Category Archives: Logs

Hey everyone,

The Texas Bicycle Racing Association (TXBRA) road season actually ended two months ago in October, but I spent most of my free time studying for exam MLC. I think I spent about 300-400 hours in total, so as you can see the exam represents a more challenging hurdle than your typical college-level test. I took the exam about a month ago in early November and I won’t receive my results until the 6th of January. Overall, I think I did well on the exam – I paced myself correctly and I only struggled with a handful of questions. Then again, you never know how these tests turn out until you get your result, so in the meantime I’ve been focusing on work, study, and cycling to ease the anxiety of waiting.

Anyway, I don’t have to worry about taking another test until May so I’ve decided to update this blog every weekend starting now. I have two and a half months until my first race, so you won’t be getting any more race reports until March – but I’ve decided to devote my time each week to work on a project of my choosing – for example, next week I’ll post about a LaTeX project that I spent the last two weeks setting up. I imagine that most of the updates will focus on Mathematics, Computers, or Statistics, or maybe just whatever happens to excite me at the time. Today’s entry covers the events from the last important road race of the season – the Fort Hood State Championships – along with some minor and major events that occurred between then and now.

I don’t have much to say about Fort Hood – the nasty climb at the beginning of the race, over which I struggled last year, surprisingly didn’t pose much of a problem on the first ascent. Unfortunately, as a category 4 racer this year I would have to ascend the climb twice. After the first climb I still felt fresh, but a series of nasty attacks, accelerations, and a brutal crosswind on top of that left me gasping for breath after an hour of hard racing. I spent the next 10 minutes alone until Doug Baysinger and Tom Warnement caught up with me, and together we closed out the first lap. Doug ended up having a pinched nerve in his neck and had to pull out, and Noe Espinosa, another Shama racer, vanished from the pack after the first climb and had to abandon as well. This left Bill Krause as the only team member in the pack and he finished a respectable 26th. I finished way down, in 78th place. Said Assali, a Shama category 5 racer, finished 8th in his race. Bill Fiser, a category 3 racer, ended his season as the State Champion – and has now upgraded to category 2.

Overall, in terms of results, I had a mediocre season. Last year, I had four top-10 finishes whereas this year I only had one. On the other hand, I view this season as a better one developmentally – as I had bigger improvements in strength and racing knowledge. Sometime after Fort Hood, I upgraded my bike with two important training tools – a heart rate monitor and a Quarq power meter, coupled with a Garmin Edge 500 – which allow me to monitor my data with greater breadth, depth, and precision.

Quarq Power Meter with Rotor Crank

To help me with my training, Ken Day recommended that I read Training and Racing with a Power Meter by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan. I also plan to read Friel’s The Cyclist’s Training Bible, which serves as an essential reference to any competitive cyclist.

Profile from Last Thursday

Other than Fort Hood and exam MLC, not much has happened since then, although one event does stick out as something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. After my exam, I hadn’t trained for about a month and lost a lot of my fitness, and since then I’ve gradually built it back up by returning to the early morning group rides. On one particular Friday morning I decided to go out with the group even though I normally don’t ride on Fridays, because these rides tend to be easier than the Tuesday rides. For the first hour everything went smoothly until we hit Eldridge Parkway at Memorial. I remember talking to Trent about a Mac Book Air that he wanted to buy and as we set off after the light we continued for a few hundred yards until we found another Shama rider lying on the ground on the other side of the street. At first I thought we had a typical crash within the group but it seemed strange as there weren’t any typical “crash noises” (tires streaking, yelling, bikes hitting the ground, etc.) that I would have heard ahead of time. When we stopped to assist the rider, it was clear that the accident had occured on the other side of the street, away from the group. On closer inspection we realized the rider was Philip Shama, and after seeing a Mustang with a broken windshield stopped a few meters ahead we knew that Philip was in serious trouble. John Neese called 911 and the others tried to keep Philip still although he kept trying to move around in a state of semi-consciousness, muttering incoherently and wiggling his fingers. The ambulance and fire truck arrived in minutes and got Philip to the hospital.

