Week 11: Tucson Bicycle Classic

There's something that normal people (should read, don't race bikes) don't understand about bike racing.  Their misconception is exposed in the common question, "How long is your race?"

The Tucson Bicycle Classic begins with a short time trial, or prologue, just over 3 miles long.  However, that 3 miles is the most painful racing I've ever experienced, both times I've done it!  It's all about intensity.

99 degrees, time to go!

This past week I participated in the TBC (Tucson Bicycle Classic), Men's Category 4 race.  We had a huge field, 58 riders!  Most of the riders were teenagers, split up between four teams.  I was in for some punishment.  Unlike a lot of masters teams, these kids are well coached, in similar levels of fitness and willing to sacrifice themselves for their team.

Stage 1 is the short time trial, about 8 minutes of hell!  It's a tricky course, some hazards in the road, but the roads twists its way through the Sahuaro West National Monument, which is beautiful.  There's a positive elevation gain, and the second half of the race is uphill and that's where a good time is made or lost!

I used the advice from a veteran racer and the information I got from Best Bike Split (bestbikesplit.com) to come up with a plan for stage 1.  Basically, punch it at the start (totally different than a 40K TT), and then ride sub-threshold on the flats, just working to maintain the high speed, conserving momentum on the small undulations in the road over the first half of the race.  The idea is to have only burned one match, at the start, to punch that speed up high.  The rest are needed for the last half.

I maintained my speed well, didn't work too hard to do it, and when I hit the hills I had a lot in the tank.  Over the next 5 minutes though, that tank was drained!  Once the hills hit I made sure to spin smooth and quick, keeping the power numbers up high without loading my legs up with lactic acid and what-not.  At the two steepest parts I stood up to get my momentum going and spun at a high cadence and high power as each hill was crested.  I ended up getting up to 37 mph on the short stretch between the two climbs!

So, I feel that nailed the TT, finishing in 8:11 according to Strava, but 8:20 according to the officials.  Most people reported extra time added to their results, so I think that's fair enough.  My average power on the time trial was 379 watts, I'm very happy with how it went, especially since it was well into the 90 degree range, with crazy hot sunshine!


The time was good enough to put me in second place and was a good time on the day regardless of category.



Day two was the road race, three lumpy laps about 20 miles each around the mines in Green Valley, Arizona.  My grouped started last on the day and it was HOT, again!  The racing was hard, just like I wanted it to be, and I wasn't having to do the work.  Late in the race a small group of riders got off of the front and I let them go.  The thing I didn't know was that the 3rd placed rider had flatted.  He wanted to win overall, and would've been chasing this down!

After the TBC Circuit Race I was TOAST!

So I sat and watched them go, just worrying about being the guy in 1st and the guy in 3rd to try and hold my 2nd place, maybe even move up to first.  The belief I had, at the time, was that if I tried to bridge to the breakaway, I'd just end up towing the group up, which would cost me some matches and lessen my chances of beating my closest competitors.

In the end, the break had about 15 seconds, plus a time bonus and one of those in the break jumped from 4th to 2nd, moving me down to third.

To make it worse, my friend and training partner, Tim, had crashed out bad in the Cat 3 race ... concussion and broken pelvis!

Day 3 was the circuit race.  I felt okay when I woke in the morning.  I spoke with some teammates before the race and we devised a plan that involved the help of some other riders.  After the 3rd lap I was to break away with a small group and some other riders would help block, instead of chase.  But, once the race started I felt horrible.  I was dying to just hold on for the first 4.5 of 6 laps.  Once we got to the end of the race I felt fine, finished 10th with the lead group, believing I'd held onto my 3rd spot.  But, the race officials said there was a 2 second gap between the 4th and 5th rider.  Whether they're right or not, it's my own fault for not being up there.

The racing these past two weeks was very hard, hot and exhausting.  But, I had so much fun.  It's great meeting new friends, connecting with old friends, and hanging out with like-minded people.

At work someone asked me about my results.  I said I was happy with them, it's all icing.  He said, "Yup, remember where you were a year ago at this time?"

I wasn't riding at all, was barely able to walk.  So yeah, it's all icing!

Now this week is all about recovery...I need to absorb the training stress of 6 days of racing in a 10 day window, all in unseasonably hot temperatures.  This coming week is the Nogales Bicycle Classic, my hometown race.  I'm doing the 51 mile version with my new teammate Greg and maybe my brother-in-law, Gene.  It will be my only difficult workout of the week!

Anyhow, thanks for reading.  Here are some great pics from this past weekend's races.  Special thanks to Damion Alexander for his work with the cycling community and his amazing pictures!

Week 10: Heat, Racing and more Heat!

https://youtu.be/udmcKl0Wp7o

At any moment you must be willing to sacrifice who you are for what you are going to become.

