildlife along the trail are quite magnificent. On my first evening out, I saw moose, not once but twice, first in the lake adjacent to the path and then on the path itself.

After, Coeur d'Alene it was on to Montana, and then down to Yellowstone. Cycling through Yellowstone and the Tetons was particularly special. At Yellowstone, I did a number of training rides. The two most notable were a 110 loop around the inner park and then a one-way trip from the lake area over to the Roosevelt camp. Besides offering a dramatic backdrop one of the truly special things about cycling at Yellowstone was the chance to train consistently at higher elevations (6,000 - 9,000 ft). While the higher elevations did make climbing a tad more difficult, cruising on the flats at elevation was awesome.

May to June Infections

2008-07-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

Last December Race Across Oregon plans were hatched. The crew was rounded up and the wheels were set in motion for another greater race. Mid-may hot in the middle of stage racing season, I raced the first 3 stages of the mount hood stage race. As a whole the race seemed successful, a fitness builder, all in preparation for RAO, but on returning to Corvallis I was almost immediately hit with a respiratory infection. Out for two weeks, it was slim, mucus, hacking. On the third week I started to feel better, began to slowly bring things back online. The legs felt atrophied, power was down but not out. Then a week later, the infection was back, and this time lasted until early mid-june. Back again on the bike, I started to ramp back up. For the first few weeks I was winded climbing over the freeway and the local training-ride-race had me hacking up residual lung scum at every sprint point.

The first major fitness test came at the watermelon double, a fast, easy, and fun double century located right here in the Willamette Valley. I took off strong, and the first, 60 miles were easy as pie. But then it got harder, and harder. I finished with a respectable time but was physically exhausted to a much greater extent then one could be and still be a finishing contender at RAO. Seeing the writing on the wall, and after consulting the crew, I withdrew from the 2008 RAO. After, three years of racing RAO, once solo, and twice on two person teams, the one thing I know for sure is to that going into RAO, there needs to be no reservations, no doubt, no question, and this year given the unfortunate mid-season illness I wasn't sure I could make it up Bakeoven much less past the reservation dogs under my own power..

Afternoon on the TT Bike

2008-04-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

Solvang The Video

2008-04-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

I'm still planning a big update.. But in the meantime here is a little video I shot on the final day of the Solvang training camp.
Since I filmed.. The riders in the video are all cycling friends from Seattle..

Cycling Awareness Video

2008-04-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

Spring Break Training Camp Preview

2008-03-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

Quick Weekend Update!

2008-03-08T17:34:00.000-08:00

So this one will be brief. A few weeks back, my official road racing season started with the cherry pie road race. Going into the cherry pie, I had no real race specific goals except an interest to work hard as the pie was nothing more then an early season opportunity to mix it up and work at race intensity. As a whole the race went well, with my legs reduced to rubber by the end of the race. The week after the pie, the OBRA time trial season kicked off with the Jack Frost TT. This year the Jack Frost was a family affair, with my racing in the Cat-3's and my Mom racing in Masters Women 60 plus. I ended up bringing in a 6th place finish with 28:09 min:sec finish, which all things considered wasn't too shabby. My Mom cleaned up in the 60+ field with a 2nd place finish. Go Mom!

Todays Training:

- Light Tempo Kings Valley ~ 3 hrs

Recovery: Yogurt + Mango + Peach

Next Scheduled Road Race: Oregon State / UO Road Race

Equipment Review - Reynolds Stratus DV Clincher

2008-02-28T15:38:00.000-08:00

Let Levi Ride - Sign the online petition today!

2008-02-17T21:32:00.000-08:00

Saturday Kings Valley, Sunday Cherry Pie

2008-02-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

Going into this weekend, I had thought that Saturday was going to be the big training day and that Sunday was going to be at best a wash. To maximize my Saturday workout with the Beavers, I showed up to our weekly weekend ride on the bike with the power cranks. Riding the power cranks indoors is one thing, riding them on the rollers takes it up a notch, but showing up to a OSU team ride on them is something completely different all together.. Saturdays plan was Kings Valley, the short loop. King's Valley isn't anything to crazy, but slapping dose of power cranks on top of it was all I could take.

Sunday, Today, I had expected to spend most of the day volunteering at the Cherry Pie. However, just after a brief trip through flagger school, I ran into a fellow OSU Beaver cyclist who was racing in the morning and willing to fill my flagger duties in the afternoon, freeing me to race the Cat-3 afternoon race. Woohoo. I ended up finishing just off the back of the main field, after working very hard for all but the first quarter of the race to keep one of the teams climbers in the ideal position for the final climb of the day..

Here are a few post race pictures:

Video Gear Review: Time Trial Helmets

2008-02-15T20:52:00.000-08:00

Weekend Training..

2008-02-10T23:42:00.000-08:00

Saturday - Road the Cherry Pie Course with Some Beavers, Cat-2 Friends, and a bunch from Pacific Power - Blue Skies. The plan for the day was to link up at the Bean.. Spin down to the course, ride a lap or two and then head back in to Corvallis. The first half of the ride was fairly social... Half way through the first lap we did a few sprints.. Nothing major. Then about half way into the whole fun that is the cherry pie course we split into a few groups. Up front there was group of cat-2's, Cat-3's and me. The pace was upped again, breathing increased in tempo. Finishing the loop we turned to head back up and over the saddle to return to C-Town. Climbing the Saddle, Dan, and Sean (Who's signed to a pro development team) attacked. Moving into draft position it was all I could do to just hang on. Then at the base of climb, the world tilted up.. I slid off the back..

Sunday - Helped a friend with her bike fit. Then put an 2 hours in a little later in the evening on the rollers.. Nothing to fancy.

Only an hour, but it was hard

2008-02-06T21:32:00.000-08:00

Some days its not about the length.. It's all about the pain.. Today was one of those days.. Cool for the morning ride into the University.. Then wow did it pour all the way home. Back at the hacienda it was taco dinner and then an hour on the power cranks.. Before it was back to the oh-my-god-its -hard-chemistry.. Today the plan was to turn on the gas, tempo time...

Power Cranks and Rollers..

2008-02-05T00:02:00.000-08:00

Work at the university is breathing down my neck like fire from a dragon. Its hard to find time to train right now. But thats the great thing about power-cranks. An hour-plus on the power cranks can easily feel like much more..

Todays Game: A hour plus power cranking on the rollers,
Movie: Tour of Cali on DVD
Recovery: Dinner (Chicken, Squash, Brussel Sprouts (Tasty!), Role, and Salad)

Going All the Way: Race Across Oregon

2008-02-02T22:57:00.000-08:00

All right I'm Excited! So far training this winter has been mixed. But I just can't shake the vision from my mind. Flying up bake-oven, cresting Ochoco, and bombing down through the Indian reservation with a pack of wild dogs chasing from behind. The holidays saw some classic roller miles and a interspersed with a few cool days outside. Winter quarter hit. Between classes, research, exams, teaching, and eating.. There is not too much time for anything else.. But thinking back to last year.. I'm ahead of where I was then, and last year come July I was in the best form ever. For 2008 the team is coming back and were going solo.

Since 2005 things have changed. In 2005 we were rookies, to be honest, in Ultra each race is its own beast and confidence can be a curse. However, with a solos at RAO and The 508, two man teams at RAO twice, and Fireweed once, and three Ring of Fires. The team has been around the block a few times and consumed a our fair share of liquid nutrition shakes..

Its official, Friday the entry went in the mail. The crew is fired up. Solo-Team Pacific Power aka "Team Tartan" will be returning to the race where legends are made... Solo - Race Across Oregon...

Today's training, foundation, rebuilt the road bikes bottom bracket: Re-fitted the power cranks and cruised with Levi at the 2007 Tour of Cali for a little over an hour on the rollers.. Recovery: Why Recovery Hammer Whey of course..

Winter Roller Training

2007-12-20T23:04:00.000-08:00

2007: Deschutes Time Trial Festival

2007-05-04T15:47:00.000-07:00

Stage 1: 26 Miles (2,200 ft of climbing)

Rider Health: Serious Head Cold

The first stage was a rolling course with about 2,200 ft of elevation change. All things considered I felt ok for the first few miles of the TT and road through much of the Cat 4 field. But on reaching the summit of the climb 3.5 miles into the race, my head cold was catching up with me and my legs felt dead. The mucus began to flow. A little over half way into the course I was passed by my 30 second man. I ended up finishing 2nd, 45 seconds down on first.

Stage 2: 8 mile hill climb.

Felt absolutely terrible after the first stage and thought about abandoning all together then and their. But, knew that wasn't really an option, so road back to the hotel and passed out. With an hour to go till the hill climb, got up and downed some Orange Juice. And set out to do my warm-up. The 8-mile hill climb was buffeted by a serious side wind, and between the wind, and my ever flowing mucus, the 8 miles felt eternal. In the end I lost another 45 seconds on first with another 2nd place.

Stage 3: ~50 mile out and back fun fest.

Thankfully while my cold had sapped my high end some how I still had some level of tempo left burning inside. At the turn around I had put close to 5 min into the rider who was riding in first for the 4's, and on crossing the line (2:01:47) I had the the cat 4 GC.

More Race Results

Back From the FC:508!

2006-10-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

returned back to the Northwest on Monday from the FC:508. I'm going to be posting a huge post race write-up pictures and all. But until then, here's the inside scoop..

Road super strong averaging over 18 mph, till a little post baker, 400 miles. Just as the sun started to creep up over the horizon, riding in 4th place my stomach turned big time. I then found myself on the side of the road with nearly everything I'd eaten the last few hours pouring out of my mouth. I slept for ~25 min, vomited again. At this point the crew asked if I wanted to go on, on the surface I didn't, I said out loud, "I don't think I can make it." Then, I had my vision. No, it wasn't spiritual, we all have heroes/mentors, and one of mine is the RAO Race Promoter George Thomas. In my mind, George appeared like a vision from star wars standing in the middle of the desert. In my vision, George told me "I was on day four of RAAM, everyone puked, and that if I quite I would forever be branded a PUSSY, the one thing ultra cyclists don't do is DNF. DNFing is a curse, do it once and you will do it again and again." With that I knew there was once choice, I consulted the crew, but the decision had already been made. I needed to be in 29 palms on my bike!

Pedaling On!
At this point my goals changed, I was no longer mentally racing, I was just going to get my body to the finish line doing what ever I had too. Over the last 108 miles I barely ate anything consuming just a few shots of raspberry hammer gel as stomach couldn't handle anything else. Riding on a total bonk, I slipped to 7th place, finishing with a time of approximately 32hrs 30 min. My goal had been a top 3 and a sub 30 hr time, but crossing the line none of that mattered.. I was a official FC:508 finisher, FC rookie no more.

Yes, with out the stomach issues the race would have ended very differently. But in the end, it all comes back to why I ride ultra's in the first place. I choose to ride ultra's not because they are easy but because they are hard. Finishing under severer difficulty only makes crossing the line in the end all the sweeter.

It's Tartan Time!

- Science Section - Dino Soft Tissue Found!

2006-10-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

With races at the 508 using totems instead of numbers team tartan thought long and hard, conducted aerodynamic, psychological, and physiological testing, consulted with the experts and only then was the totem decided upon. If team tartan does one thing we race to perfection and in the case of the 508 racing to perfection means having the perfect totem!

With that the "Titanium Triceratops " was chosen the totem du jour for the 2006 508. But why was Titanium Triceratops chosen? Could it be its initials TT? Could it be for Time Trial? Possibly Team Tartan? Could it be due to Kenneth's childhood love for the dino's? Possibly that Kenneth rides a bicycle made of that oh so light material called titanium? Or possibly was it for those three points that will pierce the competition as team tartan rides past, rider up front, party wagon in back, blaring that disco beat that just goes thump, thump, at a cadence of 95. On the other hand, was it for some completely different reason?

In the spirit of the triceratops there is no way I could let the very recent discovery of "Soft connective tissue" from a T. Rex escape the science section. Yes that’s right 70 million year old un-fossilized T Rex connective tissue. For more info, I'd encourage you to head over to National Geographic.

Could it be chance that an earth shattering dino find happened on the eve of this years 508? The Titanium triceratops doesn't believe in fate but at this point things do look mighty sweet..

It's Tartan Time!

The Count Down Has Commenced..

2006-10-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

With the508 only a few days away, its time to talk race strategy. In the most recent email from Chris Kostman, (Chief Adventure Officer, Totemizer, and Race Director), it was announced that one of this years racers had created a google earth map of the race; I'd encourage all of you to take a look as its quite nifty. Anyway I digress, last night after getting my internet running, my crew chief and I went over the race, planning every thing, pee spots included. Obviously, most of our analysis is tartan specific but with the limited space that the blog will allow I thought I'd share a few of our findings with you all.