Early Morning Ride, 30 minutes before we found Philip.

Apparently, the driver, who was moving in the opposite direction to the group, saw all of our lights and became distracted. Philip, who sometimes rides opposite to the group to catch us midway during the ride, rode in front of the driver. The driver failed to see Philip and rear-ended him, shattering the rear triangle of his bike. Philip went over the trunk and broke the windshield of the car, and hit his head. He ended up with a broken leg, arm, and collarbone, and had a severe concussion with some brain bleeding. We were all in a state of shock as we rode back and we didn’t get to hear about his condition until noon. I was very uneasy until then, and after a day or two we realized that he was okay.

It’s times like this that stress the importance of bike safety, especially when riding in the dark. Had it not been for his helmet, Philip would have died that day. Just last week a very promising Texas racer Megan Baab was killed during a training ride. The sport is not without its risks, but we have to take the necessary precautions to be safe if we want to do the things we enjoy. I’m just glad that Philip’s alright. The cycling community wouldn’t be the same without him.

Sometimes I have difficulty expressing my gratitude to people but I assure you that I’m very thankful to have met all the Shama racers and people in the Houston cycling community this year, as you’ve done so much for me, as sometimes I find it hard to make friends with people or find people who like to do the same things I like to do, but you’ve all made the processes easier for me.

I’m very excited for next year. We’ve got some strong guys like Said Assali and Phil Trinder moving up to Category 4 next year and I’ll be happy to help them out. Over all, the last year has been very enjoyable, and I’m looking forward to having a great season in 2012.

Hey everyone,

Due to time constraints and the fact that both of these races finished similarly, I decided to write a single post for both of them. After racing Gonzales, I felt strong and very confident – the week afterward, during my usual weekend ride with SCCC, I rode aggressively (probably to the ire of my packmates) and I realized that I could drop the group for long stretches at a time. However, by the time I came back to the 5:30 A.M. MPPPL ride I noticed that I had accumulated fatigue over the long, four-month buildup that I had initiated in March and started fading and getting dropped again, even after putting in serious efforts during my training. I felt that perhaps I had to rest, so I spent 2 weeks doing relatively little training and started to build up again after I came back from California. Unfortunately, that derailed plans for a serious aggressive effort at Chappell Hill, though I did make some good progress on my late-season training cycle. I told Philip that I planned on racing Chappell Hill so he let me borrow some deep-profile clinchers for the weekend:

My Cronus Ultimate, equipped with HED Jet 6 clinchers

The deep rims help with the wind, but the type of rim – clinchers, tend to be heavy for racing so I felt concerned that they might hinder me on the rolling terrain at Cotton Patch. I tried out the wheels the day before the race and they felt fantastic – I was able to ride away from my usual group and I easily held a 25mph pace over them over the course of 8 miles or so into a headwind until I slowed down and waited for them to catch up. I got a good amount of sleep before the day of the race since my field started at 11:00 – but that meant that I would have to ride in the scorching 100+ degree heat at midday. When I arrived at the course, one of my Cat 5 teammates, Said Assali told me that he imploded in his race and advised me to conserve as much energy as possible and to not do too much work, if any at all. I agreed with his opinion, since that tactic helped me finish well on last year’s course.

After the start we quickly picked up the pace as the fist leg of the race went downhill, easily reaching speeds of 42 mph+. However, I thought we would slow down as the race settled down but unfortunately that didn’t happen – the race was very fast from the get go and the peloton showed no mercy – I had no chance for any breathers, or points in time at which I could relax, eat, drink, or think of a strategy for my teammates. Attacks frequently flew off the front and each time the group chased them down so they couldn’t get away. After 1.5 hours of hard racing the group put in another acceleration right before the feed zone and I got dropped. I checked my average speed which was 24 mph (I averaged 21.2 mph at last year’s race) on rolling terrain – the fastest I had ever put in over that interval of time over that type of terrain – faster than I had at Gonzales. I decided to finish the race to put in more training, but unfortunately I veered off course and got lost and spent about 30 minutes trying to find my way back and I ended up last out of the finishers. I did find out that 23 of the riders quit the race which made me feel slightly better about sticking it out. I think overall, the aerodynamic profile of the rims compensated for their weight. Bill Krause finished well for Shama – getting 11th.

