Handicapping the Prologue, Part Three

Out of the following five riders, maybe one should find his way into your own top five. These riders display talent at time trialling, but maybe have dimmer GC hopes or less overt power on a bike with aerobars. Still, many of them are solid picks.



Kim Kirchen: Kirchen is an odd rider, with surprising highs and lows. He's worn the yellow and green jerseys in the TdF, so he's got talent, but he also displays a penchant for getting hurt. He's good against the clock but not outlandishly good, as this article from Cyclingnews.com points out. He placed 2nd and 3rd in the time trials from last year (and would have done better, I believe, if a certain rider in blue and white hadn't appeared out of nowhere to crush the clock) and could pose a threat to the big time GC contenders from Part One. He's had a lot of adversity to fight this year, however.

Mancrush Factor: 5. He's one of those good, solid guys you never get crushes on. He's probably great at doing the dishes and taking out the garbage, though.

EuroScore: Kirchen is squeaky clean, a requisite for being Euro. His jeans drawer is probably out of this world. 3.

Team Scandal Score: Columbia—Highroad (although I think they're now "HTC", the new co-title sponsor. Maybe now they'll get rid of those awful Saunier-Duval knockoff kits). 10.

Form: Coming around, but dealing with a broken collarbone from the Giro. 10.

Course Suitability: For someone who is improving at the TT, climbing+technical can be difficult, although he did well in the straightforward (but up-and-down) long TT in last year's Tour. 4.

KK Total Score: a solid, if pedestrian, 32.



Thor Hushovd: The "God of Thunder" (could someone really have come up with a less inspired nickname for a dude named Thor?) has had a good spring, coming home to the Cervelo Test Team (best kits and bikes in the peloton, if you ask me). He won the Het Nieuwsblad this year (that race used to be called Het Volk) and a stage of the Tour of California. He's very good against the clock, can sprint, and sometime can get away in a breakaway. He's Norwegian, too. What more can you ask?

Mancrush Factor: As usual, I like riders that reflect my own tastes and abilities. Hushovd and I are basically the same size (he makes me feel better about myself when I see pictures of him on the bike and hear comments from the two riders drafting me like "He's like a double-wide!"), and we both like skinny bikes with extensions. He gets a 9.

EuroScore: He's Norwegian, blond, and spiky. Sorry, Thor. 4.

Team Scandal Score: I'm amazed the CTT is even a team, there's so little news coming out of their camp. They're not as squeaky as Garmin, perhaps, but I doubt there's much needling going on over at Cervelo. 10.

Form: He's done very little since winning Het Volk, so I've got to downplay his numbers a bit: 9.

Course Suitability: He does weigh 180 lbs, but he can also bend the cranks on his bicycle. 4.

TH Total Score: 36.




Christian Vande Velde: Despite the goofy, un-ironic Rock-n-Roll gestures deployed at left (or is Vande Velde mimicking Kevin Spacey as Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects, as Kint tries to make the devil horns in Agent Kujan's face while trying not to cry?), CVV has the tools to be a GC contender, which means that he needs to be mentioned here. He's recovering from some horrific injuries, but he got away from everybody during Stage 4 of Paris-Nice this year, and that shows that he's got some form in 2009. I think you'd be better suited to pick DZ as a #5 guy, but hey, you might like Vande Velde a lot, and he's one of few Americans to ever wear the pink jersey in Italy, courtesy of a brilliant TTT (note: not an ITT) in 2008.

Mancrush Factor: Meh. I've been reading the tennis news recently, and there's a touch of Andy Roddick to CVV: a few touches of brilliance and then a lot of, well, mediocrity. He does look good in pink. 4.

EuroScore: Vande Velde resides in Spain, which ups his ES a little bit, and his name sounds more Belgian than Midwestern (Illinois). In the above photo, however, he looks like he's auditioning for a spot on In Living Color's "Mo Money" sketch. 6.

Team Scandal Score: It'll be just my luck if it turns out Jonathan Vaughters (TD at Garmin-Slipstream) is spinning his riders' blood down every evening, since I'm talking so much about their dedication to cleanliness. 10.

Form: Gosh, who knows? 8.

Course Suitability: He can climb, and deals with technical stuff well. Knows how to mete out efforts. Might not be strong enough for this particular TT. 4.

