new blog

I've decided this "Redefining Fitness..." blog has strayed from it's original intent, which is to focus on the benefits of functional conditioning and the lifestyle that we encourage at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning... But I'm having some fun with my race reports and other stuff so I started a new blog here.. Check it out if you've been enjoying the race reports, (or even if you haven't)

I will be back here to post with more stuff related to functional conditioning on a fairly regular basis :)

Best,
kevin

Because It Sucks the Most...

A few weeks ago as I was coming off the course at the end of the Downeast Cyclocross race, covered in mud, cold, wet, and wheezing, I was riding past my friend, and fellow ECV'er, John Adamik. John was smiling at me and asked me "Did ya have fun?". I looked at him and thought the question over for a second before answering.. "No. No I didn't have any fun at all.". I wasn't lying. It sucked so bad from start to finish that I started wondering why would I possibly do something like this to myself on a weekly basis for 3 months from September to December. There's nothing fun about cranking your heart rate up to it's absolute max, forcing your muscles to work as hard as they possibly can until the lactic acid is practically seeping from your pores, and maintaining that level of pain for 45-60 minutes. It's about suffering as much as you possibly can for about 45 minutes. If that's your idea of "fun" then you have issues. But if you think it sucks, that's OK. It's supposed to. I've competed in different sports my whole life, football, hockey, soccer, baseball. I've raced road races, criteriums, circuits, hillclimbs, and cross.. I like cyclocross the most, quite simply because it sucks the most. It's fun to watch the races. It's agony to compete in them. But that's why we do it. If it was easy we wouldn't do it. The more it sucks, the more deeply gratifying it is when you're done. The more pain you were in during the race, the greater the sense of accomplishment when, at the end, you're collapsed over your bars with your chest heaving like you're being hit with a defibrillator. Fun is hiking the Whites on a Summer day when there's not a cloud in the sky, or playing touch football in the mud on Thanksgiving morning with your friends and family. Cyclocross is, as the title of Brian Vernor and Willie Bullion's cyclocross documentary implies, "Pure Sweet Hell".

See how happy I am now that it's over?

For what it's worth, this is exactly the same reason the people come to Dynamic Strength and Conditioning. Because the workouts are hard. They force people to challenge themselves. There's suffering involved to be sure. There's nothing fun about doing 100 burpees or doing a kettlebell bear crawl across the gym 3 or 4 times. In fact, it sucks a lot. But that's why we do it. If we wanted useless, easy workouts that out of shape, mentally weak people do we'd head down to the local chrome and fern palace, pop in the iPod, and bust out 30 minutes on the treadmill or elliptical. Maybe throw in a few sets of biceps curls and lat pulldowns while we're at it. 

So last Thursday when I was looking at the weather forecast for Saturday that called for a ton of rain in the Plymouth MA area where the weekend's races were, I said to myself, "Wow is that going to suck... I have to be there.". So when my daughter's soccer game got cancelled due to the monsoon I loaded up the truck and headed South. As I was driving down I was excited about what a great power wash my bike was going to get on the roof of the truck on the way home. I was figuring the race conditions would be miserable. They were difficult conditions, but a little short of miserable. There were long spongy momentum killing grass sections and some thick mud in the woods, but it could have been a whole lot worse than it was. And the best thing about this day was that I finally had a set of tires that were going to help me in the mud. I put a set of Michelin Mud tires on my spare set of wheels which are supposed to be real good in the mud. How can they not be with a name like "Mud"? I've been riding on Tufo Flexus which suck in the mud. Actually, they suck in anything that's not dry. But if I had done my homework I would have known this because the Latin to English translation of "Flexus" is.... "sucks in anything that's not dry".... Oh well, lesson learned. Next year I need a good set of tubular mud tires, like the Dugast Rhino.. Ever seen a Rhino in the mud on the Discovery channel? Awesome! Those tires have to be great mudders. But for now I'm on the Michelins. Problem is they're clinchers which are susceptible to pinch flats at low pressure.. As evidenced during my ride over to the pit area to deposit the Tufos which were going to be relegated to pit duty for the day. I rode my bike up and over a curb and then as I was going up a slight incline the rear of the bike started careening around like it was on grease. I looked down and the rear tire was flat.. Are you shitting me? OK, at least it happened now and not during the race. I put the Tufo Slippo (as my buddy Geoff calls them) back on the rear and headed out for a quick warmup lap. I realized pretty quick how nice it would have been to have two mud tires on as my front tire had really good traction and my rear tire had none. I guess I never believed how huge a difference a tire would make in these conditions.

