Marysville. Swimming. Running. Time trails. Commuting. Fatigue. Joy. Surprises. Hidden strength. Realizations.

Its been a long week, and with a new weekend rapidly approaching my mind begins to wander. It wanders in retrospect of the Marysville stage races, with excitement for the Steelman triathlon, and with the satisfaction of a week that I can honestly say blew my body apart in the best possible way.

For those of you who missed it, Marysville is the premiere stage racing weekend on the MASS schedule that includes three days of racing in five different formats. The weekend started off with a dreary drizzle and fog, perfectly slimy conditions for a night time trial. A 3.7 mile course was laid out around the Oesterling farm and at 9:15 the race began with Kuhn taking the opening run. Every 30 seconds another rider saddled up, lit up, and rode into the foggy night. Lights reflected back to your eyes in the misty-mess, tires squirmed around for traction, and in the humid night air people rode the ‘race of truth’  through a tunnel of wet darkness that led both through the forest as well as through themselves. I loved every second of it. Saturday morning clouds opened the racing for the beginners and endurance riders, but were soon burned off for sport and expert. Heat was high, humidity was higher, and the race became one as much about survival as it was about speed. My first lap was fantastic with a low time and a strong feel. My custom tires threw the mud off perfectly and when leaned far into a corner clawed at the tacky earth to find a wonderful amount of grip. And they made fun of me for cutting knobs. Amateurs. My second lap started just as strong, but about 2 miles from the finish I cramped. Hard. Both sets of quads and both hamstrings decided I hadn’t had enough to drink and outright stopped me from riding for about 10 minutes. Ouch. Again I am reminded that my body doesn’t perform well in heat. Oh well- I refused to take another DNF so I soft-pedaled the rest of the race and didn’t come in DFL. Sunday started early with the hill climb so knowing this wasn’t a strong event for me my goal was to just get some finish points and save myself for the short-track. Im glad I did because by the time the STXC came around I was fired up and ready.

My legs ached on the fast start. Mike Melnick yelled for me to pace myself. I hung onto the lead group. We made our way down the soft grassy area and into the only real climb of the course which was just long enough to sling me off the back of the lead group. No worries, dig in, corner well, and make power in the flats. Each lap the leaders got a little farther in front of me but it didn’t matter- we had 20 minutes to suffer and I was going to pour everything I had left into the pedals no matter where I ended up. I learned more and more about the course and how deep I could corner, where I could accelerate, and what was going to make me suffer a little more. I kept losing time on that climb, but was enjoying the corners more and more each lap. On the last lap, the leaders came around- Matt needed some passing room going into the big downhill sweeper turn right in the main spectator area and I knew we could go two wide in it. I told him to take the inside line (the grippiest part) so if I slid I wouldn’t take him out. We hit the corner at full speed and I went to the outside- my front wheel washed out a little so I pushed the bike over kicked the ground hard and kept pedaling. It was sweet!  I chased them as long as I could but they pulled on me again on the hill. I finally got my opportunity to pull on someone else in the last corner where I knew my tires would stick and he was unsure, so I sprinted for the line and took it. It was a great end to a great weekend.

After coming home and unpacking, it was time to settle into the training rhythm again since the Steelman is only 5 weeks away. With the confidence of two open water swims under my belt and a rest day on Monday I took to the pool on Tuesday over lunch. I was able to swim the entire 800 yards in one go- plus some. I totaled 1100 yards in a single session and then followed that session with a 26 mile bike ride that included about 13 miles of TT/LT effort. Surprisingly my legs still felt like they had power in them and I was able to maintain 22mph average over rolling terrain. Wednesday was a four mile run, and then Thursday was my day to bike commute for the week. I took the long way, but by then my legs were screaming ‘uncle’ and my body longed for some real rest. So here we are- into Friday, resting today and tomorrow….but still contemplating a century on Sunday.

Something that a week like this does for me is makes me realize how lucky I am to be doing this, as well as realize that my strengths seem to lie in different areas from where I have been focusing. That said, it looks like next year will be pretty different from this year yet again with endurance races early, then transitioning into short events in the fall….we will see how it goes, but Im sure it will bring a smile to my face.