CVV Total Score: 32



David Millar:How did I let Millar fall so far to this spot? He's presently running at 25-1 in the betting out there, which makes him four times as likely to beat CVV, who resides at 100-1 odds (that makes sense to me). Also, check out that kit! Is that pimping or what? He's totally putting whomever he's riding with to shame (that guy seems to have a selection of insoles sticking out of the left seam of his jersey, anyway). Millar is a strong rider and a moral exemplar, having returned from the darkness of doping (I hope). I believe him because he's got the zeal of the convert, although you could say you don't believe him because he protests a bit too much, youthinks. Who cares, with a disc wheel upon which the queen would be proud to roll around?

Mancrush Factor: Accent, and the ability to push 400 watts for close to an hour. Swoon. 9.

EuroScore: Hmmm, British, like BW, but pretty Euro in appearance and affect. I gotta split the diff on this one: 5.

Team Scandal Score: Garmin, Garmin, blah blah blah...10

Form: He cracked the top ten in the Tour of California's prologue, but that was a real prologue, and this is a TT, one of his specialities. He's not done much else of note recently, though...10.

Course Suitability: 5. He's got the power to make that first climb, sustain it through the middle section, and the savvy to get through the technical sections towards the end. 5.

DM Total Score: A very impressive 39, albeit inflated by his TSS. I still don't see him beating Lance.



Andreas Kloden: Kloden currently resides at 33-1 in the odds, but I kinda wish I didn't have to include him here. I used to love Kloedi (as he's referred to in Hell on Wheels, when Erik Zabel says, hilariously, "Kloedi's got cotton in his nose!" to a hideously beat-up AK. But then the whole thing with T-Mobile broke a few years ago, and the riders I used to admire (Kloden, Rolf Aldag) suddenly lost a bit of their lusters. There have been some rumors about Kloden that he just can't seem to shake, too, which doesn't help my suspicions. Still, he is quite fast on a TT bike, and deserves a quick look.

Mancrush Factor: I just don't trust the guy any more. 3.

EuroScore: German. Likes white sunglasses. Has a girl's name. 1.

Team Scandal Score: Astana, once again, is danger for me. 4.

Form: unquestionable, at this point. Many wins and top five finishes at this point in the year. No huge races, but he's been going quite well. 14.

Course Suitability: AK can climb, descend, and break his pedal spindles easily. 5.

AK Total Score: 27, brought low by some bad early figures.

Last five tomorrow! Thanks for reading.

Handicapping the Prologue, Part Two

O.K., here's where things get a bit more interesting. The next five guys on the depth chart can win the prologue, but might not seem readily apparent, what with yesterday's five brilliant TT specialists. Who would have picked Stephan Shumacher last year (probably his team doctor at Gerolsteiner)?






Jens Voight: Jens is my favorite rider in the pro peloton, and I'm not saying anything revolutionary by pointing that out—thousands of people love Jens, and his performances on the road and in the documentary Overcoming continue to endear him to new fans. He is strong, aggressive, self-sacrificing, friendly, and manages to beat the odds more often than not. He lingers around the top of every TdF TT, and this course might suit him well. He probably won't win tomorrow, but he'll certainly find a slot in my top five.

Mancrush Factor: Obvious, isn't it? 10.

EuroScore: This is a tough one. Jens is pretty Euro, but he still doesn't quite fit my parameters. He's more Belgian than Euro, with his hardman reputation. Who can forget his "Don't mess with my food!" line in Overcoming? 6.

Team Scandal Score: Nothing doin' over at SaxoBank, unless you count Bjarne Riis as a perennial scandal. 9.

Form: Hard to say on this one. Jens has been pretty quiet this spring, but he's getting a bit long in the tooth, and he did win his fifth Criterium International in a row. He's also a steady helper, and I'm pretty sure he's in good shape. I also don't think he'd spoil Cancellara's day unless Fabian was having another bout of agita. 11.

Course Suitability: Is there a course that doesn't suit Jens Voigt? 5.

JV Total Score: 42.





Bert Grabsch: this photo should strike fear into the hearts of all those who are picking FC (including yours truly). How much power can Bert Grabsch put out? He's got that great, compact position and a trunk like, well, a trunk. He's the current world champion at the TT discipline, and could be a good pick to best the sapling-esque Alberto Contador or hunky Fabian Cancellara.