That's a strong message and if considered forces one to face the uncomfortable sacrifices required to make meaningful change.  Sometime during 2015, I started struggling with depression, unhealthy habits and was in a dark place.  I had become the person I gave up being some number of years before  And I'd tell myself...

Come on, Philip, you're better than this!

Racing is a tone-setter.  Racing a bike, for me, is a chance to do my very best at something.  There's an inherent value to giving your best effort, holding nothing back, with total commitment.  It's a pervasive state of being.  People that dismiss their roles in bad outcomes fail to be accountable for much of anything.  People that push themselves do so in increasingly many ways.  

I'm not that 300 pound person any more, and fear is a powerful motivator to steer me clear of

New Max Power

regression.  So when I say I gained 5 pounds in the past two weeks, and there's no guilt or shame, I know it's okay.  I'm leaner over the same time period and stronger, too.  In fact, this past week I had several PRs UP steep, difficult segments, a new all-time high max power output on the bike and a new 5 second best power output.  I feel strong on the bike.  The weight will take care of itself.

The weight can be frustrating, especially when Tour of the Gila is such a hilly race.  But, as long as my power is increasing and I'm not getting fatter, I guess it's okay.  After the season I'll focus on losing weight again.

Along with the weight comes an unhappy knee.  Last weekend, after my Saturday group ride, I went out with two teammates, Tim and Rich, and we hit some hills.  Rich took us up the road called Snyder Road...nicknamed, The Wall.  The hill has LOTS and LOTS of 20% - plus inclines, the average for the whole thing is 15%.  My average cadence was just 51 RPM, and at the end I spun up real quick to pass Rich.  My knees are very unhappy with me for the effort.

But, good news is that I've been spending consistent time on the TT bike, in the aero position, and getting more comfortable.

This past weekend was the Southern Arizona Omnium.  A stage race is scored by time on each stage and to compete in the stage race you must race in all of the stages. An omnium assigns points to each race and people that aren't competing in the omnium can still jump in any of the particular races.

Day one was an AWESOME criterium at Musselman Honda Circuit Track.  The course was fast but the turns were still a bit technical.  The race was at night, under the lights and I was absolutely pumped to jump in and race.  Here's a video of the S-turn:

I put myself in a few spots of trouble late, one by hitting a small grate I hadn't seen on the inside of one turn, and then being on the outside of someone I knew didn't take the last corner well (he apologized profusely later, he didn't know ... I did, my fault for being there), and ended up 7th.  Still, we had a big field and the only group that was faster on average were the Men 1/2 category.  Our final lap average speed was 29.4 mph!

Some horse bathing next to the warm up area for the TT.

The last time I raced, just a few weeks ago, I had hypothermia!  This weekend was the opposite.  It was HOT.  Even the nighttime race was hot.  The tarmac radiated heat like crazy and I downed a full 24 oz water bottle in a 30 minute crit!  I usually don't even take water on crits.

Day two was a 20K time trial.  Usually these start at the crack of dawn, but because the final races weren't over until 11 PM, we didn't start the TT until 11 AM.  My time was 11:41.  Regardless, there was a huge turn out for this early season TT.  It makes me think that the schedule needs to be changed.  Most of the TTs in Arizona come after the state championship.

Time trials are what I used to be best at.  So I'm a little frustrated that I am having so much trouble with them!  I decided that one of my problems was hubris.  I don't want to accept the fact that I'm making so little power on the TT bike, so I've gone out too hard and blown up.  The plan for the day was to NOT do that.  The details were to go out at 330 watts for the first 2 miles, then 340 until the turn around at 10k.  At the turn around, drink some water, take a breath, then 350 watts until 5k remain, bump it to 360 for 2 miles and then jump drop the hammer to finish the race.

Loosening up for the TT.

A post shared by Philip Brown (@gruveb) on Mar 11, 2017 at 9:55am PST

So I ended up riding a fantastic negative-split 12K time trial.  Of course, the race was 20K and I suffered mightly over the last 20K.  After the race, talking with my buddy Kyle, he stated the obvious (as he, too, is disappointed with how his TTs are going), which is that we've not been doing those long efforts required to do well on a TT.

Even with the poor execution, I ended up at 28:22 unofficially, but the race officials added 30 seconds to my time, I think because my 30 second man didn't show up.  There was all sorts of scoring errors and right now the officials are manually going through to recheck and calculate the times.  Even if I'm wrong, and they're right, I won by 2 minutes over my omnium competitors.  This was a mixed bag because it only gave me a handful of extra points over the competitors but definitely caught everybody's attention.  I was a marked man on the road race.

We had 49 riders in our race!