- Tighter Support = Victory Points

Yes, the 508 is a well, a tad long, but with 88 solo racers those who lead will succeed. With 88 solo entries support crew shoulder space will be limited. And with this it will be critical to maintain an early position in the fore front of the race? What you say? Well the answer is actually quite simple, 88 entries = 88 support crews, with the average mini van being 15.5 feet in length, then if every support crew were to park end to end the 508 support line would stretch a little over 1/4 a mile! Thus, races who lead will have tighter support then races who follow and closer support = victory points.

- Power the Climbs

We (Team Tartan) debated if we should share this "Tartan Secret", but then we decided, it was so obvious to pass over it would be ridiculous. When faced with a climb the correct tactic is to power up and over it. Why you ask? Well the logic is actually quite simple. If you assumed that the competition will ride the steep stuff at say 10 mph then if you ride up hill at 11 or 12 mph you would be riding 1 to 2 miles father per hour then the competition. While 1 to 2 miles per hour might now sound like a lot its worth calculating how much faster one must ride the flats or descending to gain the same relative distance. To put a equal time on a rider doing 20 on the flats one needs to do 24 mph, and for a rider descending at 40 mph one needs to do a whopping 48 mph. With air resistance going up by the cube of the speed it only becomes obvious he who climbs the fastest will win. But how hard should the rider go? Well, that is a personal variable for every racer but with descents of equal distance on average following most climbs, one can defiantly breath hard as following every climb is a decent and every decent offers time for recovery.

It’s Tartan Time!

Supplementing - Antioxidant Vitamins

2006-09-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

This quarter I'm taking a course in "Evidence Based" sports medicine of lower extremities and while flipping through the course text, I found a chapter with almost instant appeal chapter 27 "Performance-Enhancing Supplements". Seeing that title, I immediately flipped back and digested it.

I won't go into everything I found, but I will share one very cool piece of knowledge. A new tartan secret, magic of Vitamin C.

The last paragraph on Vitamin C was quite interesting, particularly in the light of my upcoming 508 adventure..

"Also, vitamin C may provide immunologic benefits to endurance athletes. Daily supplementation with vitamin C 1 to 3 weeks before participating in a marathon or ultra marathon has been shown to decrease the incidence of post race upper respiratory tract infection by as much as 33%"

Orthopaedic Knowledge Update - Sports Medicine 3 page 339
ISBN 0-89203-332-0

Product Review: FSA - SLK Compact Mega EXO

2006-09-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

I was hardly an early adopter of the FSA carbon cranks. Prior to purchasing my cranks I asked numerous people how they liked their cranks? Were they as stiff as the hype claimed? Eventually I too joined the party, purchasing the FSA - SLK Compact Mega EXO. The thought was the compact cranks (34/50) larger range would be better suited to ultra distance racing then traditional cranks(53/39). Many reviews one reads online often are written by people with limited exposure to products. I too must admit I've a limited exposure to the FSA cranks, I've been off and on them since 2005, I trained for RAO on these cranks, road a PAC tour, RAO camps, raced RAO solo, trained for the two man RAO, and now have trained for FC on them, ala I've logged thousands of miles on them.

First the good: The external bearing design of the cranks bottom bracket significantly reduces the total weight of the crank set and bottom bracket over traditional BB + crank set designs. But this feature is not unique to the FSA cranks; most all crank set manufactures (Shimao, Campy, etc.), have joined the external bearing bandwagon and are offering a weight saving crank sets featuring this design. As to the increased stiffness of this BB design, I'm sure the BB is stiffer, but to be honest I don't notice any real difference between it and my traditional cranks. So for practical value the FSA Crank Set stiffness is HYPE. The final good point for the FSA Cranks is they cost less then some, and are made out of swanky lighter weight carbon fiber, like the campy ones, unlike the alloy shimano ones.

The Slightly Bad: The FSA bottom bracket/crank set combination is prone to creaking. Yes, tightening the BB can help, but in general the crank set/bb design likes to talk while you pedal. Other friends who have been on FSA cranks have also experienced this wonder...

The Very Bad: The carbon/alloy bolt bindings can break. I haven't experienced this but I've witnessed this first hand at a race. Last year while riding for OSU, a women racer on our team had her FSA cranks catastrophically fail when the alloy threading connections carbon/alloy bonding failed and broke off. I also heard through the grape vine that a similar failure occurred at one of the 2006 RAO race camps.

Continuing in the very bad category is the general fixing bolt design for how the cranks are connected. Like all crank sets of this general design the crank axle is bonded to the drive side crank set spider thus removing the need for crank set fixing bolts from the drive side placing them only on the non-drive side. Now the problem with the FSA cranks that I've experienced multiple times, is that the crank fixing bolt un-threads while riding loosing up the crank set while riding. This year this has happened at least twice in the last few months out on the road, once climbing timberline at "RAO Llama camp", and once a few weeks ago I was 20 miles from home and my crank arm just sorta fell off. Is it just me who is experiencing this? Are my cranks cursed? No I don't think so, over Labor Day weekend I was up in Seattle training, and while riding with the Ti-Cycle racing team and one of the cat 3 riders had the same exact failure. Talking with Jay, he said he had attempted to have his cranks "Fixed" by sending them back to FSA and that he was now on his second set, which they had promised fixed/addressed the problem. But obviously they were incorrect as it was still was occurring.

It's worth noting an example of a superior fastening design. The shimano external BB crank set fastens the non-drive side crank arm through pinch bolts instead of a traditional crank bolt. The pinch bolts run perpendicular to the axis of rotation for the crank arm thus making it impossible to unscrew the bolts while riding.

My Review: FSA - SLK Compact Mega EXO = F-Suck-A,

Crankset itself (Two Thumbs Down) Compact Gearing ( Two Thumbs Up).

Ring of Fire - 2006 - The Inside Scoop

2006-09-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

As part of my prep for the 508, I raced in the second annual "Ring of Fire", 12/24 hr time trial. I choose the 12 hr entry, as the 12 hr race would be long enough to warm up and a few intervals while still keeping the distance and the time in consistent with my weekly training loads and goals. On to the Fire..

The ring of fire like all real TT's started with the count down, 5, 4, 3, muscles strain, 2, 1, go! George released, and the heart rate shot up. The stated goal was to log some race training for the 508, try out some "Tartan Secrets", and have an excuse to drink 8+ cans of ensure, but a race is also just that race and one always wants to do well too..

Like all RAO events, the 2006 Ring of Fire, drew some of the biggest names in ultra. With ultra vetrans, Chris Hopkinson (RAAM Rookie of the Year), Ben Larson (Fireweed & RAO Team Records), John Spurgeon (Mr Fixxed), John Henry Maurice (Fellow 2006 FC competitor), Hugh Gapay (2006 RAO Rookie of the Year), and Urs Koenig (RAAM, Cascade 1200KM record holder), making up just some of the highly impressive field. In the ROF format, the 24 hr riders went first, followed by those of us taking the 12 hr. My start time, 7:11 AM put me dead last and meant that I had until 7:11 PM to log my miles.

Back to the Race.. With George's release I was off, Chris Hopkinson my 1 minute man, decked in a HOT PINK skin suit was already fadeing into the distance. UGH.. I knew Chris was going to be fast, but shezz, with no warm up he was already motoring away. At that point I reminded myself that this was a training race, and NOT a "A", event so it was more important to practice my 508 pace, nutrition, and avoid injury, then to spank Chris on the 12 hr.

By the top of the climb leading out of Maupin, both Chris and I had passed our 1 and 2 minute man, and I'd actually narrowed the gap between Chris and myself ever so slightly. But then the road turned down, and Chris disappeared. I wouldn't see Chris again till the end of the "Big Show".

Once over Maupin the 12 hr course took us over down through Tye Valley and then out on some new roads to Wemmic and from Wemmic it was up the hill that's called Mt. Hood, and back to Maupin over some of the "Classic" RAO course.

Climbing up hood, I briefly got to talk to the 'Legend' John Henry Maurice, John's going to also be racing at the 508, and from what I saw, John's going to be a rider to watch for at this years 508.

Bouncing over the hills leading back into Maupin, I moved into 2nd place, in the 12 hr Race. Then it was around the back side of the Maupin night loop before heading in to the ROF pit for the first check in. Time: On the day loop 110 miles ~6 hours

After grabbing a cliff bar, ensure, and some water it was off to begin looping. I estimated that in 6 hours I could do around 4-5 laps. A wind had begun to pour down over the Maupin climb, and climbing out I realized that it would be more likely somewhere around 3-4 laps.. UGH. Once over the rise, it was down the other side where the wind and then around the 40+K TT course. Motoring around the course a head wind seemed to pour in from all angles and it wasn't until the final 7 or so miles of the 27 mile loop that a tail wind developed.

In the end I made three full laps, and on my fourth and final lap made it 21 miles before my time expired.

Final: Results 2nd 211.8 miles average speed 17.65 mph (~4 miles shy of first)

Ring of Fire 12/24 HR

2006-08-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

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..

2006-08-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-08-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

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..

2006-08-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

More RAO Photo's

2006-08-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

Training Update!

2006-07-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

Two days after RAO I was ready to get back on the bike, and with Ring of Fire (12hr) and the FC 508 on the immediate horizon now is definitely not the time to be slacking.

- Wednesday 40 miles (Corvallis -> Keizer) - Road Bike No Aero Bars.

- Thursday 40 miles (Keizer -> Corvallis) - Road Bike No Aero Bars.
10 miles in evening pulling the burley dog trailer.
20 miles no dog trailer..

- Friday Rest Day

- Saturday 4 hrs (Road Bike No Aero Bars)
76+ miles (Keizer->Mt Angle->Scotts Mills->Carus (7 miles shy of Oregon City)->
Silverton -> Keizer

- Sunday 96.5 miles (Road Bike No Aero Bars)
(Keizer-> Silverton -> Silver Creek Falls-> Aumsvill -> Turner->West Salem->Keizer

RAO Photo's

2006-07-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

Ryan Gardner's Award winning Race Across Oregon Photo's are posted to PhotoShelter!

Oregon State Time Trial Championships

2006-07-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday August 6 is the date set for the Oregon State Time Trial Championships. What those in the know don't know is not just one but two PHILBRICKS will be racing in the State Time Trial Championships. Yeah, of course I will be there. But who's the second mystery Philbrick? Well, she is my Mom, Cathey Philbrick. She is slated for the masters women 55-59 race. And with Mitocondira being entirely inherited through the maternal line I think she should do just fine, actually I sorta feel sorry for all the guys she's going to be passing. So when your racing the state TT champs and this masters lady on a silver lemond passes and steals just a little of your cycling karma know that rider was "MY MOM!". I guess this all begs the question, what’s your MOM GOT?

August 6th is Tartan Time!

2006-07-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

Saunders Whittlesey - The solo field took off at 5:00, Two man teams at 7:00, and the four man teams left at 9:00. Team Tartan first started catching the solo field a little before Mt Hood, but the place to be last night was at the base of Occaco, for it was here that the three teams converged, 4 man shark squad, 2 man tartan team, and Saunders. Yeah, and if that wasn't enough, if it wasn't for the streaks of sodium running down his jersey, shorts, and bike, one honestly could have thought Saunders was just out for a early morning hammer fest and not nearly 400 miles in to a record breaking race.

David Holt & Wade Baker- Team Tartan caught up with Dave and Wade dueling it out for second and third position between Service Creek and the nasty side of Monument. Both Dave and Wade were riding so strong that we seriously began to question our thermometers. Had it really been 111oF?

Ricky Martin & Scott Youngren – Last year I had the honor or riding with both Scott and Ricky at both RAO and race camp. At last years race both Ricky and Scott faced serious demons before finally DNFing. Where most people would have thrown in the towel, Scott and Ricky came back with an undeniable thirst to taste the fruits of a denied finish. In spite of the record heat both Ricky and Scott road to commanding finishes and have joined the ranks of the few who have claim to an official Solo-RAO Finish. From one solo to another, salutes!

John Spurgeon – When gearing up for the 2006 RAO, we heard rumors that Mr. Solo, himself John “Saber Tooth Salmon” Spurgeon was going to be returning to “Finish some unsettled business at the 2006 RAO”. At RAO 2006 John did that and so much more becoming the first person ever to finish RAO on a single speed, 44hr 34min.

Patty-Jo Struve - One week later, I'm still blown away by Patty's finish. Team Tartan pulled in Patty, chewed her up, and spit her out a little before Dufer. At the time I thought there was no way a rider we caught so early could possibly finish. Well, Patty proved me wrong and then some. With only 20 min remaining for an offical finish Patty cruised in to claim the title to the first offical solo RAO finish by a woman in two years. 47 hr 40 min.. Way to Go!