Because I had taken a warmup lap right before my race I ended up at staging last.. Not a huge deal since there was only 15 guys that showed up to brave the elements today. But you know that they were going to be 15 strong guys because who else is going to come out in these conditions. Curtis Boivin, Mike Rowell, Sammy Morse were there.. All top guys.. Matt Theodore was there, the same guy who ended up mistakenly getting my Verge points from the Downeast race a couple weeks ago because my number was covered in mud. Matt's been finishing a minute or so ahead of me in the Verge races, I was thinking I would do my best to stay with him as Boivin, Morse, and Rowell are still much stronger than I am. I got in behind Curtis at staging because I knew he'd be right at the front from the beginning. The whistle blew and I had a great start. Up the incline, past the finish line, and onto the field. By the time we hit the woods I was probably in 6th position, maybe 7th. I passed a couple and ended up in a group led by Boivin. Not for long though. Curtis pulled away with Sammy and Mike glued to his wheel. They put a small gap into Theodore who also started putting a small gap into me as we hit the woods. Theodore went down on a muddy corner and I caught and passed him putting me in 4th. From there it was me and Matt as we stayed together for the next 5 laps. Curtis, Sam, and Mike were gone. Matt and I were going to fight it out for 4th place. We increased the gap on the guy behind us to about 30 or 40 seconds by the end of the 2nd lap and it pretty much stayed that way to the end. Theodore was killing me on the barriers. Gaining ground on me every time through. We were equal on the power sections but I was making up time through the woods in the technical sections. There was a hill before the finish line that I should have been able to ride if I had any traction in my rear tire, but with the Flexus on there the rear wheel would slide out as soon as I started going up so I was relegated to running the hill every time through. Theodore had some mud tires on and was able to ride the hill every time. I was running it just as fast as he was riding it, but he had all the momentum going over the top while I was remounting. He would open up a 30 yd gap on me every time over the hill. I would pull him back in and then he would gap me again on the barriers and I would work my ass off to pull him back in again. I was dangerously close to blowing up from the efforts of repeatedly pulling him back. On the second to last lap he opened up about a 50 yd gap on me and must have thought it was over. I buried myself to reel him back in and as we came out of the woods onto a long paved stretch I pulled myself right back up onto his wheel. He looked over his shoulder, saw me and yelled "Fuck!" knowing there was one more lap of pure hell in his future trying to hold me off. We went up the hill one more time, he opened up a lead on me one more time, and we went through the finish line for the bell lap... I pulled him back in and as we came out of a wooded section I passed him.. Not for long though. We hit the barriers and he effortlessly cleared them passing me on the remount and leading me back into the final wooded section. At this point we knew we were coming into the final hill together and we both knew he was going to try to ride it and I was going to run it. If he could ride it without screwing up then he would take 4th. But if not then I'd take him. I thought about trying to ride it, and in retrospect, with a 30-40 second gap on the guy behind us I really would have had nothing to lose because even if I slipped up again on the hill I still would have had plenty of time to recover and get 5th. But I was too cooked to think at that point and just went with what was working for me. We hit the hill together and he cleaned it and went on to take 4th. I got a 5th place, just a couple seconds behind a guy who has been beating me by close to a minute for the past few weeks. I was also about a minute closer to guys like Boivin and Rowell who only finished 2mins and 1min ahead of me, respectively. It was a day of pure sweet hell, but deeply gratifying.

This week I'm off to Lowell for a nice local race. I'm very excited because one of our very own from Dynamic Strength and Conditioning, Roni, will be competing in her first ever Cyclocross Race. She's going to suffer, she's going to kick ass, and she's going to love it!

