"It's a Good Day for Racing!"

So I had a bit of a down week.  Mostly circumstantial, rather than by choice.  So I am still feeling rather soft.  This weekend we are in Victoria, for some bicycle racing.
Friday night I was the only member of Team Westwood to race the Bear mountain Hill climb.  This race was a 3km individual hill Climb effort.  We got lost, on the way but got there with just enough time for a warm up.  The race was won by none other than Ryder Hesjedal!  A top Canadian Pro who has raced the Tour de France and placed 2nd at Amstel Gold this year.  Second place went to Rob Bitton, the top Canadian Neo-Pro (first year pro) who just finnished the Tour of California.  I placed 6th (3rd placed Cat2), considering the caliber of those ahead of me this is a pleasing result.
Today we raced the 140km BC Provincial Road Race.  This race is highly coveted by all the top BC Teams.  The field was Deep with Talent.  The course was challenging always up or down.  Also 5 degrees and raining.  "A Good Day For Racing."  The legs were soft but the race blood is returning to me.  However I regret to inform that I once again did not finnish.
The race was aggressive, many riders were keen to blow things apart.  As the race was coming undone  I was in the front group, going up a decisive climb.  My chain fell off.  I put it back on and jumped in with a chase group.  We continued on into the frigid rain.  When we were as far away from civilization as possible my chain Broke.  Game over.  Stuck out in the middle of nowhere and a bike with no chain.
I hitch-hiked back to town.  I was picked up by a man from buffalo narrows Saskatchewan.  His Truck was your typical overused farm truck complete with musky, dusty, greasy, overused smell.  This was wonderfully comforting.

But wait... it gets better.

After getting dropped off in town I found the Team Van.  Freezing and shivering I started the Van cranked the heat, shut the front door, and tried to open the slider door.  It was locked, they were all locked.  The van is running and I am locked out and freezing and the rest of the team is still racing.  Oh yea that was awesome!  Freezing and trapped outdoors,  the only other ppl around were two volunteers.
One of them had coffee.  I do not like coffee.  I have tried it before but never more than a taste.  I don't like the taste, but I was so cold and desperate for a warm drink coffee would suffice.  And so that is the story of  my very first cup of coffee.



Training shall be based solely on feel,
while racing shall be governed by sensations and instincts.




Cuylar Conly

Something is wrong.

Sometimes, nothing works out.  This weekend I was hoping to ride well...  It didn't happen.  After a mediocre Time trial performance, I was dropped early in the Critt and early in the road race.  I cannot explain it, this does not reflect how I have been training and racing so far this season.  I just had no game.
perhaps a combination of many elements that I have control over.  I suspect that there is also something I did not have control over.  Despite having not raced much this weekend I slept 11hours last night.  To put this into perspective.  I am normally incapable of sleeping more than 8 hours and I never, never sleep past 8am.  So for me to be out for 11 hours until 1030am is quite out of the ordinary.  
Mentally it is rattling to have such a disappointing weekend.  I know I am stronger than that, I just can't explain it. and I need to just leave it at that.  Move on, look ahead and continue to train.



 Training shall be based solely on feel,
while racing shall be guided by sensations and instinct.



Cuylar Conly

Christmas

What is the meaning of Christmas?  Well, when it comes in May, its all about presents!  Today I woke up to Brand new racing kits and skin suit from Sugoi.  As well as Casual wear from peak performance.  Christmas came a little late this year, but we are not the first nor the last team that will have product mix up in this sport.  In fact there are still teams on the west coast that have not yet got all their gear.  
I would like to give big thanks to Sugoi and peak performance for all the clothes this year.


Now check out the haul.

There is a sense of professionalism that comes with the knew team kits.  They look great, which means you feel great, and when you feel great you race great.  Rocking the new gear this weekend, looks good, feels good, the rest is up to me.




Training shall be based solely on feel,
while racing shall be guided by sensations and instinct.