To Be Continued.

Team's - We Salute You!

2006-07-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

The Chiropractic Sharks - Swim to the Top!
We want to know, did Tedder have you guys on a Hammer Gel Espresso drip through the entire race? Were convinced the four of you don't have an ounce of slow twitch muscle fiber in those legs. Nice job, snagging the big stick of beef, being first to the top and cementing in stone a new RAO course speed record.

Team Grand Pac Masters - New Two Man 70+ course record..
Grand Pac Masters, you guys are truly an inspiration. You've cemented our long term goal, mark the date, July 22nd 2049, a new two man over 70+ course record.. Tartan Style.. The only catch, your record is DAM FAST!! 39:42

RAO Race Day - It's Tartan Time

2006-07-23T22:48:00.000-07:00

The 2006, Race Across Oregon presented a new challenge for Team Tartan: field two crews for two riders, with singular goal of total domination. Not yet recovered from the race here are a few of the highlites. Damn, I'm still hot.

New Fastest Timberline Climb
Team Tartan recorded the FASTEST time split from Government Gamp to Timberline Lodge, EVER for any team. Covering the final 6 miles in 29 minutes averageing approximately 12.4 mph. Take that "Finnegan's Discovers Toy Sharks".

New Two Man Course Record
A new two man course record was born: 28 hrs 58 min, 18.47 mph. Ol' Fogies, we drank all our ensure, looking to restock, please send wager to:

Kenneth Philbrick
1180 Lockhaven Dr Ne
Keizer, Oregon 97303

Beat Recumbents to the Top
In fairness, yes the four man recumbant team, RAO speed wagon started two hours back. But we figure the "Quest" is worth at least two. So yet again, the uprights are on top. In our opinion you guys are amazing, we can't pedal the 'bent.

What's Next For Team Tartan? Why the Race Across Oregon Banquet.

Training Video's

2006-07-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

Timberline

2006-07-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

Team Tartan at Timberline with George!

Photo's From Camp

2006-07-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

Warmsprings

Climbing Out of Maupin

RAO - Camp Redux..

2006-07-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of years the RAO race camps have become a Team Tartan staple. To win RAO one must go to camp. One can train on similar grades, similar length courses, and even simulate the entire course indoors, but no training approaches being out on the course. Unfortunately this year Team Tartan was missing in action at both the official three and four day camps.

So what to do? Well, simply plan our own unofficial race camp. As a team we have had a little experience on the RAO course in May & June, but neither of us had ever been out on the course in July and thus the weekend of the 4th of July was chosen as "Tartan Time". In planning our camp we knew we would need some help. With my crew was off in Canada and Ben's crew somewhere in the Midwest in search of the "Worlds Largest Six Pac", we would need to bring some new members into the clan or get friendly with bike trailers. Well the call went out for help and when the Caber finally hit the ground, Lisa and Ken Morton aka "The Super Llama's" had become new members of the Team Tartan clan.

The Tour

Instead of writing about the route, how we hammered till our little legs fell off, how under trained we really are, and my 16% body fat roasted in the heat; I’m going to share the big lesson we learned about the 2006 RAO.

Feel the Fire

In May & June, the RAO course can be warm. But in July the course is an inferno. We knew it was going to be hot, but it wasn't until camp we truly had an understanding for how hot it is going to be. In the morning leaving Portland it was warm, government camp was cool, a little outside Tye Valley it was 104F. Day two, it was cool in the morning 80F, by noon in the valley between service Creek & Monument it was 109F, why the sun couldn't muster 1 more degree F so we could have suffered through a more optimal 110F I do not know what I can tell you was it was by far the hottest hell I've ever ridden through.

How to handle the heat on race day? Surviving the heat on race day will take every trick in ultra-cycling race manual and then a few more. Here are a few of our observations..

1 - Hammer Nutrition - Endurolytes - Plan on bringing at least two bottles of endurolytes per rider. Ben and I were consuming roughly 50+ endurolytes PER DAY out on the course. Yes you might not dip into the second bottle but as with everything else it’s better to be prepared.

2 - Water - One can not have to little of this, both externally and internally, but again Endurolytes will be critical to avoid Hyponytrimia.

3 - Nutrition - Remember to eat in the heat even when your body says no..

4 - Hammer Nutrition - Liquid Endurance - This supplement is critical for the pre-RAO taper. Liquid Endurance increases the amount of water stored in the body allowing.

Race Strategy

During the middle of the second day I began to think about an RAO race strategy, especially a solo race strategy to mitigate the effects of the heat. What I came up with was a slightly unorthodox solo race plan; Sleep though the heat of the day. The plan would be to ride non-stop, but during the hottest part of the day 2:30 - 3:30 when it’s 100+F stop and sleep in the back of your crew's air-conditioned van. After the hour, resume the pursuit. I envision this race strategy would work very well for the solo that is just looking to finish and avoid the DNF. Remember last year approximately half the field DNF’ed so avoiding a DNF is a very respectable goal. Sleeping early in the mid day heat is strategically much better then sleeping in the evening or early morning when it’s cool. For the solo looking for a win the strategy also could work assuming a mid day snooze would result in a evening and day two increase in average speed of 1 mph over the competitors who road non-stop through the heat.

Team Tartan’s Goals

Much has been written about Team Tartan’s RAO race goals. Some if it’s right on, and some misses the mark slightly. Yes, Team Tartan would like to do well. Yes, we had a fantastic performance last year at both RAO and the Fireweed 400. Yes, we have had some success in a few early season time trials. But for as for RAO, our big goal here is to just ride a race that’s fun. In my case my graduate school work has left me with less pre-RAO training time then I would have optimally liked and Ben’s training schedule this year has been focused on goals other then RAO. Who will be first to the top, if I were to guess I’d put money on the sharks, the two recumbent teams should be next. For the two man race if I were a wagering man, I’d put Computrained first as I’ve ridden before with them, closely followed by Dik-Dik, not so closely followed by Team Tartan who might be down to a single rider. The Canabiles will most likely be late as they will be waylayed on catching and eating me. With my glutes are now nicely marbled at 16%, I’m expecting Bill Nicholi will be handing me a seasoning packet at the pre-race meeting.

Interested in riding the RAO course on the 4th?

2006-06-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

Team Tartan's been talking about doing a "Elite" RAO tour/training camp on the weekend of the 4th of July. If anyone out there would be interested in participating drop me a email. Tentatively the plan would be to do a full, 3 day tour of the course but it might be as little as 2 or as many as 4 nothings definite. Ideally we would like to arrange a primitive sag, the plan here would be for everyone to chip in enough to give the driver a thank you.

So if you'd be interested in getting out on the course and training with us drop me a email and/or if you have a friend/significant other who would like to crew then definitely get in contact with me..

-- Kenneth

Oregon State Team Time Trial Championships

2006-05-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

Sun, a light wind, one couldn't ask for a better weather for the Team Time Trial Championships. A few weeks ago, I got an email from a friend riding for Team E-Web asking if I fancied a place in their echelon for the State Team Time Trial Champs. I said sure and the Men’s Cat-3 E-Web TTT team was born.

Now when you hear about teams who excel at the Team Time Trial format, there is a common trend, practice, and time. In our case, practice amounted to arriving early enough at the race so we could do a few clicks on the road. Yeah, we were tight.

So, the race format, four, seven mile laps around the plains of Corvallis, with two minute gaps between teams.

Our Team: Team E-Web, Jim (2006 RAO Solo Competitor), Ben, Doug, and big o'le me.

- The Start -

Rolling up to the start it was evident that the cycling gods must have favored us as we had an ideal starting position, last in our category. Team Guinness was getting their final count down. The Guinness guys looked good and with their launch, we had two minutes to chill. With the time trial consisting of laps the start had the added complexity of actively racing teams zipping through the start at the same time as other teams were being staged. With about 15 seconds to go a team shot through and then it was our turn to start the music.

The big trick on TT's is not to spend your load too early; ideally the fumes should only start to show up as one approaches the final line. Our start was tight, Doug, led the group out, Fish fell in, I was next, and then Ben. With Ben on the TT commenced and everything was jolly. Then approximately 5 minutes into the first lap, we had just passed a team of a different category, Fish was pulling, and as he drifted to the outside of the road and was suddenly off the road, throwing gravel everywhere! How Fish kept the bike upright is nothing short of a miracle. We eased up for a moment and then continued on thinking Fish was gone. Glancing back, someone said, "He’s back on the road!” with that we all slammed on our brakes, and awaited the arrival. With the team whole again it was time to really start the show. The now frustrated Fish, went to the front and showed the rest of us how it was done.

Team TT's are hard. In some ways I think they are much harder then individual TT's. In the ITT one just raises their pace to the maximum they can maintain for the distance and then just holds it. It hurts, but everything is constant, the tempo is steady. In Team TT's everything is different, when the rider is in the front they put out an effort far above that of their ITT pace then after a few seconds they rotate off reduce the intensity and slide to the back before jumping back on for another rotation. The big trick is jumping back on, sliding off is easy but jumping back on is hard as it involves a quick acceleration. If one misses the draft window it’s harder still.

Going into the third lap we were down to three riders. The rules for the TTT state that the third rider over the line is time so now for an official finish we would need everyone to bring it in.

Part of the reason, I do well in ITT's is I'm more of tempo rider. I like it when the tempo is constant changes in efforts are difficult and as such the laps were beginning to take their toll on me. I'd go to the front, drop my wad, Fish would attack, and I'd have to dig real deep to jump back on.

Some time about now, a Cat-1/2 team caught and passed us. But instead of opening a huge gap they just motored up the road a bit and then stopped pulling away. Being passed hurts, so we fought back and returned the favor. Then they passed us again but again after a bit we were again in the lead. I think this scenario was occurring because our team was holding a slightly more consistent pace then the 1/2 team.

A little time passed and then we caught the Ginuess Guys with one lap to go. Going into the final lap I pushed hard, and applied some force with my gastrocnemius (calf muscle) and felt the ever so slight tingling of an upcoming cramp. I swift gulp of cytomax, and a slightly altered pedaling style to avoid forceful contractions of the gastrocnemius and we were into the final lap. The whole final lap is a total blur.

Final Results: Team - E-WEB snagged first and first by a healthy margin (> 2 min), we ended up covering approximately 28 miles in a just a little over the illusive hour mark. Figure Fish's early off road race adventures, cost 30 seconds - 1 min, we figure we could have been under an hour if that whole escapade hadn't happened.

Now for note to all those entering the solo category at RAO this year. Fear the Fish. Trust me Fish is seriously strong, it was all I could do to hold is wheel today during the later half of today’s adventure. I don't think the Fish is RAAM qualified so it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see the great RAO tradition continue of requiring phenomenal race times to make the RAAM cut.

Link to OBRA: Results

As always, "It's Tartan Time!"

The Crew

2006-05-16T15:02:00.000-07:00

So I should be writing a summary of a recent paper concerning the non-metabolic factors behind skeletal muscle fatigue, but it’s a nice day, and with a little less then two months till RAO, and 4 weeks till my muscle papers due, I should really fill you all in on whats truly important, “The Crew”..

For those of you in the know, last year, Team Tartan fielded what has to have been the most outstanding rookie crew's of all time. The dynamo crew motivated, fuled, and logistically planned each pedal stroke, and the results at both RAO and Fireweed said it all. Well, looking forward, what to expect, last year the fitness was good this year I’m not so sure.. Between my fatass, 16%, and increassing body fat, and Ben’s new gig, the bikes haven’t been getting the loving that they did in the past and the race results well sortof speak for themselves.

But the Crew is BACK and this time they aren’t ROOKIES, they know the course, and they want the BIG BEEF STICK; I know they won't let me eat it.

So with out further ado, its time for the roll call..

Team Tartan Crew Member, 10 Time STP Veteran, David Philbrick (Dad)
Ultra Crew Credits: 2005 Race Across Oregon, 2005 Fireweed 400

Team Tartan Crew Member, two time LA Marathoner, Cathey Philbrick (Mom)
Ultra Crew Credits: 2005 Race Across Oregon, 2005 Fireweed 400

Team Tartan Crew member and Nationally ranked masters swimmer, Larry Philbrick (Uncle Larry)!
Ultra Crew Credits: 2005 Race Across Oregon

New Teammates!

Not only is the whole of Team Tartan returning to RAO but I’m ecstatic to announce that two new crew memebers who will be joining us for this years adventure.

Tim Larson (Ben's Dad) & Russ from Wisconsin!