Best,

kevin

In the 50's With a Strong Chance of Pain...

This weekend was rounds 9 and 10 of the Verge series at Look Park in Northampton, MA. Coming off a 4th place finish in a small local race the week before, I was now back in a field of 85 racers with every top guy within 400 miles ready to go at it. Absolutely perfect weather for cross. 

Day 1: Having learned a lesson from last week, I embrocated without torching my nuts. Got to Look Park early and had a really good warmup. I was feeling like I might be able to hang with a couple of guys that have been finishing a minute or two ahead of me today. In particular, I was targeting Brant Hornberger from the Bikereg team and John Meerse from the OA team. Two really strong guys who have been racing for years. Biggest problem with marking guys like that is they get a callup at the beginning of the race and get to stage in the first few rows based on points they've won in previous races. I take that back, the biggest problem with marking guys like that is that they're stronger and better than me.. The second biggest problem is that they also get a head start via the callup. Verge series points are awarded each race to the top 25. In a bit of bad luck a couple weeks ago in the pigpen at Downeast cross in Maine, I came across the finish line with part of my number obscured by mud. So my 23rd place finish that should have netted me 3 points (my first of the season) got credited to Matt Theodore's number who, as it turns out, didn't even race that day. My efforts to get the points credited to me have been futile since I didn't hang around after the mudfest waiting to see the results and therefore missed the protest period. The  reason this is such a bummer is because those 3 points would have been enough to get me a call-up in staging which means I would have been able to start in the 4th row, rather than the 7th row that I ended up in. Start position is huge at Northampton because of the layout of the course, actually start position is always huge.. Oh well. Enough whining. On to the race......

Jonny, Kevin, Kurt and Roger battling it out at the front.

As the 4 or 5 of you that have been reading my blog know, my starts have been awful this year. It seems that I become a spastic at the start and never seem to be able to get my foot clipped in cleanly on the sprint start. By the time I get clipped in I'm always bringing up the rear of the field and then have to work even harder chasing for 45 minutes trying to gain position.. But today was going to be different. I've been working really hard on my starting technique.. Well, not actually on the bike because I really didn't have time this week. But I've been thinking really hard about it and I'm pretty sure I had dreams on three consecutive nights this week where I was doing pretty good on my starts. So the whistle blows and guess what... I bollixed my start. So much for hoping I'd get better without actually spending time on it. Who knew? So with about 75 out of the 81 starters in front of me I set about trying to gain position. Marking Brant and John was out the window as they undoubtedly had more than a minute on me less than 5 minutes into the race with the gap increasing as I fought to get by everybody in front of me. I was cranking along passing people wherever I could and if I had to guess, I'd say I got ahead of about 25 or 30 of them. Time for the shit to hit the fan. The course had two really steep uphill sections in it.. One was a pure run-up that couldn't be ridden. The other one could be ridden if you had the right line, enough momentum, and enough power.. The runup was pretty nasty. Super steep and all chopped up with rocks and roots. On one lap I was going up the run-up (I say "going up" because "running up" would be giving myself too much credit) with my bike shouldered and Richard Fries, one of the top race announcers you'll ever have at a race, was stationed on the run-up doing his commentary. I went by him so slow that we could have had a chat about where we'd be spending the holidays. Huge momentum killer for me. The other steep section I was able to ride except for a couple times when one of the other racers got in my way (coincidentally it was the same guy both times). The first time, I had enough power to get to the top of the hill but apparently the guy in front of me didn't. At the very top he came to a standstill. He got a little frustrated as I tried to maneuver my way around him and he threw a shoulder/elbow into me that sent me into a stake. Didn't see that coming.. I t-boned the stake and endo'd straight over the handlebars with my bike doing a dramatic wheel over wheel flip. There were a few drunk guys partying there that really enjoyed the crash and my creative cursing. I picked the bike up, and headed off to catch the prick who just crashed me out as the brew crew who just witnessed it screamed "Go pass him!".. Uhh, no shit. 

Random overdressed guy leaning against a tree. It's possible

they may have been filming the next Tarantino movie.