Mancrush Factor: 5. I don't know much about the guy, really, and he has a hard time winning races beyond the TT.

EuroScore: 5. He's German.

Team Scandal Score: Columbia-Highroad has been justifying its name all year, in wins and in staying out of the doping pages. 10.

Form: Grabsch did win a race recently outside of the TT (in the Giro, maybe?), and may be maturing beyond his single-minded abilities. 13.

Course Suitability: With a body like that, going up has to be a little bit of a detriment. 4.

BG Total Score: 37.





Bradley Wiggins: Gee, how did Wiggins fall this far in my estimation? He knows how to TT, and certainly could be an outside choice for that 3rd step on the podium on Saturday. Everyone knows how much the Brits love the time trial (the country is crazy about the track, which, like the time trial, is an odd form of cycling, probably analogous to drag racing:NASCAR), and they've got a lot of hope pinned to this guy, along with the admirable David Millar.

Mancrush Factor: I know I've been trying to keep it to one photo per rider, but I just couldn't resist on this one. Is Bradley also a member of some British Invasion band like SoftCell or the Culture Club? This possibility boosts his Mancrush score, if only ironically: 7.

EuroScore: Although British, a member of that freely floating, associated with no bloody continent clan, one look into those soulful eyes lets you know that BW would love to be...Dutch? 4.

Team Scandal Score: He rides for Garmin-Slipstream, the members of which sit around in their off-hours knitting argyle socks for each other: 10.

Form: Oooh, tough one. Haven't heard much out of BW all spring. He certainly gets up for opening day time trials, however, and prologues. He won the opening of the Dauphine in 2007 and came in second on the final day TT of this year's Giro. That's gotta help, especially seeing that the races were comparable distances. 12.

Course Suitability: I think BW would like things just a touch flatter. 4.

BW total score: 37. Even footing with Grabsch.





Denis Menchov: I've always had a soft spot for Menchov, and it was great to see him win something other than the Vuelta this year. Sure, people say he's boring, but he actually wins stuff, other than a previously mentioned boring rider. I'd say he knows himself as a rider, and although he's not as explosive (or doped to the gills) as Danilo DiLuca, he knows how to win. I think that the Tour de France is out of his reach, but he's certainly got to be mentioned in the time trials and rolling stages. On the other hand, he's already had to win a grand tour this year, and that's got to take something out of a rider.

Mancrush Factor: He's Russian, I like him! 8.

EuroScore: Russians, like Brits, freak out when you call them European. Just mention the term "EurAsia" around a Moscovite and see what happens, even if they do all speak French. 9.

Team Scandal Score: Ooh, RaboBank...the team of Rasmussen and recently disgraced Thomas Dekker? Eeeesh. 3.

Form: He won the Giro. He might be tired. 13.

Course Suitability: See the Cinque Terre TT? 5.

DM Total Score: 38. On par with LA.



David Zabriske: What's not to like, here? Creepy mustache (I think that's gone at this point, actually), former beard-wearer that made him look like Ewen MacGregor trying desperately to look like Alec Guinness. One time wearer of the yellow jersey in a year when LA competed? Holder of the fastest time trial...ever? Not a bad long bet, I think. He's currently residing at 25-1 (same as Menchov and teammate David Millar) and could be a solid 3rd-5th place bet. Dark horse winner.

Mancrush Factor: I've always loved Zabriske. I think CSC was a better place for him, but he's certainly committed to Garmin—Slipstream, which is admirable. Former roommate of Floyd Landis, though, which weirds me out a bit. 7.

Team Scandal Score: See Bradley Wiggins, above. 10.

EuroScore: The only thing that might make Zabriske European would be if Viking-style beards and Detroit-style facial hair counted as European. He is pretty skinny. 9.

Form: 81st place in final day TT of the Giro? 1'40" in arrears? 9.

Course Suitability: Recall the opening day, 21K TT in Brittany in 2005. There was a little climbing (over a bridge) on that one. 5.

DZ Total Score: 40, but that number feels a bit inflated, mostly by his EuroScore and placement on Garmin—Slipstream. Still, he's beaten Lance before...