Tim and Russ are from Wisconsin, Lon Haldeman, is from Wisconsin, basically I think that says enough right there. A few years ago I had the honor of accompanying Tim & Russ on one of there world famous Ultra Marthon Cannoe Expeditions, and what I learned in the process is these guys are a hell of a lot tougher then me..

So I guess what sort of wraps it up for now cause as you know

“It’s Tartan Time All the Time”!

Ride of Silence

2006-05-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

A friend on the OSU cycling team just sent me info on the Ride of Silence, if you haven't heard about it I’d really encourage you to take a look first take a look at the website and then to get involved. The ride of silence is NOT critical mass it’s about attempting to raise awareness for the rights and safety concerns of cyclist’s through the remembrance of our fallen friends.

For More info please see: http://www.rideofsilence.org

Oregon Events:

Corvallis Contact: Jerry Rooney Distance: 5 - 15 miles
Notes: Meet at Osborn Aquatic Center at 7PM on Wednesday 5/17. Everyone invited.

Newport Contact: Elizabeth Rose Distance: ~2 miles
Notes: Meet at Fred Meyer parking lot and ride toward the Yaquina Bay bridge, through Newport.

Pendleton Contact: Susan Kelley Distance: 8-10 miles
Notes: The ride will start and end at Pendleton Bike & Board on Main Street in Pendleton.

Phoenix Contact: Robert Korfhage Distance: 14.25 or 10 miles
Notes: START LOCATION: Hawthorn Park, Medford (meet on Hawthorn St.)

Salem Contact: John Henry Maurice Distance: 15 miles
Notes: Endorsed by the Salem Bicycle Club - see www.salembicycleclub.org for details

Eugene Time Trial Series

2006-05-08T22:43:00.000-07:00

So this posting is a tad out of order but long over do so here we go. For those in the know, last month was the Eugene Time Trial Series. The series format, four 15 mile TT every tuesday for a month, same time same place. The race course, a Swedish pancake flat loop featuring 2 turns just a few miles north of Eugene..

The Results:

- Week One

So I’m always nervous going into TT’s. Was Jack Frost a fluke? How should I pace myself for this course? How much should I be warming up? And why oh why did I forget my cytomax. The competition looked good, lots of big legs, disk wheels, and aero helmets. Rolling up to the line I had butter flies in my stomach, 3, 2,1, go! And I was off, I tapped the pedals, the Co-Motion responded like it was an extension of my leg and I was doing 29 mph. With the course being a tad more then 10 feet in length I thought it wise to dial it back a bit, so I settled down to a cruising pace and started to pull back my carrots. Going out there was a head wind but as long as it held it might make the trip back fun. Not being totally familiar with the course, the first corner felt a little long, the second came a little quicker, and then I was sailing with the wind doing well over 28 mph. Crossing the finish line this weeks results, 15 miles in 34 min 47 seconds, which turned out to be good enough for first in both the 4’s and the 3’s, placing me 4^th overall, not to shabby for week 1.

- Week Two

After the previous week’s results I was feeling a tad more comfortable with results. The plan this week, just do everything the same but better and let the bike take care of everything else. The catch, there always is a catch, the weather didn’t look good. The wind was shifting, and those dark clouds in the sky looked ominous. Back to the starting gate, and off the line, it felt good to know the course. The carrots this week were faster so I didn’t wasn’t catching quite as many, then it happened, those dark clouds in the sky just could hold back and on the way back the wind lashed out strike me in the face and the clouds poured down like a water fall. Coming in everything inside of me kept wanting to raise the white flag, I kept having to remind myself that I was TTing, that I needed to push it, the line came, and crossing it I knew my performance this week had been nowhere near as good as the previous.

Time: 35:32.00, 1st in the Cat 4’s, 6th overall, and almost a minute down from the previous weeks time.

- Week Three

Going into week three I felt kind of low, yeah the previous weeks weather was bad, but a nearly a minute down Kenneth? Were my first two times flukes of luck? This week I changed my warm up slightly, adjusting when I ate, what I ate, and I made a vow to control my pace off the line. The weather was better this week, no rain, but there was still a wind. Of the line, out, back, and across, I started early, and pulled in nearly all my carrots. Crossing the line I felt good almost too good, could I have gone harder, yeah maybe, thankfully there was still one more week to go..

Time: 34:21.00, 1st in the Cat 4’s, 6th overall.

- Week Four – Final week

With my victory in the cat 4’s nearly assured and just 3 days separating the final TT from the start of the Deschutes TT Fest, the plan for this race was to try out all the changes and modifications I was thinking about making for this weekends adventure. After attaching the new equipment, and going though a slightly more refined prep, I was back on the line and off. Off the line for the final time, I almost felt sad the series was going to be drawing to a close. But with the best weather of any of the weeks now was going to be the time to show my stuff, and the race seemed to progress well as the carrots popped back one by one. Crossing the line I felt good, but had it been enough?

Time: 34:12.00 (Fastest time of all three weeks), 1st in the Cat 4’s, 5th overall, and the Cat 4 series GC.

The Wager

2006-05-05T17:40:00.000-07:00

Hey, Ol' Fogies...

So when Team Tartan, aka "the Whippersnappers", last checked, our biggest rivals, who, each individually, have more experience than our two man team combined have yet to register for the 2006 RAO. Could it be that the Ol' Fogies are "scared" of the Tartan; worried about getting trounced by two young whippersnappers? Or could it be confidence? Confidence that two Ol' Fogies have nothing to worry about from the whippersnappers and are comfortable to rest on their laurels for RAO 2006.

We don't know. What we do know is that a quality win doesn't come without quality competition. So to add another dimension to the 2006 RAO, Team Tartan, would like to propose a little ol' wager for, to make the two man team event just all that much more interesting. But what to wager? Obviously it would need to be something that would appeal to two Ol' Fogies. That left us wondering. Then it was obvious...

That's right! What could be better for two old fogies then a six pack of Ensure? And on the off chance we win, it works for us too since the stuff keeps for years. The deal: team second to the top of Timberline presents one six pack to the winning team at the banquet. Anyway, think about it 'cause, its Tartan Time all the Time..

Yours truly,

Kenneth and Ben

The Whippersnappers!

Deschutes TT Festival - Stage 1 Photos

2006-05-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: Paul Lieto

First Annual - Deschutes TT Festival (stage race)

2006-05-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

Ever been to TT Stage Race? Up until this weekend I had no idea how much fun/adventure could be crammed into just two days. The Deschutes TT Festival, consisted off three stages all based out of Maupin, OR, a sleepy fishing, rafting, and now cycling town in north eastern Oregon. The stages started off early on Saturday with a punishing 40 KM, followed up by 8 mile hill climb later that afternoon and finally concluded with a 50 mile out and back Sunday.

- Stage 1 -

Going into the first 40 KM event I felt good. I was nervous about the first few miles as the TT started with a significant 2 mile climb, but after that I couldn’t have asked for a better course. With my minute man off, promoter, RAAM Veteran, and all around cool guy, George Thomas, held the bike. I snapped in. Put some pressure into the pedals, and was off. Now, I’m not a climber, but that morning I felt like this 180 lb beef cake could have shelled the lightest Columbian. By the top of the climb, I’d pulled back my 30, 90, and 120 second carrots, and was closing in on my 60 second carrot. At the top of the climb with a good 22 miles still left, I settled down, and began to cruise, and chased my 60 second man, Carl, into the descent. Carl descended just a tad more aggressively and by the base of the climb had increased our gap a little. I eased forward, found the nose of the saddle, began to put some power into the pedals, and then the saddle rocked forward! I moved back and it rocked back. The weld holding the top of frame on had broken, and the sleeve holding the seat post was just floating free! With the saddle just hanging there, I didn’t think I should sit on it, and I was worried if I just left it dangling there it might fall into my rear wheel and catastrophically end it all. So with that I slammed on the breaks depositing the saddle, seat post, severed frame sleeve on the side of the road, and resumed the chase with 23 KM left. Without the saddle, the aero bars weren’t an option makeing the shifters inaccessible. The bike had now been reduced to a high power low cadence single speed. A few miles later I hit my first decent and found that while I couldn’t pedal due to the loss of pedal tension, I could now tuck real low. The final decent of the course was less kind, it consisted of a few corners which were quite a challange sans saddle. In the final KM my hands and wrists began to hurt. Bringing it in I was passed by a few 1-2’s and two of my carrots. Crossing the line I’d salvaged 3^rd place, 3 min down on the leaders. Carl, my 60 second man, took second only being denied 1^st by 3 seconds. As bad as my luck had been it could have been worse, my good friend, Ben, had suffered a flat ending his chase for GC.

- Stage 2 –

Stage 1 had started at roughly 9:00 and with stage 2, an 8 mile hill climb set for 3:00 the plan had been to eat a nice lunch, take a nap, before warming up. The events of stage 1 changed all that. The whole rest and relaxation period was pulled from the schedule and replaced by a crazy fast attempt to salvage the TT fest by setting my road bike as some sort of bastardized TT weapon. Cranks were swapped, cassettes and wheels were changed, saddle height adjusted, etc. With a little over an hour left before the start of the second stage everything was as good as it was going to get and it was time to get ready. The hill climb started out steep, and then after a few corners turned into a power climb with a serious side wind. Hill climbs definitely aren’t my thing, but given everything else that had happened that day I felt thankfull to hold 3^rd place. A climber catapulted himself into second position, putting over a minute on the rest of the field, and first place ever so slightly increased his gap. Carl, who had been sitting in 2^nd position, suffered the serious misfortune of suffering the next bout of equipment failure loosing a crank arm not long after he had left the line, ending his chase for GC.

- Stage 3 -

Sunday Morning, I was sitting in third place, with a little over three minute’s separating myself from GC. With Carl and Ben both out of the chase for GC, both offered up TT equipment to try and give me some sort of aero setup to do the final TT on. I took Ben up on the offer and rolled up to the start with some borrowed clip on aero-bars. The final stage was a 50 mile out and back on the notoriously difficult bake oven road. The first 2 miles of bake oven are fairly gnarly but after that the climb settles down into a power climb. I was being chased by the Cat 4 climbing phenom. Right before reaching the summit of the initial two mile section I had the honor of seeing him fly by. Once the climb had settled down into something more reasonable, I returned the favor and went on to put a little less then 4 min into him, and 9 min into first, grabbing a stage win and cat 4 stage race GC!

I'm Back!

2006-04-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

It’s been awhile, first it was finals, then spring break craziness, then classes kicked up again, OSU racing, etc. In reality I should really be doing something else right now, so don't tell any one.

No sooner had winter quarter ended then it was time to kick off the Colligate cycling season and with the first being our very own OSU omnium. The format for the OSU weekend was simple. A 70 mile Road Race around and around the Decker loop, then a 12 mile TTT, and then the next day a crit down in Eugene put on by those crazy quacks.

Race summary - RR: The road race started out smooth, but no sooner had the race started then my shifting started acting up. Then on the 3rd of 5 laps, the captain of our squad had his rear tubular blow out on grange road. Two of us fell off to help pace Dan back into the field. But after a agonizingly slow wheel change it just wasn't going to happen, to compound matters my chain went from skipping to sizing, and I ended up falling off and finishing a few minutes behind everyone else. After a quick lunch it was on to the TTT.

TTT: The Team time trial was a short out 12 mile out and back over some of the same hill's we had been chilling on during the RR. The men's A OSU TTT was a total mess. We started off a tad slow on the climbs and never quite reached a cruising speed on the way out. Then on the way back we spit off a rider, and then were passed by the team whom would go on to finish first. Out of 7 teams we ended up coming in 5th.

Crit: The crit was a short loop down in Eugene. It started off fast and fierce. What crit doesn’t? Then say 10 minutes into the fun a lead group shot away. The real bummer here was the breakaway contained no representatives from OSU! So the remainder of the crit was spent by the rest of us chasing the break.

- Week 2 - With spring break drawing to a close it was time for the Portland State Omnium. Like the previous week the format for this week ends adventures was RR, TTT, and Crit. The road race course was 5 laps around Hag Lake, then the TTT was the road race course in reverse, and the crit the following day was out around a loop at Mt Hood community college.

More to come..

Weight Frustrations

2006-03-21T17:09:00.000-08:00

So today I got my body composition analyzed by the cool kids over in the physiology lab and wow do I feel like a fatty. The measurement device was the bod pod, basically it's a combination of fancy formulas, air displacement, lung volume, weight, and height. The testing protocol requires subjects to abstain from eating and exercise for 2 hours prior to the testing protocol. The devices is considered to have a standard deviation of approximately 2% body fat, which is about half what calipers provide, and a little greater then hydrostatic weighing.