I had lost a bunch of time and some turf was caught in my gears from the crash so my chain was skipping all over the place. It took the better part of a lap for the stuff to work it's way out and for me to get my shifting back again.. I spent a couple laps alone trying to work my way back up in the field. Twice I came past a point in the course where some guy would say "C'mon Alan! Go!" This made me go faster because I figured some guy named Alan was on my wheel. The second time around when he said it again I tried to speed up again to drop Alan and then I looked over my shoulder to see who this Alan jerk is that's been sucking my wheel for two laps and noticed I was alone. Apparently I was Alan.. Once again I came to that same hill that I crashed on earlier and as it turned out I was in a position to pass the same guy. I came up the hill right behind him and again he stalled out at the top. This time I had picked a different line to get around him, but he heard me coming (undoubtedly due to my asthmatic grunting) and swerved into me bringing me to a stop. I hopped off the bike, called him something that rhymes with pucking gashole and ran up over the top of the hill trying to catch him again. Shortly thereafter, I was coming into a fast section of the course where you go up and over a set of train tracks. I was hammering as hard as I could to catch racers ahead of me and I hit the tracks with a ton of speed which gave me some serious air. I came down hard with my hands on the brake hoods and the force dropped my handlebars by at least 2 inches. This sucked big time. Now I was way stretched out and leaning in a very awkward way over my bike which put my lower back in a ton of pain as I was chasing as hard as possible. 

Sand, much like mud, continues to kick my ass and cost me valuable time.

On the last lap I absolutely crushed myself catching and passing the guy who sent me into the stake. I also caught and passed a couple others and had two more right in front of me, but nothing left in the tank to sprint past them as I came across the finish line 46th for the day.. Considering the bad start, endo over the handlebars, bobbles on rideups and sandpits, plus the mechanical issues I guess it could have been worse, but I was very dissapointed nonetheless. 

On my way to my buddy Meiza's for the night in Springfield I popped in Exile on Main St by the Stones and the race became a distant memory. It occurred to me how much the music today pales in comparison to anything the Stones did in the early 70's. You might say, "wait a minute, that's just your musical taste.", but you'd be wrong. Liking blue better than green is a matter of taste. Don't confuse your inability to recognize genius with a perceived lack of taste on my part. Genius is genius, and what the Stones put out from 69-72, culminating with Exile on Main St., was absolute genius that nobody before or since has been able to touch. But I digress....

Best album ever! I refuse to argue this.

Day 2: What a gorgeous day. Another mishap free embrocation application and I was starting to feel like my luck was changing. Today would be the day I would nail my start. I had a good warmup on the course, which had changed quite a bit from Saturday and was going to be fast and, as always, fun. The steep ride-up from the day before was now a ride-down followed immediately by a jump over train tracks at about 25mph. There would be some serious air today. After my warmup I practiced about 50 starts. Just easy starts getting clipped in. I also tried a new position on the bike for the start. I was hitting it cleanly about 80% of the time. Today was going to be a killer start for me. I also had a very aggressive attitude after getting knocked around yesterday. If there was going to be any bumping, I was going to be ready for it. 

See me in the blue? Of course not, I'm 7 rows back!

The whistle sounded and I nailed my start. I passed at least 2 rows of racers and came into the first turn in the middle of the pack. Perfect! Couldn't have asked for a better start from the 7th row staging position I had. My marks of the day were going to be either of the Bikereg guys, Steve and Brant, or Dan Coady. All guys that always finish ahead of me by anywhere from about 45 seconds to 2:00 minutes.. And they were all in my sights. This was good. No, this was great! I was going to crush it today. I was riding beyond myself, my heart was exploding, my back and legs were screaming. I couldn't get nearly enough air into my lungs to support the effort. At one point I came down the steep hill, without slowing I hit the tracks and went soaring into the air, landed and flew into a wide sweeping 180.. Too fast. Both wheels went into a full slide as I tried to hold the bike upright completely expecting the tires to come rolling off the rim. But they held (thanks to my expert glue job) and I came out of the turn intact at full speed to the wild cheers of the massive crowd. I was at full gas bridging gaps from one group to the next, again and again until i was in a group with Coady. It seemed each of us took our turns attacking, repeatedly trying to shake one another. On the last lap I left it all on the course. Everybody was at their limit and I attacked, dropping the group I was in except for one rider. 