I continued to train on my usual schedule and I felt pretty good for Cotton Patch coming up the week after in Greenville. I drove there after work and I only managed about 5 hours of sleep since I had to start at 8:10 AM the next day.

Staging for the women's race – photo taken by Team PACC

I talked to Bill at the beginning and he forgot to bring his kit to the race so he had to borrow some clothing from someone else. Anyway, the pace felt pretty easy at the beginning of the race – we had a strong tailwind and we could push 27-30 mph without too much effort. However, when the course moved into the wind attacks started to pick up and the pace was tough just like it was at Chappell Hill. I kept telling myself to stick it out for at least 2 hours but my legs gave in after 1 hour and it was no good. My last point of contact with the pack happened to be at an intersection when the lead motorcycle turned the wrong way and took all but 6-8 riders with it. I was with those 6-8 men and they decided to launch a fierce attack to take advantage of the mishap. I wasn’t able to stay with their acceleration and by the time the pack caught up with me they were all pissed that someone had the nerve to attack like that. However – when you’re racing you have to take advantage of every opportunity you get – though winning in this situation would not be the prettiest way to win a race. By this point the peloton had broken up in pieces and I got 2 guys to work with me to start sweeping up lone riders along the way. After about 10 minutes we saw some bodies sprawled out on the road and realized that there had been a crash in the chaos. As we continued the race, we picked up riders one by one and formed a group of about 10, taking turns doing work into the heavy headwind and crosswind. We eventually caught the Cat 5 group and passed them up. I felt good because this was a sign that I was making progress – last year I struggled in a lot of the Cat 5 races but this time, I was able to easily pass a field of 50 men racing against each other while I was in a smaller paceline of just 8 men (two other racers dropped off by that point). However, the paceline I was in were putting in a brutal effort – with about 14 miles to go, my legs gave up and I dropped back but finished the race, 33rd/45th, which was better than Chappell Hill. Afterward I learned the riders that I had dropped decided to pace themselves back by drafting off the Cat 5 racers – which is illegal and can result in disqualification. I was somewhat angry but since none of us were in contention anyway I let it slide. I checked the average speed before I got dropped which was about 23.7 mph – close to that of Chappell Hill – and much faster than I was riding last year. I’m getting stronger but perhaps the long term endurance isn’t there yet. Bill finished well in 15th place and I’ll probably end up helping him at Fort Hood next weekend – the last race of the season!

Hi everyone,

I haven’t written a race report in a long time and there are some races that will have to be skipped (Chappell Hill, Fort Hood, Walburg, Pace Bend, Fredericksburg, Acadiana) due to time constraints. For a quick summary, I’ll just say that I had some good results at the end of last season (Chappell Hill, Fort Hood – see race results), and some bad results (Walburg, Pace Bend, Fredericksburg, Acadiana) after I decided to upgrade to a higher rank in amateur cycling. This is known as ‘catting up’ through the 5 categories in USA Cycling. Male riders (women have 4 categories) start at “Category 5” and move up through the ranks, to Category 4, 3, 2, and 1, from which professional teams recruit talented riders. Once a male rider reaches category 3 he is considered “pretty good” by his peers, whereas the top two categories contain the elite riders and the bottom 2 categories contain the inexperienced riders. Anyway, in order to move from Cat 5 to Cat 4 a rider needs 10 mass starts in road races or criteriums, to move to higher categories after that a rider needs to place high in finishes in order to earn a requisite number of points. I had 10 starts by the time I left college but I was advised not to move up until I became better. After my results at the end of the season I decided that I was ready to move up, so I submitted my application and was approved for the Men’s 4 races for the 2011 season.