On to the numbers:

Height 6' 2" – No surprise here..
At 10:45 AM I weighted in at 175.5 lbs ( last meal/fluid was dinner the night before)
Calculated Total Lean Weight – 147.1 lbs - 83.8%
Calculated Fat Weight - 28.4 lbs - 16.2%

One standard deviation for the measurement device is 2% body fat so with a 68% confidence my true % body fat falls some where between 14.2% and 18.2%. Aka I'm a fatty.

In all seriousness I've been feeling good about my power and weight, but, after this I'm not so sure. Ideally I'd like my body fat to be somewhere between 12 and 10%. I would feel much better if my bod pod results had come back 4% lower.

Training Update and Misc Thoughts..

2006-03-16T10:14:00.000-08:00

Too many things to do today.
- Lifted Tuesday.
- Rollers last night 1 hr. Right now I feel like a sloth.
- Plan on doing another hour on the rollers today, with exam's that’s unfortunately all I have time for.

- Oh well. Only 2 weeks till a Spring Break, at this point it can't come fast enough. I'm debating on going down to CA for some training and good weather. Anyone out there have any multiday 100+ mile day route suggestion's that would bounce between motels?

- In the good news department! Outlined my program of study yesterday with my masters advisor and if everything goes perfect I'll graduate with my masters at the end of next academic year! My last quarter is designed to be as light as possible. But we will have to see how this complicates RAAM. Right now my last quarter consists of one real class finishing my master’s thesis and two other token courses.

Ideally if all the cycling camps keep there present dates and if RAAM’s a reality next year for me, I really want to make it out to another AZ PAC tour, the Brevet PAC, and at least one of the RAO camps.

Life’s always complicated, but that’s ok cause,

It’s Tartan Time!

Photo Blog: Jack Frost TT

2006-03-14T10:59:00.000-08:00

(click on the photo to enlarge)

Photo courtesy of Alex Johnson
Pacific Sports Photography

Alsea and Back - Sun 3/12/2006

2006-03-13T09:49:00.000-08:00

Woke up feeling sorta tired today, feeling like I'm bordering on overtraining, I strongly debated taking the day off. But by 2:00 PM the sun streaming in was just too much and soon the spandex was on and I was out the door. The plan today was simple out and back to Alsea, nothing too long, just lots of climbing. Heading up HWY 34 the mid week snow was still clearly visible on the sides of the road, but the road surface was thankfully clear. Up over to Alsea and back, then it was back in via Decker Road on the OSU TT course. Heading back in I ran into Mark Newsom, of RAO Total Carnage fame, and we road back in together ultra shop. Today I didn't feel as good as the previous day and I think the next week will be a little mellower ala recovery week.

Long over due training update

2006-03-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

Last week, 3/4/2006 – Didn’t get out till late in the afternoon ended up doing the Decker Loop, ~1.5 hrs. Then later in the evening jumped on the rollers and power cranks putting in another 2 hrs while watching a movie.

3/5/2006 – Felt like I wanted to get some serious miles in, got out on the road a little after 10 AM, took Kings Valley down to Dallas, then took HWY 22 to Salem, from Salem I went out to Silverton, then stopped off at my parents place to refill the water bottles before riding back to Corvallis. Riding Time 7-8 hrs, 131.58 miles. On getting back I grabbed a pizza and passed out.

3/6/2006 – Sunny Chilly afternoon, road out to Marry’s Peak, got 2 miles from the summit before hitting impassible snow. Turned around and started down. As I decended Marry’s the weather changed, the wind kicked up and it began to snow. The decent was utterly miserable. Returned back to Corvallis via the Decker loop. Ride time 3 - 4 hrs.

3/7/2006 – Took a day off, and just lifted.

3/8/2006 – Recovery day

3/9/2006 – Got on the rollers and power cranks in the evening for another 2 hr stint.

3/10/2006 – Didn’t get back from the lab till late, after dinner even later, got on the rollers and power cranks for 1.5 hrs.

3/11/2006 – Didn’t get out till a little after noon, went out and back to Dallas on the kings valley loop. Ride Time 4.5 hrs, mileage just a tad over 80. On getting back, downed a recovery smoothie, passed out, woke up 2.5 hrs later and ate a late dinner. I’m a tad frustrated with my fitness as is. I keep thinking about last June when I had un-ending endurance. Oh well, thank goodness the big events are all a little later this year.

First TT of the Season: The Jack Frost 20KM

2006-03-07T09:41:00.000-08:00

The Plan
Going into my races I like to have a plan. The Jack Frost plan was simple, to not take the TT to seriously. While it’s nice to win races there just wasn't time in the training schedule to do anything special for the Jack Frost TT. So Friday was a 3 hr training ride, then Saturday UO/OSU team ride was as long as it was intense, and then Sunday was going to be the first TT of the season, tapering is for wimps. In some ways I figured all the pre-TT riding, and total lack of any thought of a taper was good it would better reflect the nth day of a stage race or nth pull of a team ultra.

The Prep
My training Saturday, day before the TT, was to do the OSU/UO team ride. The team ride was super fun, but also super intense. I made a extra effort to eat all day long to attempt to keep the glycogen topped off. Then before driving to my parents place in the evening for dinner I had a Hammer Pro Whey recovery smoothie, then dinner a few hours later and final TT prep. I was really worried I'd spent too much time anaerobic so after dinner I spent much of the remaining evening lying on the rug with the Compex buzzing away on the legs.

Race Day
Normally I don't like to eat much before a TT. The general plan is to eat a full dinner the night before then eat a minimal breakfast consisting of mostly liquids the morning of the TT. Well, this plan works great until your dad wakes up before you do and makes a special breakfast especially for you. Can't exactly say no that can you. So with thoughts in my head that, well, I'm not exactly going for a win, I ate two poached egg's, one English Muffin, a yogurt, and drank a glass of OJ before hitting the road to drive north with four hours to go. Driving north I stopped off part way for a coffee too.

Arriving at the Race
The Jack Frost race course was just over the boarder in Vancouver, WA. Pulling into the staging grounds I was blown away. There were so, so, many people. I like to park as close to the start as it makes it relatively easy to make last minute adjustments, driving in the closest spot I could find was way, way back in the back of the lot buy the guy with the banjo. Still no worries, today’s plan is to just get the feet wet TTing on the new bike. Once out, it was time to get ready. On went the sport kilt, pants off, warming gel on, shorts on, Heart Rate Monitor, TT Top, Rudy Project Aero helmet, socks, knee warmers, shoes, shoe covers, helmet, glasses, a friendly competitor to pin my number on, bike off the top, and on the road ready to go..

Riding out I stopped by the starting gate to double check my start time,1hr 30 minutes till party time. Out on the road behind the starting gate, I did a few quick starting/cruising efforts. Everything felt good, the tire pressure seemed right. Then it was back in to find a friendly trainer to sit on. Riding back in, I kept running into people I knew, Jay, Dave, Fish, etc.. It was quite cool and I ended up doing my final warm-up on a friend’s trainer right next to the official "Head Hunters" van, talking RAO shop. The time flew by and soon I had to go. With 10 minutes left I rolled up to the starting line for some stretching.

Into the Starting Gate
With my first carrot out, I rolled into the starting gate, one of the starters held my bike. I clipped in. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go! For the first 100 feet, I was out of the aero bars, and just hammered and then slid down into the aero bars and just started to initiate cruising speed.

Party Time
My starting game plan was simple. Heart rate lags power, especially at the start so without a power meter the best way to gauge efforts is with estimated speedometer speeds. Well that’s all good if your bike computers functioning, but mine had decided to quit on me some where between my warm up and the starting gate. Maybe the receiver had moved. Either way, now was definitely not the time to try and fix it. With out the computer I was left to rely solely on my polar heart rate monitor for any feedback. My heart rate settled into ~177 BMP, a little on the low end. The first corner came went, and I was soon catching my first carrot. Then the next, and the next, eventually I lost count of how many I passed.

The Results
The finish sorta snuck up on me. Crossing the finish line I felt good, I didn't know how fast, I'd gone, but I felt like I'd ridden it well, and the new Co-Motion TT bike had been nothing short of phenomenal. No bottom bracket flex period. Rolling back to the car, I stopped to talk with the Sharks from RAO and then it was time to return home..

Well, I must admit I was anxious to see the results from the TT. The bike had felt great, I'd felt good, and I thought I had to be in the top 10. Well it turns out I logged a personal TT PR. Doing 20KM in 27 min 41.12sec and just snagging first place in the cat 4/5's by a little over half a second, beating all the cat 3's, and placing 16^th over all.

I have to admit, that I have to contribute much of my "new" performance to the TT bike Co-Motion built for me, it raised my average speed 2 MPH! I guess the guy who said "It's Not About the Bike", never TTed on a Co-Motion..

Keeping it Real
Ok so I did great, nuff said. But other people also logged phenomenal times to, Jeff Teder, AKA the 4 man RAO shark captain road to commanding 3rd in the 4/5's. Lito & Bill Nicolai from Head Hunter fame both posted impressive times too. Its a few years out, but can you say Father & Son RAO redux!! Anyway, in all seriousness Terri & George you might need to set up the camera for this years RAO cause I think it might be just that tight..

View the full Results

It's Tartan Time

OSU/OU - Team Ride

2006-03-06T10:02:00.000-08:00

Two weeks or so ago (2/25/2006) UO trucked up here for a good ole fashion meet the team ride. The plan for the day had been to rendezvous at the Bean, Corvallis, and then ride the OSU road course. Normally we depart around 10, but noon had been settled upon as it would make the duck migration a little more relaxed. Well, the beavers were all at the bean at noon, but the ducks they were over an hour late! Was it the migration, or are they just lazy, I don’t know but come race day we won’t be waiting.

Team UO, while punctuality might not be a strong suit was impressive in size and support. Team UO arrived fully decked out in their new race kits looking very impressive, the OSU kits are still in the process of production. I'd thought the OSU team was fairly strong in size but compared to the quacks we are tiny. UO team has a full woman’s team and men's A, B, and C squad. In addition to riders, UO arrived with support! Yes support, a wheel wagon driven by the official UO race mom.

With the late departure, the ride plans were modified, instead of doing 3+ laps of the Decker loop race course the plan was changed, 2-laps. The plan was to chill out to Decker, once at Decker it would be a hammer fest up the climb then the group would re-group at the summit and rinse lather and repeat. For me, the intensity of the ride out to the base of Decker was chill to light tempo, then the assault up the climb left me gasping as the real climbers spun their cranks. Once the re-grouped at the summit the tune for the second lap was much the same as the first. Not wanting to completely shatter my legs, I fell off the lead groups while spinning up the climb on lap two. At the top and we again re-grouped and then the respective teams split up. Some of the UO riders dropped down to repeat the climb again, the rest of us and the majority of the UO team just turned around to head back in.

Descending back down Decker, I decided to open the legs up a bit. As our resident team beef cake, 6'2" 177 lbs, I lead the decent. Flying down Decker we caught, passed, and shelled the returning UO riders, before dropping our pace to a more reasonable rate. Once back the plan was for the OSU A-Team, Murdock, BA, and Face, to switch into TT gear and regroup at the cycling pad. In TT gear on TT bikes we road out for what will hopefully be the first of many team TT practices. Team TT's are tricky and very different from individual TTs. The speed and intensity of team TT’s can be higher due to drafing, but drafting also adds a whole host of complications. Our initial pass at the course was very promising but also indicated there is work to be done here too. So much training so little time.

Once back in for the day, I downed a Hammer Pro Whey recovery smoothie, drove up to my parents place for dinner and final preparation for the following days adventure the Jack Frost-TT.

Overall Day Rating: Hard
Intenisty: High
Road dace training length: Medium
Ultra Distance training length: Low

Coming Attractions:
- Jack Frost TT
- Training Update

Coming Attractions

2006-02-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

Hey all, so its been a while since my last posting and lots has happened. But unfortunately I've got some exams on the near horizon so, expect the blog to maintain silence till Saturday. But for a quick preview of the coming attractions..

The OSU / UO - Team ride aka previewing the race course
The first A-Team TT practice.
First TT of the Season - aka Jack Frost..

Stay Tuned..

Cherry Pie Race Report

2006-02-19T22:02:00.000-08:00

Cherry pie, huge fields, lots of friendly faces, a little wind, and smattering of climbing. Going in I expected the fields were going to be big but what I hadn’t expected was the strong collegiate turnout. Yeah, at least in the cat IV field it was almost a pre-season collegiate race, with almost everyone making a strong showing, Idaho, Whitman, UO, and Montana. I have to say it was quite sad to have a race so close to home and still be outnumbered by riders from MONTANA let alone the 20+ riders from Whitman.

