Ft. Wayne Twilight

     After four straight weekends of making long drives and hammering out multiple races, we got a weekend off. It was nice to not have to scramble all week to get things cleaned up and packed for another road trip, but I am still eager to race, especially with my form improving each week.

     Our little plants are growing fairly well. We have some little tomatoes forming and the herb garden has made for some tasty dinners. It was a lot of work to get everything going, but it’s starting to feel worth it now that we are seeing some results. Our next home projects are making a compost pile and creating a rain water collection system. We are already catching rain in buckets to water the plants with to save on our water usage, but I’m hoping to set us up with a better system so we can collect large amounts of water for watering the lawn and even washing the cars.

Pot of peppers

The tomatoes are growing up and blooming

Our little potted herb and vegetable garden

These skinny little flowers near the front porch take a beating every time it rains

My stump project is finally growing

Morning glories are growing too

 Herbs

Collecting rain in buckets

     I took a few days off after St. Louis and then started back with some easy rides to and from work to celebrate Bike to Work Week and Bike to Work Day, which was May 18. It was the first time I have ever been able to participate. I usually don’t see anyone else riding when I ride to work at 5:20am, but I saw another guy on Bike to Work Day. That was cool and I hope he will ride more in the future. Getting up that early doesn’t seem so bad when you see other people out there doing it too. I wish I had been able to do a Ride of Silence, but all the local ones happened on the day of the week that Shannon and I both work late.

Interesting place to leave a load of dirt

Interesting cloud at sunset. This tower is in a lot of my pics. Seems I come home this way quite often in the evenings.

     I’ve been seeing less athletes lately at work, which is sad. Our number of patients has gone down a lot int he past few weeks. I don’t know why, but it just suddenly went down. Shannon’s clinic has been busy so I have been filling in there for a few days a week to lighten their load. A few weeks ago, I got to work with a free-runner that is coming back from injury. We got creative outside to mimic free-running the best we could without risking a lawsuit. It’s a pretty crazy sport. I had him standing on chairs and tipping them over to land on BOSU balls to work on balance and stability. We also ran up the side of the dumpsters and jumped off to test his landing mechanics.

     I was outside a few days after we worked on the dumpster jumps and I noticed some warning labels on the side of the dumpster. I found the first one to be rather funny considering what we had been doing. Warning labels are generally ridiculous and only needed because there’s a certain percentage of our population who literally couldn’t survive without them.

Hmm..I guess we were no the first ones to try this

Really? Who does this?!

     A weekend without racing was far from a weekend without riding. I haven’t been able to ride with Adam Queen much lately, so I was definitely in for the Little River Bicycle Tour just up the road in Hopkinsville, KY when I heard he was coming. Adam’s wife, Sarah, was singing at the festival that followed the ride. We were going to have to ride fast to get Adam done in time to get back and watch her sing. That was all the excuse I needed to hammer the 60-mile ride. There was a lot of smack talked the week prior by some of the locals about how they would finish in under 3 hours, but when it came down to it, nobody wanted to put out. Adam and I ended up riding off the front less than 2 miles into the ride and never saw anybody again.

Chatting with Jimmy Lancaster before the start   Photo by Lawrence Mize

    It was a good loop, full of small, rolling hills. Most of them you could carry all your momentum over and keep the speed rolling. Adam and I took turns doing 3-4 minute pulls each. We got a killer tailwind at about mile 13, but then paid dearly from miles 20 to 43. We hit some larger hills that got us suffering before we made the turn to head back east, straight into the wind. I was hurting by mile 30 and had a hard time holding Adam’s wheel on some of the false flats into the wind. But then my legs came back around and I ended up doing the majority of the work the last 10 miles to get us back. We were very relieved to make the turn north at mile 50 and get the wind at our backs again. We finished the 59.9 miles in 2:38:19 with a 22.7 mph average speed. Not bad for two guys on a hot, windy day. We sweated a ton in the heat, both ending with honeycomb salt deposits on our shorts from the dripping sweat. The nearest chasers were over 14 minutes behind us.

Little River Bicycle Tour course

     We ended in time to get cleaned up and then ride 2 miles down to the festival and watch Sarah. She sang with a local jazz band for a while. We got to sit backstage with our bikes and watch the performance. It was kind of cool. I had never seen her sing before and she’s very good.

Sitting behind the band as Sarah sings

      Shannon and I have been riding together a little more lately. It’s good for me to get in extra miles by going back out with her and good for her to improve her endurance. I love riding with her. Most of my training is done alone. Most days I’d love to have anybody to ride with, but having my wife out there is a special bonus.

