Westlake Worlds B Group - The Break

Forgive me father for I have sinned....while not as "bad" as donny....

After not getting much in workout wise other than 12oz curls for the last two weeks, I figured that I was going to be hurting or needed to hurt myself to snap out of the haze.

Arriving in the fuel efficient and carefully driven (read SLOW) car of Gary "the bulldog" (yes I'm kidding Gary, I know how important it is to conserve fuel) and Sadie many of the SBR clan were there.

B Group; Ian H, JimmyNick, JV, David K, Matt O, Michael "Cocaine Kitty" L, Jason R & I in a 25 person field. For reasons unknown, I took off on the second lap around the baseball diamond, got a gap & saw the team move up, so I figured "here starts the workout" and continued off the front for the first cash prime and kept right on going til the HR alarm was maxed out....which lasted exactly one full lap to the diamond. No pictures to prove it though & I thought that would be my moment in the sun. SBR kept firing riders off the front and when I saw Jason go with six laps left, get a gap and nobody go after him; I jumped hard from mid pack and caught up to him in a full sprint. Once I got up to him I said get on my wheel and let's see what we can do. My long rest break for him lasted like just 45 seconds and I begged him to come around and then we started to work together. Rick Bennett then joined along with a guy with a De Paul University kit. I'm thinking that if the SBR gang is blocking at all, the four of us have a great chance at making this break work. Well, there was a prime and when we came around the start finish the guy with the Du Paul kit goes tearing off the front to get the prime and then falls off the group after getting the prime....we're thinking wtf??? Crap 5 to go with just three of us. We are still working well together and after we see the 4 left to go card, I look back and see there are two separate groups of chasers behind us...Jason asks if we should sit up and have them help us and RB & I saw no way, let's go! With two to go...I'm hurting but we are out of sight now with the group so we can "relax" just a little. I'm thinking that Jason needs to get this win and I just want to get in without getting caught by the group. At the bell lap we keep going but at the bb diamond we can see a "group" behind us closing and RB thinks it could be the As and I reply that I don't care about placement let's just get in before whoever is behind us. We slowed down...yes the games started after the cop corner I by the time we were at the final turn I knew it was B group and we had to quit screwing around so I picked up the pace with RB behind me and Jason next to him. At the 150 mark RB says let's go and we all take off. It's close and out of the corner of my eye I see Jason in front and RB next to me...my calves are screaming and I let up a bit...RB gets me by a wheel and Jason gets the win.

It would have been nice to have done a better job at the finish, but I'll be damned if I was going to screw around much and then get caught by the group within 200 meters of the finish after working so hard. Huge thanks to the SBR gang for blocking and working together for a 1 & 3 win ($15 bucks to everyone on the SBR Bs) and for Jason working his butt off on getting the break started.

I'm pumped.

Thanks to Sadie & Eric for taking photos....I'll put them on my FLICKR soon. I think you can figure out the ones sadie took....lots of butt shots! :-)

The SBR As did a great job & consisted of Dr. John, Gary "The Bulldog" and Tom "Killer" K.

Ciao,
Rick

Purple Haze

Is what the week back from vacation felt like.

Seemed like everything was breaking, getting fixed & weird stuff happening....the power cable fell on the hood of my rental car while the Cooper was getting fixed, plus a lost day of work.

My Polar stops showing speed and distance, but does show power and cad? WTF? So I'm about ready to cut off the power sensor and have installed the basic speed and CAD sensors and Gary saysd I should wait til he gets there to snip off the wires. Well, he gets here doesn't really do anything to the damn thing and it starts working again! The picture below shows the duplicate system....just like a govt project.the good news is the Hot tub is working again...which was my excuse for the bad race season I am having.
:-)

Things started to get better...some of the gang got together for Mike's going away party....Tim F, Micheal "Cocaine Kitty" L, Matt O, Gary & Sadie were there along with Mike and his SO.
Michael didn't think this photo was right so asked for another, which is better?

And why does Gary always look like the devil.....?

I think total miles was around 75 or so....Westlake is not going to be nice.

No more whine, just work.

Vacation

Jeese, it's been awhile....so I'll try to get caught up with the blog world.
The week of 6/9-6/15 turned into a last minute vacation with my son. Anna, Aaron, Michelle, Cooke & I headed south, to Troy that is.
We went to the WPAFM in the Dayton area.....

Then to the Lake House to hang out on the house boat...that's Cooke, not me btw.......though I think I felt this good...



and Cooke decided to try swimming.....


Oh and even a short 18 mile ride that was enjoyable. A low mile week, but high fun.

Mill Creek Park Race

Recently I have been not feeling my mojo or game face and thus not really wanting to race. So it was only yesterday that I finally decided to do the Mill Creek Race.

Got overserved yesterday; I was kinda following David's pre-race advise except mine was ribs, chips with jalapeños and cheese and about 100 beers with friends.

Needless to say I wasn't feel'n the love this morning when Matt O, JV and (finally) Gary B showed up to drive there. After a slight Tom-Tom gps (GARY-GARY) mistake we showed up with 15 -20 minutes to spare. Got the stuff on, pin our numbers on and straight to the start/finish nine. We don't need no stink'n warm up! :-(

The race was tough....Gary & Peter S were doing great and I was moving around trying not to lose my lunch. I actually felt OK and despite my helmet having a malfunction, I did pretty well on the climb, but I was counting down after 8 times up, OK, 7 more, 6 more, 5 more freak'n times........JV and Matt battled on but fell off and Matt T finished. Gary got 3rd, Peter was 5th and I managed a 9th I think.
Thanks to Matt for the photo and can you see the helmet thingy sticking out on the left side of my helmet? Gary is on my left, getting ready to lay down the law on the climb.

We stayed around to watch (and take photos) of the rest of the team Tom "Killer", Chris "Gater"and "look at my race wheels" David S. of the 2-3s. Tom D & "Death" Ray formed a break and were able to stay away. Huge kutos to Chis B for making the break...he fell off later but a fantastic job just to get in on it. Even saw Brent E.

Speaking of Chris B....congrats on your soon to be move to Gainesville, FL. Team SBR will miss riding with you; you've been a great guy to represent us.

Gotta go pack for vacation this week....enjoy and I've uploaded more photos on my FLICKR site.

Caio,
Rick

Sunday through tonight

Rode a Sean interval workout Sunday night and almost blew chow twice....big fun and it was a telling display of me not being ready yet. 22 miles and hit a max HR. NICE.

Yesterday was a little romp in the Bedford Reservation....20 miles at EN zone with Anna & Gary. I actually had a lot of fun...gee what a concept.

Ran on the grass as much as I could in the rain today with Cooke; I'm not giving any data on this......whoooooo weeee. Cooke had lots of fun and I got out, so it's all good. I wonder how Westlake was......

It's supposed to be "rick" weather soon....80's and sunny!

Enjoy.

Life after the Death Ride

Well, I went to Kiel, WI to the main plant for the company that I work for. I left Tuesday and got back late Friday evening.

I did take the Ritchey Ti with me and was able to ride 24 miles one day and then a short 10 the next....it seemed cold even though it was around 60'F. And no I didn't bring the right biking clothes with me. gggrrrrrrr.

The weekend while some of the SBR guys were doing great at the race for alex....I stayed home and took a couple of long walks with my son, anna & cooke.

Actually, other than hearing about tanks and trains the whole time, it was a great weekend.
:-)

Rick