Ride fast, take chances,

/Dan

This past weekend Sue and I went out to try our hands at an open-water swim to prep for the Steelman Triathlon we’ve been working towards. We went up to lake Wallenpaupack for the weekend both to have a go at swimming the required 800 meters in open water as well as have some fun family time. I gotta say swimming in a lake without walls and lines on the bottom it TOTALLY different than swimming in a pool. Totally.

We woke up early on Saturday morning to beat the boaters out to the water and decided to set up in the kayak for support. Sue told me I would go first so after ssslllooowwwllyy getting into the cold water, I was off. I swam freestyle for a while but started to get tired because so far, my longest interval has been 200m. I rolled over and started to do some elementary backstroke to recover, but ended up swimming to my right. I rolled back over, straightened out and continued swimming freestyle. And got tired again so I rolled back over and promptly started swimming in a circle to my right again. Ok, another roll-over and about 100m more and I needed to recover again…I did this several times until about the 700m mark, where I couldn’t even swim freestyle straight anymore. I started to freak out. Sue was probably only about 20 feet away in the kayak but I honestly had a flash go through my mind where I just sank into the water, never to be seen again. With that I made my way to the kayak and called no-joy to finish the distance. I climbed into the boat and Sue got in the water and started fighting her own demons. For me it had nothing to do with being in the lake and everything to do with not being sure I could swim the distance. I just didn’t know if I could do it and when I started to panic a little I lost my nerve to finish.

So Sunday rolled around and after both of us told the other how much we didn’t want to go out and swim, we went out anyway. I was first again. I got in the water, let my boys acclimatize (after all, the best swimmers in my body are down there, right?) and began to swim. Sue yelled for me to keep my eyes open when I breathed, and I checked for a big rock on the shore that marked where we were going with each breath. My shoulders and lats ached from the day before. My lungs contracted in the cold water. I kept swimming. Fueled by a cup of coffee and the desire to prove to myself that I could do this my arms and legs kept moving. I kept checking the rock to make sure I was going straight. I remembered to ‘feel’ the water along my arms and legs to know I was moving it as efficiently as I was currently capable of doing. I rolled over for a recovery since in the water my lungs didn’t feel like they could open as much as they do on the bike. I looked at my toes and pointed them at our starting point. I burped up some coffee. I rolled back, checked the rock, and started freestyle again. I kept swimming. I kept checking the rock. I took another recovery. Today was different- somehow I was swimming straight. I wasn’t as concerned with being in the middle of a lake as I was making sure I was actually swimming towards the rock. And when I was on my back catching my breath as long as the red boat was between my toes I knew I was going the right direction. Sue called out to check if I was going to finish at about 150m, and I yelled back I was. So I rolled back over, checked the rock and swam. To the rock. Hell yeah. I climbed up on that SOB and gave a victory yell and was happy I had done it. Some other folks were prepping for their own swim when I made it and they cheered for me too. It felt great, and now I feel much better about the swim for the race. I also know I need to increase the lengths of my intervals to take it in bigger chunks. I may not be a fast swimmer, but dammit…28 minutes later I made a full 900m swim and yelled on a rock. All with coffee burp in my mouth. Bring it on!