Going into Sunday's road race I was a little nervous.  Saturday afternoon I suffered some pretty bad cramps and wasn't feeling too hot, from the heat, you know.  (See what I did there, eh???)  But my plan was to make the race hard, and try to get away in lap 3 (of 5).  The road race was 5 laps around Pistol Hill, in Vail, Arizona.

I was in 2nd place, or maybe 3rd, the results weren't posted and I calculated on my own, and I wanted to win the omnium.  So, I was going for broke.  I didn't want to ride to hold onto 2nd place, but the real issue was that if I won the road race and the guy in first, Caden, came in second, he'd still win the omnium, by just 2 points.  Caden proved too smart and strong and no matter how I tried, I was given ZERO leash.  No matter what I did, someone was willing to bury themselves to bring me in.  A few other attacks were successful and two breakaways actually stuck until the last part of the last lap, which is unusual for Cat4 racing.  But, it was clear, I was going no where.

Salt leached through the bib number!

In the end, I popped, finishing 12th on the day as I cramped coming up the hill.  I felt horrible, totally spent, but also happy that I at least had a chance to play my cards.  This omnium, after all, is training. Had the race been scored on time, I'd have ridden easy all day and not gotten the training benefit.

In the end, I came out 3rd in the omnium and made some new friends and had a great time doing it.  That's bike racing for you.

Next weekend is the Tucson Bicycle Classic.  I'm racing Cat4 again, and again, it's a very large field.  This is a big event for me, one where I want to show well!  I'm far from where I want to be, both in general cycling ability and weight.  But, this year is all about learning and developing and suffering and smiling while doing it all!  So long as I keep those priorities, the results are positive.

So I'll leave you with some pictures from the week.  Thanks for reading and following along.

Brought Chuggies to the Crit... he was a bad dog though.

At least I wasn't in trouble!

Tim and I warming up before the crit!

A pic I took on a training ride this week.

A pic from the road race Sunday.

I was trying to punish people in the back of the pack coming out of this corner!

The No-Podium Podium

Oracle Road Race: Race Report and Week 4 Recap

It's been an interesting week. Monday morning, while getting dressed, standing still mind you, no gyrations, walking down stairs or summersaults...nope, standing still, pulling on a sweater, I tore an intercostal muscle beneath my left arm pit. Those are the muscles that keep your ribs together ... when you injure them, it's quite painful.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I tried, without success, getting myself dressed without my stupid rib yelling at me. Friday morning I was successful! I felt proud of myself, this was an accomplishment. When I arrived at work, though, I realized I had forgotten to zip up my pants. DOH! (Luckily I had a long jacket on that I believed spared any innocence from permanent ocular damage.)

Today was the Oracle Road Race, a course that suits me well. I believed, hoped, that those guys that could match me in the criterium could not hang with me on the climbs. This scale told me I was 206 pounds this morning, yikes, but I can still climb pretty well, provided it's not too long or steep or too punchy.

Course Profile, about 54 miles, 4,000 feet of climbing.

I had a couple of teammates with me in the race, Gene, Rich S. For the omnium I was in 2nd place, behind by 7 points. So, if I won the road race, no matter what happened, I won the omnium, too. Winning came with some merchandise, and I like stuff.

The course was 2 laps, down the hill a back up. The day was windy and started pretty cold, even a small patch of ice on the road!

Down the hill was without event but our group was pretty large. Going down hill that fast with gusty cross winds in cold weather in a cat 4/5 and collegiate b/c kids is unsettling! But, we made it.

First shot up the hill was punchy. This is my first attempt at matching anything in a road race in almost 3 years and I was in trouble near the top. I decided to ease off and catch back on down the hill.

As soon as I did, I saw the cattle guard, marking the top. There's still climbing after that but it's more my style. I could see them but couldn't catch back on. They started attacking each other and were soon out of sight.

I wasn't sure, but I thought there were 2 guys in that group that were in my race. I sat up and waited for a big strong dude that got dropped before me and we worked together through town, picked up a college kid on the way down.

Here's a video of the big dude, (Scott Thompson), and I working our way through town. There were nice crowds watching the race yesterday.



I kept thinking how pissed I'd be for sitting up there if it cost me the race. But, even on the long downhill where you could see a long way ahead we couldn't see that lead group. We just weren't closing in. The headwind made it tough and they were obviously working together.

So, about half way down I stopped taking normal pulls and just went full gas for 2 minutes. Then, I saw the group ... way ahead still. I redoubled my efforts and worked hard for another 2 minutes and at the bottom of the hill we were just 25 yards behind. We caught them easily then.



I joined the pace line, there were about 10 total, including the two I brought down the hill. As I examined the two masters riders in the group I saw they were NOT in my race. All I needed to do to win was sit in and not crash.