Cuylar Conly

Rest Day Too DoO's

As a cyclist you live a life of neglect.  Every day tasks take a back seat to training/recovery, add in a part time job and almost nothing ever gets done.  Laundry is never ending, dishes stack up, food stores dwindle, and the bedroom can be referred to as ground zero.  The little extra`s also stack up each week.  With the world being run on the 9-5 it requires a game plan in order to get out and run errands. 
Equal to training hard is to recover, part of the standard training week is to ensure that you have one day of rest. (ie, don`t ride more than 1hr) This day of rest comes with a little more time on your hands.  Extra time equals neglect management as I attempt to catch up on some Too Do`s.  Often to accommodate training it is more convenient to have a "rest day" on a day when I have to work.  The unfortunate side affect is that this takes up the majority of the day and limits the amount of neglect management that I can accomplish.  On occasion it works out that my rest day is on a day when I do not work.  On a day such as this I can try to make good on the forgotten tasks only to realize what "tip of the iceberg" means.

Next weekend Team Westwood/Cannondale is going to Washington State for the Enumclaw Stage Race.  This race is three stages over 2 days.  Saturday morning is a 10km ITT, Saturday Evening is a 60min Criterium, and Sunday is a 115km road race.  I have been training hard for the past couple weeks.  I am anxious to race, the form will be on and I plan to light it up.


  Training shall be based solely on feel,
while racing shall be guided by sensations and instinct.



Cuylar Conly

Breaking Bad

If I were a literary character I would be one dimensional, and I really don't mind.  I just threw down a bad ass big week of training.  Had some long days and some good intervally sessions.  Between Training and working there is very little time for much else.  OH how I want my bike to feed me.
 As an elite athlete hard training and hard racing is commonplace.  There is no training session or race that is as exhausting as working a part time job.  8hrs on your feet is physically and mentally draining.  Work does come with two benefits.  One a paycheck, two the knowledge that any punishingly hard ride is preferable and less exhausting.  Which means that when it is time to ride hard there is no complaint.  Own it, love it, ride it, kill it, bring the heat to forge the form.

There is no racing for me this weekend.  Instead I will be volunteering at the wheel to heal.  This is a charity event put on by our Team sponsor to raise funds for the children`s hospital.  I am glad to show my thanks to the Team sponsor.  Like the knights of olde, who were supported by nobility to joust.  I am supported by those more wealthy than I, and so I will lend a hand when called upon.

Next weekend I will be heading down to Washington State to race at Enumclaw.  I have been building my form and focus to be very fast.  The past week I have been hardening and sharpening my quads to be on good form.  Haven`t had a proper race in several weeks so I am anxious to get back to racing.



 Training shall be based solely on feel,
while racing shall be guided by sensations and instinct.



Cuylar Conly

Ready, 60km as hard as you can.... .... .... GO!

Yesterday, I was very tired.  I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.  The reason behind this is two Time Trials totaling 60km in one day.  The Devo Warp-speed Time Trial consisted of a 20km pan flat route, out and back along Zero Ave. inches from the American boarder.

The First Race was a 20km individual Time Trial.  Unlike a road race or criterium there is no mass start for a time trial, peloton, and no drafting.  Each racer starts individually, drafting off of other racers is not allowed and therefore the effort is 100% individual both physically and mentally.  Your result is dictated entirely by your own strength and motivation.  When all racers have completed the course they are placed in order based on thier individual time.
I am once again satisfied with my individual race.  I am glad to see that my race-pace is increasing.  I completed the course in a time of 26min and 28sec.  .  My time was good for 9th place.  I was hoping to land in the top five, but after finishing I guessed that the winning time would be 1min faster than me.  I was right, and therefor finish in 9th.

We had little over an hour break before the next race.  The next race was a 40km Team Time Trial.  Teams of four riders work together to complete two laps of the course.  Team mates are allowed to draft one another.  This allows 3 team mates to rest while one breaks the wind ahead of them, much like geese flying south.  The finishing time is recorded when the 3rd team mate crosses the line therefore teams must remain together and weaker riders may have to rest more often.
With all racers having just completed an individual time trial it would make it difficult to ride a very fast pace.  Team Westwood/Cannondale p/b Vision Sports consisted of Scott Laliberte, Kent McKinnon, Sam Loud, and yours truly.  after 2 km we found a rhythm and our train chugged away.  Cross-headwind going out, cross-tailwind on the way back.  The fatigue from the individual races was apparent.  Before half way our foursome became a threesome.  This increased the workload and decreased the rest time.  Also it was now very important to keep the remaining three together.  The remaining three members of Westwood/Cannondale finnished the 40km in a time of 52min 13sec.  This time would put us in second place, a good result.  Showing that as a team we can put our minds to an effort.