Most competitive cyclists consider category 4 to be not much tougher than category 5, and looking back I find this opinion to be mostly true, but at the beginning of the season I struggled and felt like I would never become good enough to compete at the next level – I had the flu in February and I was dropped after 5 minutes at my season opener at Walburg, and subsequently dropped at the very beginning of the next 4 races. I can attribute some of my lack of performance due to looking for employment during that time period, but some of it was also due to pure laziness. However, at the beginning of March, I was able to secure employment and regain focus – I started riding with the Shama Cycles team every Tuesday at 5:30 AM and eventually reached around 8-10 hours of training per week. At first I dropped at the end of each ride but I eventually became strong enough to keep up, or at least catch up to the group after a hard pull or sprint. Philip Shama, owner of the shop and team worked with me to get the correct fit on the bike and recommended some equipment changes including a lower stem, shorter crank arms, and narrower handlebars. I felt strong enough at the beginning of June to try racing again at Fredericksburg but I still dropped early, although I was able to hang on for about an hour at the Sunday race. This was the first indication that I first started improving so I began to do intervals like I did last year – except with a staggered pattern – 8 x 4 minutes, 4 x 8 minutes, 2 x 16 minutes, and 1 x 32 minutes – 4 sessions of 2 hours each over 2 weeks, take the next week easy, and then start the pattern again the week after. I got about halfway through this schedule when my next set of races came up at Louisiana. I noticed a significant improvement in my time trial speed – about 23 mph, which was far faster than any time trial I had ever done (fastest was 18.9 mph). My friend Ken Day averaged 28 mph over the course, so that pretty much blows my time away – although I know I’m moving in the right direction.

A typical 5:30 AM Tuesday Ride. Photo taken by Philip Shama

During dinner Ken and Jon Sanchez gave me advice on my training – one of the things Ken mentioned was that at the end of each hard workout I should feel tired in a way that I don’t want to ride my bike anymore. However, most of the time I feel like I can ride quite a bit more so as time passes I’ll gradually increase my interval time to cover up most of the 2 hour training blocks – probably up until I have enough stamina to do 2 x 32 minute intervals or 3 x 20 minutes. Also worth noting was including maximum efforts and recovery – both of which I haven’t really been paying attention to. For recovery I’ve been making an effort to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep, since in March I was getting about 6 each day. Both of them advised me to also be aggressive while racing. Even though I may get a better result by sitting in the pack and conserving energy, I’ll be gaining better fitness if I attack and be aggressive off the front – even if that means dropping later on. It’s better to learn these things now than to wait until moving to Category 3 to try them and make mistakes. So on the next day’s road race, I tried staying near the front and taking pulls to bring back a breakaway – after about 2 hours I was pretty much spent so I used my last ounce of energy pulling my teammate Doug Baysinger back to the front after Jim Perrin, the eventual winner, attacked the bunch. I dropped off the back after that last pull but hopefully that effort let Doug, whom I knew was stronger, save some energy. If I had stayed near the back I’m pretty sure I would have been able to get a pack finish but I did learn a lot about what goes on in the front – and like Ken said, it definitely is smoother up there.

Alright – so here’s the main race report. After completing a schedule of intervals I felt strong going in to today’s race, Come and Take It at Gonzales Texas. I woke up at 4AM and went out to McDonald’s but found out it was closed, so I ate some caffeinated energy blocks to keep me awake until I reached another McDonald’s about an hour west on I-10, where I loaded up on 2 cups of coffee, a hash brown, and a sausage McMuffin. After I reached the course, I warmed up for about 20 minutes and met up with Doug, but I found out he was racing in the 35+ category so we wouldn’t be racing together. However, when I made my way to the starting line I found another Shama Cycles member, Bill Krause. Before the start, I saw that there were some heavy hitters – James Perrin of Bike Barn – who won Acadiana, and Tak Makino and Jaxson Appel of Texas Pro Health. I had ridden with these three riders each Saturday over the last year and I knew they would be strong. However, I only had one main objective for the race and that was to stay with the bunch until the finish since I hadn’t done that since I moved up to Cat 4. I felt pretty good about the course because it didn’t include most of the things that I’m bad at – such as strong winds, technical turns, or long climbs, but that also meant that the pace would be high when chasing down breakaways so I would have to pay attention to any unexpected surges that might happen. At the start, the pace was tough – around 27mph – 31mph as some people tried moving off the front but Jim, Tak, and Jaxson kept the race under control and no one got very far. About midway through the course Bill attacked off the front so I sat back and let the others do the chasing. Unfortunately he was caught shortly after but managed to stay with the pack. I moved up to the front right before they caught him and I was contemplating a counterattack, but I figured that I needed to focus on my objective so I pulled for a couple of minutes and moved back after a turn.