My final attack, dropping all but 1...

I was inside out and it was excruciating. I bridged up to a lone rider who had about 50 yards on us when I first attacked. The guy that I had brought with me was still on my wheel and he stayed on to the sprint finish where he slingshotted out of my draft in the last 50m to take 35th.. I ended the day in 36th place, a mere 39 seconds out of the points. A very solid and satisfying effort. My best result in a large and very strong Verge field. In similar races earlier in the year I've been in the 60's, 50's, more recently in the 40's, and now I've worked my way into the 30's. I finally feel like I'm competitive and I'm only going to get stronger. Just a few more weeks of this season, but the future is looking very bright for upcoming seasons now that I have my focus, am getting some much needed experience, and I'm gaining confidence every week.

Off to Plymouth....

Turning Up the Heat...

Last week at Orchard Park in Hampton Falls I ended up with a 4th place finish in a small field at a great local venue through an apple orchard.. The 4th place finish got me a call up onto a "deep" podium that included the top 5 finishers. I think they did this because the 5th place finisher was from Nor'east Cycling Club and they were the sponsor of the event. So they added two spots to the podium to recognize the Nor'east rider. Whatever, I took my spot on the hay wagon, raised my hands with the strong guys in the top 3, and walked away with the $30 in cash and two Hammer Energy gels for prizes. Two energy gels!! As Rick Flair would say, "Wooo!". 

I'm the short one...

The race was a very strong effort for me. After a very sucky start where I ended up behind the entire 35+ field as well as most of the 45+ and 55+ fields which started with us, I proceeded to pick people off one at a time and some in groups until I was all alone.. There were only three guys left ahead of me with too big a gap for me to even contemplate reeling any of them in..

Like a gazelle over the barriers

 Kurt Perham (my coach) who won by a very wide margin, followed by Mike Rowell and Aaron Millet.. All three of these guys are among the strongest Masters racers in New England. A couple quick notes from the day... One of the other racers in my field came up to me after the race to let me know that he was trying like hell to stay with me. In other words, he was marking me. 

I was also being marked by freaks, look closely in the background

This was interesting to me for two reasons. First, there's lots of better guys to be marking. Second, I thought I was the one that spends his time marking other people, now I was among the people being marked.. So I guess that's kind of cool.. The other interesting thing that happened to me was a mishap with the embrocation prior to the race. Embrocation is a muscle warming balm you rub on your legs prior to cross races.. A lot of guys do it, a lot don't. If you ask me, when you're out racing in short pants when the temps are in the 40's and below, anything you can do to keep the legs warm is a good idea. So I applied the embrocation earlier in the day prior to putting my kit on.. Then I thought to myself, "Shit, I should have put my kit on first because if any of this stuff ends up on my soft parts I'm screwed".. I carefully put my bike kit on, but apparently not carefully enough.. "Chestnuts roasting by an open fire" played in my head as I spent the next two hours writhing around with a case of fire ants having a field day in my crotch. It was awful. After 5 minutes I knew it was going to be trouble. As the heat grew and grew I kept saying to myself "well it can't get any worse than this...", as it continued to get worse and worse for about 30-45 minutes.. Luckily, by the time the race started the heat had been turned down to a simmer and was surprisingly cozy. All I can say is thankfully I was using Mad Alchemy's Medium Heat Embrocation and not the "Madness" that I will use when the temps are in the 20's.. Pretty sure if I make the same mistake with the "Madness" I may die (or wish I had)..

Off to Northampton for Week 5 of the Verge Series on Nov 7 and 8 where my only chance of getting on the podium is to jump up on it when nobody else is looking :) Gotta love the small local races, but to be fair, I am definitely improving and getting stronger pretty much every time out. It was nice to finally have a top 5 finish...

Best,

kevin