On to the racing, going into the race Erik and I had a plan, ride near the front, hide from the wind for the first lap, and then on lap two around the time we reached the hills light things up as best we could. With just two of us covering breaks wasn’t really going to be much of an option and anyway with the wind the success rate here looked rather questionable at best. With a shout of “Go”, the group rolled out. For the first lap the group more or less just chilled. At some point our pace dipped down pathetically nearing 17mph, a few attacks were launched but nothing stuck. The only real point of interest was during the brief section of climbing on the first lap a rider dressed all in black, launched an attack over the yellow line up the climb. While I’m not sure an official saw it the pack wasn’t exactly too impressed.

Being a two lap circuit race, the second lap was undoubtedly going to be a little more interesting. Entering the second lap, an attack was launched first by the rider dressed all in back and then a few moments later by a UO rider. Since we were heading back into the wind, the pack again waved them both off. After a few miles, still heading into the wind, the UO rider was sucked back up. The wheel car eventually bridged up to support the lone rider out on a breakaway. With about a ¾ a mile separating us, Erik and I organized the front of the cat IV field into a pace line to pull back the pesky breakaway, after a few minutes at a higher tempo everyone was back together again. At the base of the hills the field surged as a few of the teams with truly big flatland riders launched themselves. Then heading up the first climb there was a crash. Go figure, crashing at 13 mph riding up hill. Cresting the climb the field split and regrouped numerous times as riders attacked on the decent and into the final climb. Cresting and descending the final climb the lead group had shrunk down to maybe 20 or so riders. At this point all that remained was a tail wind sprint, with no team making an effort to up the pace the field was locked into position. Then at with about two miles to go things got jumpy, and about a mile out a rider near the back went down hard. Being in front, Erik went on to a top 10 finish, way to go Erik! Being right behind the pavement bound rider I cruised in right behind the lead group.

In further news, it looks like the 2006 Cat IV Cherry Pie Road race most likely will truly go down as a training race, as the entire field was disqualified.. See below, IMO the crash caused the centerline violation..

Hi all,

Due to camera problems, results from Cherry Pie will not be posted until late Monday at the earliest. Assistance will be needed to place the entire field.

Also, the category 4 field was DQ'd for violating the 200 meter mark.
Results for the category 4 field will not be posted at all.

I'm sure details will follow from Candi Murray or another official.
Please don't email me about this because I have no additional details
- I'm just the messenger.

Thanks,
Cheryl

Typing from the Freezer..

2006-02-18T00:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it’s not that cold, UNLESS your sitting up at the RAO Finish aka Timberline with George where according to the weather women it’s currently 4oF. Yeah, thank goodness I’m down here in tropical Corvallis, OR where it is a balmy 25oF. So riding down here this week has been mixed, Monday was a rest day, and Tuesday I got into the gym and lifted and then hit the rollers for an hour and a half. Then Wednesday, back when the weather was just peachy and took the extended Kings Valley loop down to Monmouth and them came back north via Albany road which worked out to a little over 3 hrs. The weather was sweet and the ride was sweeter. Thursday, exams took crazy precedence over training, then the world changed, as it got cold and Friday, I road around and just chilled with some of the team, yeah chilled.

Spinning it on the Sunny side, Surf's Up.

2006-02-13T10:13:00.000-08:00

Holly Smokes Batman, this last weekend the weather was just AWESOME! I never thought I'd be shouting the praise of high pressure, but this last weekend it worked wonders. A high pressure region came in, blanked Oregon, resulting in weather more characteristic of late Spring then early February. Unfortunately in the it's too good to be true department, it is February and the weather women are saying that we might get snow in the valley this next week, just in time for Cherry Pie. But, enough about all that, so what sort of wicked training runs went down this last weekend?

Going into the weekend I'd been feel a little knee/leg buzz. After the RAO 2004 debacle, I'm sensitive to it and really try and listen to my body. So with that in mind this weekend I opted to skip the Beaver hammer sessions and just do my own thing. Saturday, with the awesome weather I thought it would be fun to try some new routes so I threw the bike in the back of the Jetta, zipped out to Newport, and hit the road from there. Not sure if I should go north or south, I opted for the northern route and headed up along the highway towards Lincoln city. Bouncing off of Lincoln city, stopping off a lighthouse, the ride ended up being ~60 miles, nothing too big but riding on the coast is fun. The only real bummer was traffic. Heading north the traffic just got worse and worse in hind sight it makes since the blasted Casinos are all up north. But the traffic also had a welcome upside, can you say “beach Jeep hotties”, I can!

On getting back, I spent some quality time on the foam roller, ate a pizza, and started fiddling with the bike shoes. I'd first started fiddling with my shoes back in November. Having been on the cleats since a little before RAO the cleats were starting to show there age. My attempt to unscrew the cleat bolts from the shoes was an utter failure the cleat bolts had sized. The end result of this was after a little over a year my Sidi's had become disposable and it was time to order new shoes. But what to do in the mean time? Well, after placing the order for the new shoes, I suddenly remembered the old pair I had in the back of the closet. I figured I could use the old ones till the new shoes showed up. The old shoes definitely didn’t feel as good, but they worked, after the new shoes showed up I decided to stay on the old ones through the bad weather, for there was no reason to prematurely destroy the new ones. Well with the knee buzz it was time to switch back.

Sunday, I had a meeting with my master’s advisor scheduled for 4:00 so there was a pre-sunset constraint on the ride. I hit the road right around 11:00. Initially I had thought I might ride the Alsea falls loop, hitting the metropolis of Philomath I paused briefly to adjust my saddle height and in the process snapped my seat post bolt! SHIT! DAM! The ride plans changed then and there. Back to my apartment all out of the saddle, 1.5 cheese sandwiches and new seat post bolt and I was back on the road. This time on hitting Philomath, I wasn’t sure I’d have time for the Alsea loop so I opted for the king valley loop. The idea was that if time started to become scarce this route had multiple options for an early exit. I should have known that with the great weather there would be no turning back. On getting to the first turn off spot, I said no way, on the second spot, I didn’t even contemplate it and soon I was in Monmouth. I briefly headed back north on 99, then there was a brief back track on the standard KV loop, up and over the saddle and back to the cycling crib with 10 minutes to spare. I chugged a Hammer Pro-Whey Recovery Smoothie, grabbed my data, and was off to my meeting. Later, in the evening for further recovery I spent some quality time with the Compex Sport. The newly shimmed shoes felt like butter. Daily mileage 80 on the nose.

Plans for Monday? - Recovery day, there will be some foam rollering, possibly a little time in the weight room, maybe a brief stint in the hot tub, and lots of time with the books.

Laters, It’s Tartan Time

Super bowl Sunday!

2006-02-07T21:58:00.000-08:00

Super bowl Sunday has to be one of my favorite days to ride. What better time to be on the road then when everyone is home for the blasted game. Rumor was Sunday was going to be nice so the Alsea Falls loop had been called. Departing from the Bean a little after 10:30 we pace lined out to the base of the climb up 34 to the Mary’s cut off. Today's crew was slightly more select, ok much more select then the normal club rides and with that I was left to cling to the back of the group holding on for dear life as we climbed up the first climb of the day, ~1,200ft. I snapped off just shy of the summit. After a brief pause so one of the guys could tighten a loose water bottle cage, it was down to Alsea. Fish launched himself down the decent like there were naked podium girls awaiting in Alsea. I tucked, spun the cranks a little, tucked some more and then was on and passed Fish’s wheel. Fish grabbed my wheel and then the two of us launched a little breakaway down to Alsea. Once in Alsea it was a left up into the Lobster Valley. Heading into the Lobster valley the road starts out with a very gradual climb which in the end becomes rather beastly. Again I popped off the back, now for the record, I think I’m riding quite strong it’s just humbling to train with cat 2’s. I didn’t end up catching back on till we were back down on Belfountain. From Belfountain it was back in on the good ole NWTTS course and then home. By the end the intensity had relegated my legs to their own unique land of pain.

Getting back in it was time for another hammer pro whey smoothie this time I used a recipe I found on the Nancy’s Yogurt web site, it was ok but not great. Hammer Pro Whey, Yogurt, Cinnamon, Banana, Orange, blend till smooth, and enjoy.

Hello February

2006-02-07T19:57:00.000-08:00

YAHOO! I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but February is starting out quite nicely... The rain dare I say, has been holding off which is good I guess cause I was beginning to think I was going to need a propeller for my bike. Ok so on to training. This last week was a little crazy, ala the silence on the blog front.. But between studying for exams, and well studying for exams, I did managed to log a few hrs..

Last week
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: ~45 min on the rollers
Wednesday: ~1 another hr on the rollers hmm...
Thursday: ~1 hr on the rollers & lifted
Friday: 1.5 hrs on the TT bike outside then 2 hrs on the rollers.
Saturday: Ok so it has rained this month.. Went out to kick it with the team a little, and wow the weather was just down right miserable.. After 1.5 hrs came back in and did another 1.5 on the rollers.

Putting the Crew Together for RAO 2006

2006-01-31T23:46:00.000-08:00

Just got word from Ben that a good friend of his Russ will be traveling out from Wisconsin to join the crew for RAO 2006.

Russ is in! I just sent him a message suggesting minimum travel dates and briefly sketched what the race weekend is like.

-Ben

Science Section: Rain & Earthworms

2006-01-29T16:39:00.000-08:00

It’s been a while since the science section was featured here in blog land. The other day while walking to the lab, for some reason my brain was wandering, and I started to think about our friend the earthworm. Popular culture says come spring time, earthworms surface post rain to avoid drowning as the water filters down through the ground. Now my thoughts were, if this were truly true then given the incessant rain we have been experiencing I'd expect one of two things to have occurred: The surface of the ground would be covered with worms, which hasn't happened, or that the ground would be totally devoid of live earthworms as all of them would have drowned.

Well, a quick Google search reveled the truth, earthworms breath through their skin and water doesn't phase earth worms a bit. Infact earthworms can live fully immersed in water for weeks assuming the water contains adequate levels of dissolved oxygen. The earth worms real enemy isn't water but a lack of water, dehydration. The reason earthworms surface post rain is because post rain the surface humidity increases to level worms can more safely travel above ground, just don't tell the birds.

Wett Weekends & Happy Lunar New Year!

2006-01-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

January cannot end soon enough. Don't get me wrong. January as been a great month in terms of fitness, training, and what not. But at this point I'm ready for a day of spring weather. Is it to much to ask for the rain to taper down just a bit? The crazy thing these days has been all the standing water. Weeks ago that the ground saturated itself and thus these days any even infinitesimal degree of precipitation results in flooding. My guess is February is going to continue the pattern January has set forth.

So lets see the weekend riding update:

Saturday - Did the Bean Beaver ride - As always we kicked it out from the bean just a tad shy of 10, and then cruised through the Kings Valley Loop, doing the loop in reverse starting out heading north first. Weather? Need I say anything here, wind & rain. In fairness the rain was sort of off and on so it could have been worse and I actually appreciated the wind. The wind was an ability equalizer, enabling those who wanted to work hard to do so while others could sit in the slipstream. On the way back, still feeling like the legs needed a tad more I spun off from the group and brought it back in along Decker. All and all today was just a tad more then four hours.

On getting back it was time for a recovery smoothie, I really like these.
Recovery Meal: Hammer Pro Whey Fruit Smoothie (1+ scoop hammer pro whey,
peaches (From a can put there by a man)
1 fresh orange pealed
1 banana also pealed
1/2 cup low fat plain yogurt)
blend and enjoy..

Dinner: 1 Large Mediterranean Pizza + Salad.

Sunday - Saturday we had a huge turnout, but Sunday the turnout was back to the three of us who will ride no matter what. Becky said that makes us all hardcore. There is a chance the numbers were down as people were still recovering from the previous days ride, or it could have been because the weather outside was down right horrible, perfect for the Paris Roubaix but lousy for training. The weather dictated a abbreviated training plan; the KV loop in the normal direction. Alex, lead Becky and I out and once over the first real climb we all motored trading off work at the front. Bringing it back the route took us over a few sand and gravel roads. Normal S&G roads are really not all that bad. But today with all the rain, the sand had the consistency of saltwater taffy and between that and the wind the bikes climbed at a snails pace. Once back on the main road it was up and over the saddle and back in. Ride Time: A little over three hours

Recovery Meal: Hammer Pro Whey Fruit Smoothie, (see above)

Recovery Plan tonight: The plan for tonight is power up the Compex Sport unit and go over most of the body with the active recovery program.