Handicapping the Prologue, Part One

OK, triathletes, you're gonna have to be patient for the next, oh, month, as I go TdF crazy, checking Cyclingnews.com every five seconds for race updates. I'm tossing my own proverbial hat in the bucket, inspired by J. Dukes' amazing handicapping aunt, who comes up with subjective criteria for the 20 horses in each year's Kentucky Derby. There's hard data in those criteria, to be sure, but there's a lot of other stuff, too, like whether Dukes' aunt likes the horse trainer personally. So, in her honor, I'm going to run through the twenty or so riders who will place highly in the Tour's prologue on Saturday. My top five go today, followed by five a day until Friday, at which point those attending a super-secret Tour Prologue party will have to make their picks for the big day. At stake at the party will be a case of Oregon Beer to the man or woman who scores best in the following manner:

Each player picks his or her top five riders, who accrue points in the same manner as a cross-country race: you get points equal to your position across the line (i.e. points are bad, like in hearts). The player with the fewer points wins, with the following bonuses:

Pick the winner -1 points
Pick the perfecta (1st and 2nd place are correct) -3
Pick the trifecta (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place are correct) -9

For example, if you picked, say, Fabian Cancellara, Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Bert Grabsch, and Cadel Evans, and those riders came in, respectively, at 1st, 2nd, 7th, 4th, and 11th, you would receive 1+2+7+4+11-1-3=21 points. Get it? Cool. If you'd like to play "online," drop me your picks in a comment and I'll send you a case of virtual beer in a later post. Alright? Alright. Without further ado, the first five riders:




Fabian Cancellara: Cancellara is currently top dog in the odds, going at 4:7 on several sketchy European betting companies like Unibet.com. Here's his C.V. from the incredibly unscientific criteria of Chris (note that these are mostly scored from 1-10, with exceptions provided for data that just won't fit that kind of limiting parameter).

1: ManCrush Factor—9. You'd think that a guy my size with a similar penchant for weird facial hair and the ability to absolutely drop trousers on the TT bike would take home top honors in the mancrush category. Sadly, Fabian, that honor is going to go to a teammate of yours to be featured a little farther down. Still, Chris can't help his heart from fluttering a little bit at the sight of those treetrunk legs and high-schooler mustache.

2: Team Scandal Score (note for this score, you still want a higher number, since all of these points are going to be added for one number that will indicate how the rider will possibly fare during the opening prologue. But a low scandal number indicates the presence of controversy. Skewing the numbers and predictions even further, however, is the fact that a high TSS will probably indicate the presence of doping, which will directly relate to the rider's daily performance—I guess that this score envisions a perfect world): 9. Things have been really quiet over at Team Saxo Bank, even though the team has three legitimate tour contenders (2008 Champion Carlos Sastre, and Brothers in Yellow Andy and Frank "I looked like a rat when crossing the line at Alpe D'uez in 2006" Schleck. Fabian will have few distractions when it comes time to roll up to the starting gate.

3: EuroScore (like everything in Europe, I just ran these two words together and then capitalized one of the letters. This score tells you how much this particular rider is shaving and embrocating, spiking his hair for the podium, and maintaining arms that an 8-year old girl would be proud of—I have no idea how this score will affect riders' ability on the road on Saturday, but as I run through my list of contenders, I realize that guys who are good at the Time Trial don't really rack up high EuroScores. So, again, just like above, the lower a number, the more Euro he is): 8—Fabian sure has a Euro name, but he weighs 81 kg, which won't even let him fit through the door in most Italian Espresso Bars.

4: Form (OK, this one actually means something, so I'm gonna score it out of 15 points—it relates to how good a rider is presently going): 13. Cancellara had a quiet spring (anybody remember his 2008 spring campaign?), but then recently destroyed everybody on the final day of the Tour de Suisse. Sure, he was on home territory. Sure, give this guy a chance on a final day TT and he's probably gonna be up for up. Still, I think that we'll see an on-form FC on Saturday take another TdF stage win and yellow jersey.

5: Course Suitability (a kinda minor concern, but some of these guys are better at pancake flat and some like the rollers, so we'll only go out of 5 points, here): 4. FC likes the flat flat stuff, and this course has a climb and some technical cornering that might suit a riders like, say, Lance Armstrong or David Zabriske. So I'm bagging on FC a little bit here, but I still see him bringing home the proveribial Swiss Chocolate.