Sunset on a ride with Shannon

     We have also been running together and I have started back swimming. I did my first workout on Thursday with a swim trainer in Ashland City. She offered to help me work on my form and swim fitness for free, which is very good blessing for me. She was on the National swim team when she was younger. I was excited to hear that my form wasn’t that bad. She tweaked my arms a little and taught me some other strokes besides freestyle to help me gain strength in other areas and improve my shoulder range of motion. My right shoulder is a little limited where I have broken my collarbone three times on that side. She busted my butt for 2 hours on the first day. I wasn’t very fatigued afterwards, but man did I feel it the next day! It felt like Shannon had punched my upper back all night!

     Our plan was to spend the Memorial Day weekend with Shannon’s family in Indiana. I conveniently found a race just over an hour away in Ft. Wayne on Saturday night. We were actually going to be passing through Ft. Wayne on our way from Elkhart to Muncie to visit a cousin with a new baby so it really worked out well. I would’ve gladly gone to the race alone as to not mess with the family plans, but we pitched the idea to the family and to my surprise, they were all very excited. Most of them showed up in Ft. Wayne and got to see a pretty good show for a smaller race.

     The race was called the Fort 4 Fitness Twilight Criterium and took place in downtown Ft. Wayne. There were several tour rides of various distances and a festival to go along with the race. My race was the last one of the evening, starting at 8:10pm. The Pro/1/2/3 race was 60 minutes, meaning that we would get in nearly the full race in daylight, which sort of takes away from the name of the race.

     It was a cool set-up for the course. It was laid out like a figure-8 with 8 corners in 0.8 miles. It was pancake flat and all corners were 90 degrees. The start/finish line was very close to turn 1, which took riders to the left, passing by the festival area where there were concerts by local artists throughout the day. Turn 2 took you back to the right, passing by the neutral support pits and starting a loop around the town courthouse. A few tight lefts followed as you navigated the courthouse square. There was some sketchy pavement in turns 4 and 5 before you came to a much-wider right turn for turn 6. The straights between all the turns had been one block long, but the course finally opened up after turn 6 with a long back straightaway. Two left turns took us back onto the front stretch which was equally as long as the backstretch. The finish line was a good 200 meters after the last turn, giving you plenty of time to wind up a sprint.

Ft. Wayne crit. course

     One thing to note before the race began was the number of riders that two teams had brought. Both Cleveland Clinic and Bissell had brought 8+ riders. They are amongst the strongest teams in the region, so any break that contained a rider of each had a very good chance of sticking. I knew that a break could go from the start, so I got in a very hard warm-up and then got to the start line early enough to get on the front row. We had 64 riders on the start line. I was pleased to have very good legs in my warm-up. I felt really crappy the day before when I rode, then we added on an 8 hour drive that saw us get to Elkhart at 3am. Thankfully, with this being an evening race I got some rest and even had time for a morning spin on the bike with Shannon before we drove to Ft. Wayne.

Shannon and I before the race in Ft. Wayne

     My front row start spot turned into a third row start spot after they called up a good 20 riders to the front because they were local. This race really seemed to be all about the locals and they put out a bad vibe towards the riders they didn’t know. I caught the attention of the head official because of my helmet cam. A few riders were complaining that I had it on. He bluntly told me that if the camera fell off during the race, it was his. I was nice at first and told him that it would not come off. He then got up in my face and said “We’ll see about that” and gave me the stare down. I have no idea why he felt the need to do that, but it really ticked me off. I told him that if he was going to pick it up he would have to pry it off my head. Some of these officials are unbelievable.

    The front two rows jumped the start. That has been a common theme lately. The official looked upset, but did nothing to stop them. I ended up near the back by the time we all got going and went through turn 1. The first lap wasn’t very fast, but then the pace quickly got cranked up. We had about 6 laps in a row where the pace was ridiculous fast. Guys were already popping off after 10 minutes and the gaps were everywhere. I really got myself in trouble by being so far back. I had to cross a couple of gaps on my own and found myself staring at the highest heart rate I have seen in months. I was holding 186-190 bpms. I haven't even been able to go over 183 bpm for the last month. I was worried, yet satisfied at the same time. I was pegged out on my effort, but I was glad to see that my fitness was getting good enough for me to see the higher heart rates.

Sierra Siebenlist soloed to the Pro Women's win

Shannon's cousin Brice leaning out to take some pictures of the Pro Women coming off turn 1

Nicole Borem went solo for 2nd place

Siebenlist rolling through turn 1

    Things calmed down after 15 minutes as a break slipped off the front. I was so far back that I didn’t realize anyone had gone away. We had no lead car and they were not pulling lapped riders so it was hard to tell who was leading. Occasionally, I would hear shouts of “20 seconds!” or “25 seconds!” so I knew somebody was up there. Then I heard there were 8 riders about 30 seconds ahead. One team in green was working hard to bring it back and managed to get the gap down to 19 seconds by the 30 minute mark. Bissell was having guys just sit up in the middle of the group to create gaps. That really irritates me. I think you should open a gap up my hammering, not by getting in front of someone and grabbing the brakes. I had tried asking riders that had several teammates if they had a rider in the break. I was willing to help pull if they wanted to work together, but nobody would talk to me. They all just looked at me like I didn’t say anything.

