Week 12: Nogales Bicycle Classic

Racing bicycles is a lot harder than normal people think.  One thing that makes bike racing different than other endurance sports is that in bike racing much of what happens is in reaction to other riders.  You cannot control or predict when you're going to have to do a maximum effort, or for how long.  Plus, you have no idea when you'll have to do a maximum effort again.  Put enough of those maximum efforts together in close enough succession and people break.  The strange thing is, often people break because of the unknown factor, not because they're unable.

Shane, Greg, Rich and myself at the start of the NBC.

That's why it is important to be the person dishing out those attacks, instead of responding to them.  If you can dictate how the race unfolds then it's so much easier emotionally and mentally.  You pick how hard to go, when and for how long.  You decide how to rest and when to go again.

This past week was the Nogales Bicycle Classic, my hometown "race."  It's not a sanction raced, it's classified as a Gran Fondo by the USAC.  But, in my opinion, a race is when you have two or more people riding together.

For NBC (Nogales Bicycle Classic) I had three teammates with me.  Since it was my hometown race and my anniversary, they picked me as the guy to work for.  It was my job to win, their job to set it up for me.  We had a few contingency plans for the race, but as the race unfolded, I ended up in a break away about 3 miles into the race.  Around mile 5 or 6 another rider caught me and we worked together until I started to hammer on him.  I dictated those attacks, the duration, location and frequency.  And I'm glad I did, it really sucks responding to those things!

Our plan was to break up the race on the first hill, about 3 miles in.  Shane, Rich and Greg set a furious pace up the hill and I was sitting in.  It was hard just following their wheels.  But, when I saw my friend Jacobo on the side of the road taking a video on his phone, I had to belt out, "ROCK AND ROLL!" as loud as I could.  Here's a video of that:

Steeper than it looks and I was actually hurting pretty good...but I had to belt out a little rock and roll! #aggressrides #fearthebeard #nogalesbicycleclassic

A post shared by Philip Brown (@gruveb) on Mar 25, 2017 at 5:24pm PDT

So I got away on the downhill part and my teammates blocked.  One guy got up the road and caught me.  We had a long way to go!

The thing is, I actually feel bad about how it all unfolded.  Because I had two teammates riding behind me, trying to bridge up, I didn't need to really work with Alfonso, the guy who caught me.  But if I could stay away and break him, then I win.  If we don't stay away, then we have a 3 on 1 situation and we break him.  Either way, I'm in a good spot and he's in a bad spot.

So, when we "worked together" I made sure I went a mile or two per hour slower than he was pulling.  I also made sure he pulled on the uphill portions and I did so on the downhill.  Then, when he could see me, I hung my head and looked tired.  When I was behind him I coughed and spit and coughed and coughed and coughed and coughed.  I wanted him to think I was dying.  And that deception, is what makes me feel bad.  I don't like to deceive people for personal gain, even though it's perfectly acceptable in this application.

When the time came to go, I went.  I attacked and attacked and attacked.  Eventually, Alfonso, who is recovering from knee surgery, had enough and called Mercy.  He told me to go ahead, "You win," he said.

Alfonso came in 2nd and my teammate Shane came in 3rd to round out the podium.  It was a good day on the bike!

Originally I had planned on racing the 112 mile version of the NBC, but because Tour of the Gila is about a month away I need to really dial in my training these next few weeks.  I can't totally trash myself on a brutal route and distance like that because I would miss several days of training to recovery.

Here's the gopro footage of the race:


These next few weeks I need to really dial in my diet and training, especially my sleep.  I'm not going to step on a scale until after Tour of the Gila.  At this point I need to be as strong as I can be.  That doesn't give me license to pig out, but the weight doesn't really matter at this point, nothing I can do about it now without losing power.

I appreciate your time reading and I hope it's been informative and or entertaining.

Until next time!

Oh, and here are the last two videos from last week's TBC.

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.