FC Total Score: a very respectable 43 out of 50. Chris's top pick.


























Lance Armstrong: Lance didn't do so good in the Giro, but, c'mon, he was recovering from a broken collarbone and several weeks of light training. Word in the peloton (see Ivan Basso's comments in Cyclingnews recently) is that he's going better than ever. Toss in the fact that he's only lost an opening day time trial once (2005, to the excellent David Zabriske), and it makes sense that his odds, at the moment, are 8:1, second only to the abovementioned Fabian Cancellara. I'm predicting that Lance won't win this TT, either, but will gone on to have great success later.

Mancrush Factor: 6. Lance is not crushy. However. He has won seven TdFs and he is harder than any one in the peloton. He's never failed a drug test and has as much polish as Peter Fonda. Still, I wouldn't buy him a drink.

Team Scandal Score: 4. Who's the leader on this team? Contador? Lance? Leipheimer? Popyvych? Even Brunyeel doesn't know who to tap, although I'm pretty sure where his allegiances lie. Lance's TSS is pretty bad, but he's also brilliant at avoiding distractions. Maybe this one doesn't hurt him too much.

EuroScore: 9. He's from Texas. He's raced in Europe for almost two decades, but he knows how to wear a baseball cap.

Form: It's Lance in July, and he's got three weeks of hard cycling under his legs from the Giro. Easy call. 15. No, he's 37. 14.

Course Suitability: Lance loves time trials that go up and down slightly. This course could only suit him better if it were 45K longer. 5.

Lance Armstrong Total Score: 38. His team is bringing him below FC's 43.























Alberto Contador: I personally don't like Contador very much. He backed into the tour win in 2007 after bizarro Michael Rasmussen disappeared to Mongolia. He then, did, rattle off wins in the Vuelta and Giro in short order. He can really ride. He knows how to time trial. Still, he's on the same team as one Lance Armstrong, and I don't think Lance's competitive, um, juices will let Contador one-up him. He might not have the power to destroy a relatively short (but relatively long prologue) time trial.

Mancrush Factor: 5. It only ends up this high because he says his favorite climbing gear (and this is in the Alps, remember) is something like 39x16, which is insane. He climbs like Ricardo Ricco off drugs, which is impressive. Still, he's pouty, which, as anyone knows, is not alluring in a man.

Team Scandal Score: 4. See Lance's entry, above. Except Contador might be even at more of a disadvantage, as he may feel the odd member out at Astana's tea party. Remember, Leipheimer has worked for Lance before...

EuroScore Factor: 4. See those arms?

Form: Here's my one concession. He just came in third in the Dauphine Libere and won the Spanish TT National Championship. Boyfriend can flat out ride, and I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be close to perfect. 15.

Course Suitability: Again, he might like it longer, but this is a good course for the Spaniard, with some climbing and technical corners. 5.

AC Total Score: 33.




















Cadel Evans: Gosh, I wish I liked Cadel more, what with his button nose and cute cleft chin. Still, I'm not a huge fan of riders who never attack. He's a former World Mountain Bike Champion, for god's sake, couldn't he get away somewhere on a descent and then use that climbing ability to get some time, somewhere? All of us who hoped to see Evans challenge Sastre last year on the slopes of Alpe D'uez just got to see the Schelcks destroy Cadel's chances, and he seemed to take that shellacking as if he were accepting a marmite biscuit.

Mancrush Factor: 3. Goes downhill like a bomb, but cozies up to second or third place like no professional cyclist I've ever seen.

Team Scandal Factor: Gosh, is Silence-Lotto even a team any more? No one hears anything about them. 8.

EuroScore: 9. One area Cadel does well in. He wouldn't know what to do with a bottle of Perrier if he found it in his bottle cage.

Form: Here's an interesting one. He's been going quite well, recently, and has had several under the radar results this spring, particularly in the time trial. Let's say he's in at least as good shape as Fabian: 13.

Course Suitability: He's a GC Contender. Up (and particularly, technical down, which this parcours has) is his bread and butter. Marmite and toast. 5.

CE Total Score: 38, putting him on even footing with Lance.


