Happy Lunar New Year, it might be the year of the dog in China but in the NW it’s going to be the year of the Beaver..

Friday Rollers

2006-01-28T17:34:00.000-08:00

Friday night, I ended up working in the lab late, post dinner, it was nearing midnight, feeling tired but slightly behind I jumped on the rollers with the TT bike for a few spins on those magical aluminum drums. Its amazing how riding wakes the mind up. I ended up riding for about 2 hours watching tonight’s video rental: “The Constant Gardener”.

K-Movie Rating: 1.5 stars.
Movies Rolling value: 1.5 stars, other then a few very scenic shots of Africa not to much here.

Wet Wednesdays & Lifting Thursday

2006-01-27T14:24:00.000-08:00

Found a few free minutes in the bottom of my back pants pocket Wednesday afternoon. What to do with the new found time, why of course a quick ~2hr recovery ride around the Decker loop. On the down side the weather was damp but on the upside ended up riding with Dr McKenzie a professor, triathlete, and budding road cyclist here at Oregon State. Prior to coming to Oregon State she did studies on Iditarod sled dogs in Alaska. Over the ride I learned a few things that reinforced some of my ultra training philosophy. Sled dogs whom race the Iditarod consume huge amounts of calories via fat, but the interesting thing is that if a normal dog were to consume fat in equal concentrations it would at best cause severe gastric distress and possibly even death and that during training sled dogs train to utilize fat a energy source and thus when it comes time to race can tolerate higher levels of fat. Well, this sounds amazingly similar to ultra racing, gastric distress and the concept of eating during training to reflect the eating patters during racing. I guess with that its time for another scoop of Perpetuem.

Thursday it was back in the gym for a few trips through my lifting sets.

Allen Across America

2006-01-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

As you all know I'm targeting RAAM in 2007, so next year. But just a few days ago I received the wonderful news that good friend, cycling phenom, and personal hero, Allen Larson is planning on returning to RAAM THIS YEAR! Allen's cycling palmares are next to none and with out further ado here's the announcement from Teresa and Allen Larsen.

Good morning,

We hope that all is going well with you and your families and that the holidays brought much joy and peace. Just a quick e-mail to let you know that Allen is officially on the roster for RAAM 2006. After a lot of change and growth the last year especially, Allen is ready and rearing to go and give it all he’s got. He is training hard and yet maintaining balance in his life with work, family and just good healthy living. He is at top notch and is ready to go and impact RAAM through his cycling and all he’s learned just about life in general. As many of you know, doing RAAM doesn’t come cheap so we are on the sponsorship wagon once again, but with big smiles as we really believe this year has purpose in many ways. If you would like to sponsor Allen or know someone who might, please let us know as we are needing to get all the commitments in as soon as possible as we are honing in on our budget. For more information on Allen, check out his website at www.allenacrossamerica.com/2006_race.htm.

Thank you,
Teresa and AllenLarsen
www.allenacrossamerica.com

Tuesday Recap..

2006-01-25T11:41:00.000-08:00

Got back into the gym yestday and lifted for about an hour. As always my lifting program hasn't changed all that much, but the weights did increase slightly yesterday! So I guess thats good news. Ken's lifting program: 3 sets of (50 situps at an angle, 30 back extensions now with a 25 lbs weight, 25 rows, & 25 overhand bar pulls. By the end of the session my flexor digitorm are always on fire, forarm muscles, and I'm glad to be done, and yesterday was no different.

In the evening in between cooking salmon, aka dinner, and studying, I jumped on the rollers for a little under a hour and half to spin the TT bike for a few revs.

RAO Website redesign..

2006-01-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen it yet you should check out the swanky new RAO website! 2006 looks to be great year for the RAO family of event, the same favorites are back, and new training camps, new races, new adventures.

For more info see: http://www.raceacrossoregon.com

Flying with the Wind!

2006-01-24T21:07:00.000-08:00

On getting back Sunday, I was still feeling in need of a little more. As the day had progressed and the weather had improved and improved so much in fact that we actually had dry roads a first since well before Christmas. Not to miss a opportunity, after a snack, shower, and change of clothes, I jumped on the TT Bike, in full TT regalia and headed out to kick the TT bike for the first time outside. Holly smokes! The ride was nothing short of amazing. The position felt great, barreling head first down the road I felt like I was on fire, a eagle in the wind souring over the mountains. Riding the TT bike is so different from anything I’ve done before. I can’t wait for racing season to start..

Weekend Craziness..

2006-01-24T20:56:00.000-08:00

Monsoon season let up at least momentarily and with the wet weather an recent memory Saturday it was back out with the Beavers for a little training. The group was a little smaller then usual but with all jokes, laughs, intermittent hammer sessions you really wouldn’t have known it. Heading out yours truly was leading the pack when a target, another cyclist, was spotted a quarter to half mile down the road. Seeing the target and chomping at the bit I lead the charge. The heart rate shot up and with each revolution the target inched in and soon we tagged the prize, one old dude cruising along in his aero bars.. Yeah what a prize.. (groan).. Right after making contact we hit a hill and just after the hill the old dude road back up and said something along the lines of “That’s all you’ve got?”. Myself, still recovering, I was more then happy when Becky answered the call and dropped the prey for good. The rest of the ride was relatively regular. In the ened we logged close to three hours.

Sunday – Let the Craziness Begin

Ok.. So some times we all do stupid things. Before I go into mine, let me just say right up front that I was very lucky on many, many, levels. Ok so the brief story of one moron & a pack of friends. We all met up Sunday, I’d suggested doing the Alsea Fall’s loop but we opted to ride out and preview the upcoming Cherry Pie road race course. All was good and we motored out through the farm fields surrounding the greater Corvallis region. With all the rain we have been having the rivers have swollen up and many of the fields have flooded. After an hour or so our route of choice ran into a road block of sorts. The road was covered by a good 4 inches of flowing water. What to do? The correct choice, turn around and ride some where else. Our choice? Hey its only four inches, lets give it ago. Well this first crossing went well. Then again we hit another road block this time the water was calm but slightly deeper, again we gave it ago with the hope that it would be the last bottom bracket cleaning crossing. Then we hit the big one. This one looked a little deeper and had what looked like a fairly strong current flowing through it. Better judgment would have for sure turned back here. But convinced it was the last crossing and with excess confidence I set out to make the crossing with other riders following closely behind. At first all was good, then the water deepened and the current increased. Think air has a lot of drag try fast moving water. Yeah, so as you guess, the current tipped me over and I bailed and got swept down stream chasing after the bike. Waist plus deep in fairly fast muddy water my feet just churned in the mud and I couldn’t see anything. Then moving down stream the bottles came up, yes they float even when filled with Cytomax, and the pink Cytomax really contrasted against the sea of brown murky water. Then I saw a bike tire. Yes! Thank the lord the tires float, the bike didn’t get caught on anything underwater, and the wheels had yellow stripes on them. I then tried to pull the bike out but couldn’t get back out, the feet had no traction, and I couldn’t pull against the force of the water. Moving down stream I ended up floating out on the other side of the stream. In the end I saved everything & the bar tape got really clean but it was very scary and I’m never, ever, ever going to do that again. Even with being completely drenched I was still amazingly warm and after a cliff bar we turned it around and headed back to higher ground. In the end the ride was a little over 4hrs with the swim.

Roller, Wednesdays

2006-01-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

Hit the rollers for an hour plus..

Into the Wind..

2006-01-18T22:55:00.000-08:00

Wow, Monday kicked my ass. Ok so maybe, riding hard the two previous days then lifting Sunday evening isn't the best of prep but still wow. Ok, so the plan was to meet up at the Bean, toss out 3 or 4 quality hours. But by 10:00 the sky was, dark, so the plan changed, do something short and head home. Harrisburg was decided at right around 40 miles round trip it generally takes about two hours. Heading out of Corvallis, everything seemed fine, but once on Peoria I some how knew it was going to take a little longer as the wind tried to rip the long underwear out from under my jersey. The 40 mile recovery cruise became a 12 mph struggle, and what should have been 2 hours was more like 3. But in the end I think its all good, because in the end it’s the tough rides which make the rider.

Tuesday - Chilled

Wednesday - A hour plus+ on the rollers just turning the legs over.

RAO - News

2006-01-15T16:48:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

While on today's ride Becky motored up to me on one of the climbs. I think it was something like 5%, totally unfazed by the grade, Becky said, "Ken, talk to me about this Race Across Oregon." After the climb let up, conversation proceeded. In short Becky is interested in teaming up with Becca, both cat 2 & 3 women, and racing the two-woman relay at RAO. There is no question in my mind if these two show up, that they would take the 2-woman relay record, but smacking the men's field and seizing overall course records are also a distinct possibility. Anyway these two ladies are one team to look out for in 2006!

Hammering it Home..

2006-01-15T16:30:00.000-08:00

The weather this weekend is been nothing short of FANTASTIC! I was almost convinced that the nastiness that that's been dripping down from above wouldn't ever let up. But the record rainfall finally subsided at least briefly and with the sun there was but one thing to do spin the cranks.

Saturday's ride wasn't too long, ~3+hrs, basically it was a longer kings valley loop. But the shortness of the ride was more then made up by the overall intensity. Riding with the cycling team one rider would launch an attack then another, and another, by the end of the ride, I was more then happy to be heading back done, where after a snack I proceeded to fall asleep for 3 hrs.

Sunday, the whole crew was back plus a few more, for the fall's loop. The ride ended up being just a tad over 4 hrs, yes again not all that long. The intensity of today’s ride was a real mixture of sprints/intervals, tempo, and recovery. About halfway through the ride we came upon the landslide pictured right. I guess I didn't miss cyclocross season after all. Bringing it back in later today one thing was truly evident; collegiate season is going to be a total blast, and its only 9 weeks away, Yahooo!!

Post Ride Recovery Recover: Hammer Pro Whey Smoothie

(Hammer PRO-Whey, Yogurt, canned Peaches, Banana, & Pineapple Juice)

I think later today, I'll try to get into the gym for a little core. T

Weekday update..

2006-01-14T00:03:00.000-08:00

This week's been a mixture of rollers and weights. By the end of the week my calf muscles were feeling a bit tight, which dictated that it was time to break out the foam roller. It’s been awhile since I last used my foam roller. The quads and IT-band both felt find, but wow did the calfs hurt. After the big stick-o-foam, it was on to the Compex unit. With Martin Luther King day on Monday, this is a three day weekend.. Woohoo!

Cycling Movie

2006-01-12T21:36:00.000-08:00

While browsing the web I ran into this cool cycling movie, its about an hour, perfect for special evening on the rollers..

More Rain..

2006-01-10T00:31:00.000-08:00

Ah, the start of another quarter. With all the rain that’s falling it must be winter quarter. Today I went looking on the OBRA website for the NWTTS listings. So far a whole lot a nada, I hope that changes soon, its one of my favorite series.

So today I got into Dixon, lifted for a bit, 3 sets of the same old. I think I'm getting stronger which feels good cause I've started to do sit-ups and back extensions with a little extra weight (25lbs) and I mis-set one of the machines by total accident and was dead in the water at 20 reps only to notice that I was 10lbs to heavy, after notching it back a bit I easily finished off my set of 25.

After lifting it was back to my shelter from the rain for dinner: baked chicken marinated in Italian salad dressing with rosemary and fresh ground pepper, 16 oz (1-bag) mixed frozen veggies, 1 roasted onion & 1 roasted carrot, and a large salad. Post dinner it was on the rollers for a quick 2 hrs and then a small recovery smoothie (hammer pro whey in yogurt with a dash of pineapple juice).

Dumped On

2006-01-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

Saturday the team met up a little after 10 at the Bean. Then 5 or so strong it was out to Decker to ride the loop. The catch, there always seems to be one this time of year, was that it was pouring down rain, and we had to thread our way over a covered bridge to make it past some streams which were flooding. Well heading out towards Decker, I proposed we continue on and climb up to the cut off to Marries. After a concerted effort lobbying, the group relented and we started the very wet assent. After Marries it was back on Decker road and then in. The ride was short, but I was soaked and wet.. So it was nice to be done a tad early.. Ride Time 2.5 hrs. In the evening I went by Dixon to lift, but Dixon was closed, so it was back home for another 2 hrs on the rollers watching the new Steven Spielberg movie “War of the Worlds”, my review, two thumbs down.

Sunday, three of us met up at the Bean, and from there it was out to a quick loop around Albany. With classes picking up tomorrow the ride had to be kept short. Later in the afternoon it was back into the gym for a core workout. Finally in the evening after fish tacos. I popped in a tour dvd and ended up riding the rollers for a tad over 3.5 hrs. A little longer then I'd planned, I was hooked, I had to see who would win.