That's what I did. Back up the hill, the two older guys worked over all of the kids. I just rode tempo up the hill and dropped everybody but the one kid I brought down the hill. Turned out he had a chance to win his race so I worked for him, well tried too. On the downhill section coming into town he lost my wheel ... I was going 53 in a 25, not sure what happened there. Anyhow, he won his race too.



So I won a cool pocket sized blue tooth speaker so I can jam tunes without ear buds when training, some Skratch labs recovery mix, some socks and a few boxes of Girl Scout Cookies! BOOM!

Some race and training notes:

1. I tried straight maple syrup as fuel during the race. I used it and water for the first half and then caffeine and a sugary electrolyte drink for the second half. My gut didn't complain and my energy felt good throughout.
2. Every time I race on hills I get at least one person that says, almost the same words regardless of the person, "Don't take this the wrong way, but you're a big dude ... how do you climb like that?"
3. I need more road racing experience. Unlike crits, I know what to do, but my body isn't used to it. Responding to the punchy stuff on the climb was very hard for me, even though I was well within what I could do. The second time up the hill, just doing tempo, was faster, yet way easier, than the first trip up the hill.
4. I could barely walk after the race. I have neurological issues with the muscles in my feet still, from my back injury. Hamstrings get cranky, too, but they were fine yesterday. If I suffer like that after every race, it's still worth it. :D
5. My normalized power for the whole race was 309 watts. I'm very happy with where my power is and was concerned after last week's time trial. But, a week of rest goes a long way.

This coming week I will be increasing my volume of training and doing some FTP testing. I'm curious if I'll have any growth in that 20 minute range. I know I'm way stronger in short term power, so regardless of the results, I feel I'm headed the right direction. Still, I have a long way to go, which is what motivates me.

Thank you again for reading, I hope it's been entertaining and perhaps informative.

PS: I will create a video of GoPro footage to go along with the race, but it'll take a few days.

Historic University of Arizona Criterium: Race Report

It was a bit nipply, as Clark Griswold would say!  Twenty one degrees at my house when I left for the race this morning, and in the low 30's at race time.  Still, the sun was out, the course was pretty interesting, and, well, it's race day!

I always want to win, and am working on developing some instincts for racing criteriums that may help me win, but that's just it ... right now I'm trying different things.  Today my #1 goal was, do not crash.  In the first race on the day there were 7 separate crashes on the one tricky corner.  In my race, just one.  As the day went on and the road warmed up, the paint on that corner got less slippery, so that helped.

The second goal was to try some different break aways using features of the course and see if one sticks.  I felt good and believe that if I could've gotten away I had a good chance of staying away.

Thank you John Hays for the great pics!

 Spoiler, I didn't get away.  In fact, nobody did.  There were just a few guys shutting everything down.

The course:  0.8 miles long and starts slightly down hill headed east with a very fast pair of turns (numbers 1 and 2) that send you slightly back up the hill then a bend to the right and a very pinched and technical 150 degree turn.  This is where everybody crashed when it was cold.

The venue was very cool, on the UofA's campus.  The streets were pretty nice, grass everywhere, and palm trees.  There were a lot of spectators, making it a lot of fun.

When the race started I just wanted to stay in the front 1/3 of the pack, stay safe, do zero work.  My garmin ended up getting wonky on me, but from the data I collected, I did a good job not working at all when I didn't need to.

I am also happy to report that on the fast pair of turns on the east end of the race, I was faster than the other riders.  I guess because I could carry my momentum through the turn.  That same inertia hurt me more than it helped on the tricky, dog-legged turn.  I popped off over 1,100 watts twice, and over 1,000 repeatedly in the short 11 minutes interrupted data I collected.  All in that one corner, all just coming back to speed, not attacking.

It became very quickly apparent that whoever went into the last turn (the tricky one) first, would be the first to the finish line, provided they didn't slide out in the turn itself.  For one of the prime laps I was 3rd wheel in the corner and had no chance.  Each prime and the race itself was won by whoever was first in that corner.

If I had a time out during the race, or was smarter, I'd have changed my plan from a late break away to just getting on the front on the back half and pulling the whole field to that turn and gunning it out of the corner!  DOH!

During the race several guys tried to get away and none did.  I tried three separate times, and never got very far at all.  On the last lap I just tried to stay in front of the people in that were in the omnium competition.  I ended up coming in 4th in my category and 7th over all, and I did let one of the omnium competitors slip away, I didn't see him.  So, after day 1, I'm sitting in second place.

Here's the footage from my GoPro from today's race.  It was a lot of fun.  It was also nice seeing Rich Horn out there cheering me on!  What a teammate!

Tomorrow's race has a lot of climbing, twice ascending a long category 2 climb.  Who knows what surprises the day will hold!  I'm built for crits, not hills...but I ride hills not flats, so I'm comfortable when we go up and down.  I might surprise a few folks tomorrow.  Then again, I might get spit out the back right away.  We shall see!