Levi Leipheimer: I was going to try to just use cycling photos, but this image (the first, if you type Levi's name in Google Image Search—interesting) was just too good to miss. It encapsulates a lot of how I feel about Levi: a nice guy, good with animals, but so clueless as not to know which animals to like. What else do you say about a guy that can dominate a mediocre stage race in California, but then can't seem to ride with the others across the pond?

Mancrush Factor: 3. Look at that dog!

EuroScore: Levi, like Cadel, would use a croissant as a boomerang. 9.

Team Scandal Score: 4, courtesy of the Astana mess. Levi is a bit exempt from this liability, seeing as he is definitely not the team captain. Still, I can imagine him bursting into tears whenever Lance and Alberto get into a spat over who gets to go through the line at the baguette store first.

Form: He was pretty so-so during the Giro, and then skipped the Dauphine to go ride in a pro-am in...Nevada? 11.

Course Suitability: Levi crushes up and down time-trials, like the one in Solvang in California. 5.

LL total score: Oddly, Levi scores evenly with Contador at 33.

OK, that's it. This took longer than I planned. The next five tomorrow!

Observe your VDOT

While most cursory web searches for the term 'VDOT' returns pages for the Vermont and Virginia Departments of Transportation (side note—Vermont does better in terms of environmental impact: they have fewer paved roads, but Virginia takes the prize in terms of road maintenance: on many long rides around Charlottesville in the past two years, I have been amazed at the quality of third tier country roads), you'll find an athletic training gem slipped in among the bueracratic sites: RunBayou's VDOT calculator. VDOT is Jack Daniels' (the running coach, not the distiller) modified VO2 max term, and it can be used to predict your training performance. Better yet, it can give you the times at which you should run your intervals. Run below your VDOT and you don't improve; run above your VDOT and you risk injury. It sounds simple and, happily, it is simple.

For example, I ran a 1:20 half-marathon earlier this year in Portland (not great, but I went out fast, Ryan Hall style, with the front runners, and blew up a little bit). Using Jack Daniel's VDOT tables, I found a value of 58, which feels a bit low for my cycling VO2 max but is probably in the ballpark for my running. Daniels' tables, though, don't offer the level of specificity some of us desire. Enter Runbayou.com, which lets you enter a race performance (note that this figure is an actual performance, not a goal) and then breaks down your interval numbers in fine detail. Entering my 1:20 1/2 marathon time, I get the following results:

VDOT=58 (good, consistency)
Easy Pace (25% of my weekly training): 7:34/mile
Marathon Pace (about 35-40% of my weekly training): 6:25/mile
Threshold Pace (about 12% of my weekly training): 6:00—6:04/mile, depending on whether I'm doing shorter intervals (400s, 800s) or longer intervals (1200s, 1600s).
Interval Pace (about 8% of my weekly training): 1:23 400s; 3:28 1000s; 4:10 1200s.
Repetition Pace (about 5% of my weekly training): :37 200s; 1:17 400s.

The page nicely warns you about running above your VDOT, saying that you'll hurt yourself. The proof is always in the soup, however, and on Tuesday I ran 12x200, aiming for that 37' mark. Too bad I ran with a runner above my abilities, and most of our intervals came in around 35'. Yesterday my quads hurt; today they are full of the mythical cobra poison that endurance athletes learn to love and hate. I went for a recovery trot this morning and could barely manage to keep one leg moving in front of the other. The lesson?

Observe your VDOT.

Living the Life

Now that it's been almost six months since I last posted to this blog, I think it's about time to get started again. During the year the pressures of training plus teaching overwhelmed any ability to publish on the blog regularly, and now that the summer months have arrived I think I'll be able to return to these pages more often.

Presently I'm in Colorado Springs, dealing with a little altitude sickness (are you supposed to feel that you're drowning at the third flip turn of a 100?), and living with my fiancee, Amy VanTassel, who has been killing it recently on the road running circuit (8th in her age group at the ridiculous Spring Runoff 10K at the Teva Mountain Games and then 1st in her age group and 5th overall at the Colorado Springs Sailin' Shoes 10K).

I'm adjusting to life of just being a professional athlete, which the title of this blog ostensibly states. It's a funny transition, since I'm used to filling up the hours of the day with work and training. Now there's just training, and it can be a little overwhelming. I haven't been good about getting to the pool in the morning, since it's easy to say "Oh, I'll get there later." Still, getting into the water early (before breakfast!) makes the rest of the day Oh So Much Better.