Tak Makino of Texas Pro Health rounds a corner during the crit on the previous day. Photo credit goes to Propaganda Bike Shop.

For the last 11 miles, attacks were coming quite frequently and every time the bunch chased them down. The hills were also getting steeper so this was when my legs began to hurt and run out of energy. Bill asked me how I was doing and I told him I was okay, but I was worried that I would get dropped. However, it was mostly the rough road vibration that was making me uncomfortable, and in terms of stamina I felt like I had a good amount left. At about 4 miles to go there was a steep hill and I knew this was where the final selection would be made, so I told myself that I was going to give it my all to stay with the pack on this hill – fortunately it was a lot easier than it looked and I felt fine after we went up it, and at this point I knew I had met my objective and that I wouldn’t drop toward the end. About 2 miles to the finish I started planning an attack, and about half a mile later Jim went on an attack – I yelled at the bunch to keep in contact with him as he was dangerous – and we did, and after that more people tried moving off the front and that’s when I decided to attack – however another rider was blocking my position and I kept screaming at him to either move up or move out of the way but he didn’t budge – I don’t know if he did that on purpose or if he was too tired to move. Anyway, I was angry but it was my fault for not being in the front earlier – so I moved all the way around to the other side and moved up front for the bunch sprint. I kicked in at about 200 meters to go but it was a little too early – I passed Jim, but Tak and Jaxson and the eventual winner passed me up and when I reached the line I counted 8 bodies in front of me, so I thought I got 9th or 10th place, but it’s hard to tell when everyone is so close and you’re not sure who passed whom and when. However, as I was packing my things Bill Fiser told me that I had gotten 7th and my first points towards my Cat 3 upgrade! I was pretty happy with the result but I think I had enough energy to take the win had I positioned myself better earlier. The course speed averaged 23.7 mph, so the speed has been steadily creeping up as the year moves on.

The peloton charges up the final hill, riders jockeying for position. Photo by Rouse Bicycles.

Right now everyone is telling me that I must have it easy on the climbs but I actually find that to be a weakness and I get dropped easily on long climbs – it’s hard to discover your strengths at an early stage but I think I’m developing into more of a puncheur – one who is not a pure sprinter with top speed but can accelerate quickly and go on short breakaways- since I’ve done last minute breakaways before and can finish high in the bunch sprint if I don’t get dropped, but I’m not sure yet because I’m still learning. There is something glamorous about being able to hold off a charging bunch after an attack so I’m hoping that’s what I’ll become, although it may very well be that I’m genetically a climber. Anyway I think right now it’s more important to focus on my weaknesses because if I don’t do that I won’t be able to get myself into a position to use my strengths. So, I’ll hold off on max efforts for now and focus on stamina and resisting the wind through my interval schedule, and work on my cornering at Memorial Park. My goals for the next race, Chappell Hill, are to be aggressive and ride at the front – although from my experience it will be hard for a breakaway to succeed, depending on the weather. However, I don’t think I need the validation of being able to stay with the bunch so it will be better for me to attack and risk my placing than to not be aggressive at all. Hats off to Bill Krause for his breakaway effort and Tak and Jaxson for their strong finishes, and thanks to Phil Shama and the rest of the Shama crew for helping me with everything!

The final bunch sprint – Charles Holsen takes the win. Photo by Rouse Bicycles.

UPDATE: Some news since I last posted – I’d like to congratulate Bill Fiser for finishing 5th in the Road Race and earning enough points for his Cat. 2 upgrade!