It was now just about 2 o'clock.  The true fatigue had not yet set in.  After racing that much at threshold your metabolism rivals the best nuclear power plant.  Although you are fatigued, you are not yet tired.  So we did an easy spin 8km into town for a Tim's stop.  We loaded the Van and then filled into the cottage grid lock going back into Vancouver.


 Training shall be based solely on feel,
while racing shall be guided by sensations and instinct.



Cuylar Conly

ITTTTT

Just got home. 10pm.  60km of time trialing today. too tired to post proper fill you in tomorrow.



Training shall be based solely on feel,
while racing shall be guided by sensations and instinct.



Cuylar Conly

No Comment

Well,  That was by far the worst criterium performance of my entire life.  I have no excuse for my poor performance.  It was inappropriate and embarrassing.

Tomorrow I am going to take the day off to try and remove this weekends race from my memory.  The Tuesday night race series starts up this week.  I hope that this will serve to get me back in the game in a big way. 



Training shall be based solely on feel,
while racing shall be guided by sensations and instinct.



Cuylar Conly

Disqualification, protest and Individual Time Trial

I have for the first time this year suffered motivational issues.  The likely cause is long days at work combined with some calf/knee pain.  This was all finally put over the top by some shenanigans at Race the Ridge this weekend.

The commissar at the race was on a major power trip.  From what I understand there was an incident in a previous race where a racer was having heated conversation with the commissar.  It seemed he was now determined to take out his his frustrations in a vendetta against the racers.

The yellow line became the commissar`s guillotine, and I was 1 of more than a dozen victims of some questionable disqualifications.  We raced on quiet rural roads.  The roads were quite narrow, with no painted center line.  Questionable disqualifications include a situation in which a man in a wheel chair was on the shoulder and the pack swerved wide to avoid him.  This resulted in several disqualifications.  Another incident occurred on a fast decent.  There was a slow moving truck,  much of the pack had to swing wide to avoid.  This too resulted in disqualifications. 

I was disqualified as the pack came to a hill slowing the speed.  The accordion affect forced me to the outer edge of the group.  I remained in the draft of riders ahead of me, and not over the center-line.  Along comes the commissar.  Drives up beside the pack and informs me that I have been disqualified, and that I am to remove myself from the race immediately.  We had not even gone 30km and was removed from the race and all subsequent stages.

I was pretty jaded.  Vowed never to support this event again, and could not bring myself to consider just training this weekend. 

Needless to say I was not happy.  Due to the unusually high number of disqualifications neither was the race organizer and Title Sponsor.  We launched a protest and with the backing of the Title sponsor and Race organizer I was re-instated to the race.  In last place, with a massive time penalty, but at least I could continue racing. 

On paper I could continue racing, but mentally I was not there.  I had to make some effort to get my head back on straight.  Having to force the motivation is not a good sign.  I have it for the rest of the weekend, but I will have to hit the mental refresh button on Monday.

Shenanigans aside, it was time to get focused for the Time trial.  A 21km out and back ITT with a net elevation gain on the way out.  Being the first ITT effort of the year the expectations were loose.  I expected not to embarrass myself, and I expected it to be a "Trial".  I placed 8th.  Which means I did not embarrass myself,  in fact this is somewhat of a pleasant surprise.  I have not done much in the way of TT work, and I felt I had stable ride.

The race plan was to be under control on the way out and wind it up on the way back.  I rode the TT in control, but perhaps too much in control.  I might almost go as far as to describe it as comfortable.  I did not wind it up as much as I would have liked on the way back.  For the future this is good information, I know for next time that I can go deeper.  I can now adjust some of my training to support this and improve.

Nevertheless I am sure to be in last place overall.  I will go into tomorrows Criterium with nothing to lose.  I will warm up well and then ride like I have nothing to lose.  This often produces good results at least in underdog sports movies.


Training shall be based solely on feel,
while racing shall be guided by sensations and instinct.



Cuylar Conly