Video still from the helmet cam as we go under the sky bridge

Passing by the Ft. Wayne courthouse

Through the streets of downtown Ft. Wayne

Me in the group

     I could see that I wasn’t going to get help so I tried to force someone to work with me by attacking. It seemed like a good time to take a dig and maybe get a good chase group going since the gap was a little smaller. I was starting to get a little frustrated too. I attacked up the left on the front stretch, but another rider went at the same time up the right. He beat me to turn 1. I was hoping maybe we had gotten a little gap, but I looked back to see the Cleveland Clinic guys were right on my wheel.

Pro Men on course

    After a lap of riding hard, it was clear we were being marked. Then I finally saw the break. It was 4 Cleveland Clinic and 4 Bissell riders. No wonder they were marking us so close and letting gaps go. At that point, I knew it was gone. That was a bad combo to let slip away. I decided it was best to save my strength for the end. I really started getting tired by 40 minutes and slipped back in the group. Then we got down to the final 5 laps and I picked my way back up through the group. There was a very vicious wind that hit you in the face or from the side almost the whole lap. It seemed to be swirling between the buildings. I tried to conserve energy and move up through the corners, then stayed protected on the windy straights. I got into the top 8 spots with 2 laps to go. We were really battling for position and it was hard to stay up front. I had to take advantage of every hole to move up. I decided to take the inside in turn 6 and got pinched to the curb, losing my momentum. That sent me way back in the line with a lap to go. There was a big slowing of the group that would’ve allowed me to move to the front as Bissell set up a leadout train, but my mistake had put me dangling off the back and only able to rejoin the group with the slow-down.

Pro Men coming under the Start/Finish banner

Me streaking down the front straightaway as dusk approaches

Going under the start/finish banner

Getting dark as we roll through turn 1

     The group split on the final lap and I was behind the split. I picked off a few riders that sat up, but didn’t have the legs left to do anything in the sprint. I spent it all to recover from the mistake in the corner. I wound up finishing 26th. I was a bit disappointed with the final laps, but I can tell I am getting stronger. I think the tough week and long drive caught up with me those last 20 minutes of the race. We rode 36 laps for 26.0 miles in 1:00:33 with a 25.8 mph average speed. Max speed on the flat course was 35.6 mph. My max heart rate ended up being early in the race after just 5 minutes when I hit 190. Average heart rate was 176, which is higher than I’ve been able to maintain recently.

     The family had a great time. They got to see a fast race on a good course. I enjoyed having my own cheering section coming off turn 1. It was really cool and makes me want to race up here more often.

    Here’s video taken by Shannon, followed by my helmet cam video. I think I have solved the lens fogging problem now. I switched back to the vented skeleton back door on the case and applied anti-fog to the lens and case prior to the race.

Video clips of the Pro/1/2/3 Women and Men

Pro/1/2/3 helmet cam of the full race

     We spent the rest of the weekend chilling with family. I think everybody was worn out Sunday evening. We all took a long nap. My nephew, Joel, decided the rug in the kitchen was the best place to nap. There's a picture below of him napping by the sink. Also, I had to include a picture of the drawing and caption by one of the young children in Muncie. My butterfly sucks nectar!

Joel catching a nap on the kitchen rug

Yes Meg, your butterfly does suck nectar.

     I got in a nice road ride Monday morning. It's flat around Elkhart and very windy through the farm land. I found some markings from a tour ride that I plan to explore further next time we come up. I kept things easy today and just did an out-and-back. It's sort of boring being so flat and having no turns. I'm used to winding country backroads, but these backroads are straight as an arrow and laid out like a grid.

The straight roads on northern Indiana

Rows of corn are a common sight

Turkey

Dairy Farm

Mooo

    We took the back way home, traveling through western Indiana. I had never been out to that part of the state before. It took a tad longer, but the lack of traffic was nice. So often we get stuck behind accidents on I-65 south of Louisville. We rarely saw anything other than wind turbines for the majority of the 8.5 hour drive. Now we are back home and it's time to return to the work week. I'll be taking a few weeks off racing now to train and hopefully bring myself up to another level.

Wind turbine near Kentland, IN

Fields of wind turbines as far as the eye could see in every direction