My head has had another reset. Im not sure if its because of Matt kicking me in the ass, or if it’s the time of year (I had a similar reset about this time last year) but whatever it is, Ill take it. Last night was the third Bear Creek STXC race of the series, and I showed up ready to go. I forgot about any expectations but did resolve to push myself into the red-zone (read::puke) and ride with everything I could muster. The course was layed out on both sides of the road and the start would take us around about ¾ of the lake to separate us out before hitting the singletrack. I don’t know how many starters there were, though. Maybe about a dozen. It didn’t matter becaue when Chuck said go, I went. My start could have been better with a different gear, so I snapped a few up and stood to get a few good cranks in to hang with the front group. Matt, Gunner, Luby, Evan, Dave and I took off with the remainder of the riders behind us. I tucked in behind Luby and Gunner when the lead group split off and hung on his wheel. Luby is one strong dude who knows how to choose lines. I hung onto Luby and Gunner as they traded spaces a few times for two and a half laps but eventually started drifting back when I bobbled a little in the climb up the back of the lake area. No matter, I wasn’t gong to pass those two anyway but in any case I noticed someone trying to bridge up to me. With my HR pegged and some verp in my mouth I stomped on my pedals to clear the parking lot to give myself some breathing room up the final climb and rock garden sections. I don’t know how close he got to me, but what I do know is by the time I was crossing the road for the second time I was away, and felt like I was flying with a great big smile on my face. Jess and Gray cheered each lap and I was proud to have put on a good show.

Round two was a gravel-lot miss and out with a kayak finale and was pure win all the way around. We had a staggered start to give everyone a chance and somewhere in there my front wheel washed out. I made my best cross-remount and kept going but my knee/foot got a little jacked up in the crash so I just didn’t have much left. Matt tried to pass me, but hung up on my rear wheel and went down himself. Somehow he thought hugging my rear wheel would keep him upright, but all it really did was give him some good raspberry burns on the inside of his arm. Ill need to make sure I hook him up with some tasty beverages at Marysville to ease that pain.

All in all I don’t really think I was much faster than I have been all year, but my head is good and the fire is definitely lit for cross season. Now when I ride I will honestly remember the words of wisdom given to me by Vegan Rob- “I don’t think you’ve found the next level of sufferning yet.” I still don’t think Ive found that level, but now Im feel like Im ready to try.

Had a great week full of riding last week. I had time off from work so Jess, Gray, and I did some day-trips and I was able to get in plenty of riding. All in all it was both relaxing and provided a much needed kick in the ass to get back into training mode. I’ve been enjoying some unstructured down time for the past few weeks as you have seen on the blog and as much as it has been needed and appreciated, Bowman reminded me that there are twelve weeks left to ’cross season and quite frankly, I’ve been getting pretty lazy. Long story short after 4 consecutive ride days Matt kicked my ass.

I’ve spent a good amount of time doing structured training this year, and after getting some advice from Vegan Rob, I changed things up a bit. I haven’t gone hard enough when needed, and haven’t rested adequately from going hard. In the past few weeks I haven’t even really gone hard, so Thursday I opened my legs up from two days of shopping and riding Thomas the Tank, Friday I had a good long ride at Rattling Creek chasing Mike Carter and Matt, Saturday I did some singlespeed time at Sals, and then Sunday was supposed to be a casual road ride that turned into something entirely more.

Sunday morning came around and I had a message from Matt on my phone. He decided to sit out for the Neshaminy race because of the crash he took at Rattling Creek that messed up a couple of ribs for him so I called Cody and we all decided 12:30 at the Velodrome for some ‘casual’ miles together. I rode in from home hoping for a decent warm-up because my legs were already pretty sore and tired from the three previous day’s worth of riding. We all set out and on the first set of climbs; Matt started testing out his body to see how he felt. Cody and I took turns trying to move to the front to give him a break, but he would have none of it. Every time we moved up, Matt countered and stayed up there. The hills started and Matt hit every climb with a little more power than the last. After a while, it became a game. Cody and I took turns seeing if Matt would answer every attack, which he happily did- and when we asked him about it he simply said he was  happy to be ‘pulling us along’ for the ride. 40 or so miles later, we come into the last set of climbs into the Breiningsville area and now I find myself chasing Matt on every climb, and pushing harder than I would have on any other day after the week of riding I had already done. I felt like the words from Vegan Rob were ringing in my head about ‘experiencing a new level of pain’ and that I still haven’t pushed myself hard enough. With some encouragement from Matt I grunted up the final climb with as much power as I could muster and was genuinely happy about it. Now I understand how Matt has progressed the way he has. Now I want some of that for my own.

Thanks for the kick in the ass Matt; I sure as hell needed it.