Cheers, It’s Tartan Time!

Spinning the Wheels..

2006-01-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

Ah Oregon, how I love thee in the summer and in the winter I'd prefer to be in, Arizona. The winter rain storms finally let up a few days ago and as the rays of sun light, percolated through my blinds and began to dance on the spandex. I was up and in the pedals and out the door for another day of great training. The riding plans for Wednesday were to kick it on the kings valley loop, then after a brief stint at recovery, back into the weight room for a couple of hours working on the core, then finally back home for some dessert and an hour on the rollers.

Recovery Dessert: Low Fat Plain Yogurt + Fruit + Hammer Pro Whey Protein Powder (Yum!)

Thursday, the weather still going strong, I was back out on the king’s valley loop, and then in the evening it was 2+ hrs on the rollers.

Friday: The rain is back, time for more weights and a recovery day.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-03T23:00:00.000-08:00

2006! Yahoo! Resolutions for 2006, more regular blog updates, (laugh).

Training in December is always difficult. After finishing my last final on the 6th I decided to do a cold century and pedaled out to Newport. I figured that since the day before classes started in September I'd ridden to the coast it was only fitting to do the ride again the day after classes finished. The plan, ride, eat clam chowder on the coast, and ride back but some how the chowder didn't happen. On the way back I was in the middle of one absolutely stupendous bonk when I stopped ate a snickers, and felt sick. The ride was great, the snickers wasn't. The rest of the week was a serious mish mash of weights, riding, etc. After finishing up my research assistant duties I headed back to my parents place for a few days to do some training in the valley before heading up to Seattle to see some friends and log some more serious training.

The trip to Seattle, ended up being a real mixed bag. Seattle was engulfed in a cold snap and the first day out on the road while riding with my crew chief I hit some ice and went down hard. Thankfully nothing on me or the bike broke but the chin ended up requiring 12 stitches. Joy! After that little incident I was more in the mood to log some time on the cross country skis then continue to further risk my chin. Returning back to my parents place the weather was a real mixture of December crappyness and December suckyness so since then I've more or less been stuck indoors doing a mixture of computrainer and roller workouts. Then the computrainer shorted out so it was just the rollers.

Which brings me to today. I decided that I'd been stuck indoors for way to long, it was time to get back out and hit the road for a few revolutions regardless of the weather. I was finally out the door a little after noon and road a quck kings valley loop through a mixture of showers and wind. On hitting the hwy 22, I went down to Monmouth, before turning around and bringing it back in through the wind and rain. The wind and rain on the way back were so strong it took me nearly as long to do the final 20 miles back to Corvallis as all the preceding miles. In the end the ride ended up working out to nearly exactly 4 hrs..

Happy New Year! - Its Tartan Time!

Riding Update..

2005-12-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

Finished up classes last week and since then its been a total mixture of the riding, visiting friends, and the RAO premiere. Look for a big update in a few days when I return back to Oregon.. Ohh and the Time Trial bike build should be starting soon..

Stay Tuned..

Kenneth

2005-12-09T17:53:00.000-08:00

I just received the following photo from the guys down at co-motion. Wow is the TT frame looking sweet.

Building the Time Trial Frame!

2005-12-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

At the conclusion of last years Northwest Time Trial Series, NWTTS, with a little talent and some luck I came away with the grand prize, a CO-Motion Espresso frame & fork. The guy's at Co-Motion were super cool and said that for the difference in cost, I could trade up to any other frame set. I looked really seriously at both the Espresso Co-Pilot, best single travel bike, and their TT Frame which is just amazing. In the end I decided that the TT frame would be both very special and a fitting prize for a time trial series.

The next step in the whole process was to take a trip down to Eugene, OR, home of both Co-Motion, and that other university. On arriving I was immediately introduced to the whole staff, given a tour of the facility, and taken step by step through the entire build process from raw tubing to a painted and finished bikes. These guys make those motorcycle guys on "TV" look like amateurs. One of the distinguishing factors of a Co-Motion frameset, is that they are entirely 100% made in Eugene, OR, which now has me wondering why on they don't carry them at "Made In Oregon".

One of the real pleasures in dealing with an artisan frame builder is instead of being forced to find an acceptable "stock" frame the frame is instead crafted and fitted especially for you, the way it should be.

Co-Motion starts each build with a questionnaire asking questions like:

What kind of rider are you?
What kind of bikes have you enjoyed in the past?
What are your goals going forward?

Then it’s on to the measurements where they put any tailor to shame. Finally instead of being limited to a stock color, you dictate the entire paint scheme. Want your name on the top tube, done, want the drop outs in your own favorite custom shade of neon-80's-lime-green, done, though they might suggest you consider an alterative color.

After all this expect to hear some suggestions. In my case they suggested I make a slight saddle adjustment and increase my crank arm length.

Flash forward a few weeks, and you can expect to see a glimpse of what will be your custom frame as a schematic in your email, in my case it looked something like this.

(Click To Enlarge)

Weekend Training

2005-12-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

With finals just around the corner training this weekend has been some what abbreviated.

- Friday, core strength lifting 3 X ( 25 bar pull, 25 rows, 30 back extensions /w (10 lb weight), 50 sit-ups)
1.5 hrs on the power cranks. Thought I'd do just an hour, but it was just too good.

Saturday - Thought it would be all cold and rainy. But the rain held off at least somewhat. Beavers kicked it out through Kings Valley with a real mixture pace wise everything from high intensity to recovery pacing.

Sunday - Short ride 45 - 50 miles, just did Decker + a little, might lift a little tonight but I doubt it with a final tomorrow.

Ripping the Rim

2005-12-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

Ahh.. Bike Parts. They all fail some time. Some just don't seem to last as long as they should, my 10 mile vittoria clincher tire come to mind. This last week, for the third time, in about two years, I had catastrophic failure from my rear Velomax Orion II rear wheel. Before I go into my unlucky experiences, I would like to say, that I do really like how the wheels never go out of true and are fairly light. But then again maybe these great traits have contributed to my troubles.

First Failure: Snapped a spoke at the nipple a few months after purchasing them, sent back they fixed it no questions asked.

Second Failure: Spokes ripped the rim apart, faulty rim drilling, had caused the spokes to exert a force on the rim over time separating the rim, like a can-opener, fixed again totally brand new wheel hub and all no questions asked.

Third Failure: A couple of weeks ago I was on my rollers, when all of a sudden the bike started make a sound like a train zipping down tracks the way classic trains used to sound ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk. Well, I looked down, and hollysmokes batman, the rim had separated at the seam! This third failure occurred approximately 1 year after the second failure. Yesterday, I got a phone call from them. The call went something like this..

Them: So, you ride a lot?
Me: Yeah, I guess you could say that..
Them: Well it looks like you wore through the breaking surface...
Me: You can do that in a year?
Them: Yeah, you can if you ride alot.

So, the crazy guys down at Easton are fixing my wheel for a third time. I hope the third times the charm.

Goals..

2005-12-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

Ok so this posting has been a some what long time in coming. After this last years break out season I've been left struggling somewhat to decide how best to progress this next season and what big goals to shoot for..

So here's the plan, and if you want to race against me, show up to these events.

Northwest Collegiate Cycling Conference - It's been a while since I focused at all on regular USCF style racing, and early in the spring this next year I'm really looking forward to helping the beavers lay some smack down.. Yes, Huskies, this dog's grown a tail that can go whack, so watch out. The big goal behind Collegiate racing isn't to score any big wins, its more to work on my top speed, help the team out, and increase my fitness for the more important events later in the year.

NWTTS (Northwest Time Trial Series) - I really dig the 40k TT, and I cant wait to see what George and Terri have planned for us this next year.

NWTTSR (Northwest Time Trial Stage Race) - Mopin in May Nuff Said..

Misc California doubles - Might do devil mountain again, put the hand back in the ring for T2

July, Race Across Oregon - 2 Man Team Tartan - Race the two man at RAO, kick it hard, very hard..

Sept, Ring of Fire 12hr Race - Race the 12 hr race, and then crew for my RAO crew cheif who's going to be kicking it all night long..

October - Solo at Furnace Creek, 508. The plan for the 508 is simple, its going to be a training race, when I'm there I'll of course give it everything, but the plan isn’t to PEAK for the 508 or target it for a win, because the 508 is the launching point, for the BIG SHOW in June of 2007..

June – 2007 – Solo RAAM - The goal for RAAM is to do very, very well. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

So there you have it, that’s my plan and I'm sticking to it..

Training week..

2005-12-02T12:54:00.000-08:00

Training this week has been a mish mash. Sunday was another power crank fest ~3hrs, and Monday ~2+ hrs. Then Tuesday I hit the gym for a few rounds of lifts. I did my semi-normal routine, three times through the following (25 reps over head bar pull, 25 reps of the row, 30 back extensions, and 50 sit-ups). I must be getting stronger again, after three trips through I still felt like I had something left, so what to do? Take a fourth trip upping the weights and decreasing the reps to 15. Then later in the evening it was on the power cranks for about 45 min.

More Premire News..

2005-11-29T17:14:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

Please join us at the Portland Community College Rock Creek Center* for the premier showing of the Race Across Oregon 2005 dvd. Allen and Teresa Larsen - who filmed, wrote, narrated, edited and produced the program - will be present with copies for sale. We will be opening the race and training camp registration at the party as well. Looks like we're going to have quite a crowd and we are looking forward to seeing all of you! Please don't hesitate to forward this on to anyone you think may be interested in attending.

Showing will be Monday, December 12, 2005. Doors open at 6.30PM, show starts at 7.00PM. DVD runs at just over an hour! Looking forward to seeing past and future RAO racers and crew!

Best,

George & Terri

Co-Director Race Across Oregon

www.raceacrossoregon.com

www.teamvelowear.com

541.760.1024

Its Turkey Time Again..

2005-11-29T09:09:00.000-08:00

Dam the food, its all so good and makes me so slow. In an attempt to ward off the pounds, the day of the big feast I went out and kicked it for a few hours. I crank out some quick flat miles. I headed out from my parents place, following the river down to Saint Paul, OR, home of a 4th of July rodeo and not much else. Then running short on light and with a light rain now mist down I kicked it back through down town Salem before turning in for home, the ride was good, dinner was better.

Saturday, I got out for a ride of a more respectable length, doing a loop through Mt Angle, Silverton, Silver Creek Falls, back through Salem, before turning in. The base miles felt good, I'm not sure exactly how far I went but my guess is something in the 70-80 mile range. Sunday, it was ~3 hrs on the rollers. Monday, it was ~2hrs on the rollers. Now if the fitness would only start to show itself.

Training update

2005-11-29T09:08:00.000-08:00

I had a great week of training three intense days back to back. Being late November it is now fairly normally for weather in the valley to be some combination of an overcast sky, fog, rain, and cold; just the kind of weather that inspires me to lay down serious miles, indoors. A week ago it was Friday and it wasn’t raining. I felt behind on my training, when am I really not behind? After a brief thought towards Carpe Diem I grabbed the bike closest to me and headed towards Mary’s Peak. I did the climb keeping my heart rate in a high aerobic zone, it hurt. I don’t think it ever doesn’t really hurt but in June after bathing in the mythical waters of fitness for a few months it some how hurts a little less. The climb was good and the weather at the top (4,000ft) was amazingly significantly warmer then it is down in the valley! Saturday, the team held a practice TT session; the turnout was great in spite of continuing cold and foggy weather. For the TT session we road out on Peoria road, and did a couple intense TT’s up the road and then headed back in. Intensity wise it was good, I felt slow, I’d like to think it was all that extra resistance from the fog but I think more likely it’s my now over abundance of adipose tissue. After the TT practice the team headed back up Mary’s making it the second time I’d summated the peak in the last two days. The second trip up was more then worth it as the weather up top was even warmer then it had been the day before. Sunday those of us who’d made it up Mary’s did a recovery ride through Kings valley.

RAO - DVD Party

2005-11-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

Allen has finished the RAO dvd. Those of you who pre-ordered will be receiving yours in the very near future. Allen's work is superb and you will be blown away by the quality of the program.

We'd like to host a showing of the dvd at Portland Community College's Event Center at Rock Creek. We're thinking Monday December 12 @ 7:00 pm but want an idea of how many of you would attend. Whether you've done RAO or not this is a fantastic show about bike racing. Please respond ASAP as we need to know if there is enough interest to do this. If you plan to be there please give us an idea of any friends, fans, crew members, etc that would also like to attend. Please forward this e-mail to anyone you think may be interested!

Best,

George

Co-Director Race Across Oregon

www.raceacrossoregon.com

www.teamvelowear.com

541.760.1024