Racing has been hot and cold up to this point. I've only raced twice, at Wildflower and then two weeks ago at Boise 70.3. Wildflower was a bummer, with a bad swim and two flat tires. Boise was much better, although I still swam poorly (28:30! Yikes). I came out of the water 4 minutes behind the front group and got back to T2...4 minutes behind the front group. My cycling, it appears, is on par with the Craig Alexanders and Ben Hoffmans of the triathlon world. I ran well, too, for me, posting a 1:22, which, at this point in the year is quite good. Final time 4:05 and change, 10th place. I missed the money by two spots, but I feel that I raced well.

Here's the schedule for the rest of the season:

Boulder Peak Tri
Boulder 5430 Long Course
Canada IM
Scott Tinley Challenge
Austin 70.3
Clearwater 70.3 Worlds

I already punched my ticket to Worlds at Boise, courtesy of my training partner Chris Boudreaux, who has been a huge help in getting my head around this whole professional thing. Chris has had a tough season thus far, but he'll figure it out—he's mentally tougher than most, and knows how to compete when he has to.

That's it for now! More updates to come. A huge shoutout to Athlete's Lounge in Portland, OR, who are presently helping me out with race related expenses and equipment.

Triples and Schedules

It's been a long time since I've worked out three times a day, preseason in college, perhaps, when I didn't know that the pounding headaches resulted from dehydration and caffeine withdrawal. Better about watering myself (and never far from my next cup of coffee), I don't face those headaches anymore, but the mind-numbing, "I'll just lie here with my legs up in the air" exhaustion still results. Over the past two weeks, on the gift of an entire week of snow days last week (Portland, OR, knows just about nothing on the topic of snow removal; they're so liberal they don't use salt or sand, probably because they know someone would be offended), I've gotten in three-a-days on the majority of days. This is what a pro's life is like: wake, swim, eat, rest, bike, eat, nap, run, eat, sleep. Life always finds a way to intrude, just a bit, but that's pretty much what you've signed up for, I'm discovering. Making this choice to really dedicate myself to the sport (and not worrying and equivocating about it; I've decided that I love the sport, and that's enough to fuel my dedication; as J.L. Parker points out, if you get stuck in the metaphysical wonderings, someone out there is gonna eat you for breakfast) has resulted in a clearer set of training priorities: you've got to get it done on a daily basis, no question about it.

Making the leap from 15 hours a week to 20 is surprisingly hard. To get to that magic number, at least 3.5 hours a day have to spent swimming, running, or biking. Yep, a marathon's worth of time a day, six days in a row until the sweet relief of your active recovery day (an hour of swimming).

So here's the race schedule for the coming year. You'll see some running races in the early spring, which I think is crucial for developing your triathlon running speed. There'll be some bike races in there, for sure (I live in Oregon, now, where you can race six days a week), but those will appear on a weekly basis. So, here it is:

January
Masters SCY Meet, I'll be swimming the 500 and 1000 Free

February
Masters Animal Meet, 500F and 1000F
Hagg Lake 25K Trail Run (mud!)

March
Leprechaun 1/2 Marathon

April
California 70.3
Bridge to Brews 10K

May
World's Toughest Half (May 31st)

June
Boise 70.3 (or Eagleman, if I just can't stay away)

July
?????

August
Boulder 5430 Long Course
Timberman 70.3

(or, depending on schedules, Calgary 70.3 and Lake Stevens 70.3)

September
Rest and get ready for 'Cross and fall tris

October
Austin 70.3

November
Clearwater 70.3

December
'Cross Nationals in BEND, OREGON!!!

Fewer races; better results.

Discomfort

There are few moments in endurance racing when you feel real pain. Sure, there are blisters, shin splints, plantar fasciitis, but these are injuries; they don't result from the endurance effort. Your quads may "burn" after an interval session and your back might hurt during a long pulling session, but there isn't real "pain." Deep, deep discomfort, maybe, but not pain. A close friend who is a runner passed this thought along to me last summer, and I discovered its origin while finally reading the running classic Once A Runner, by John L. Parker, Jr. OAR is one of those genre books that falls prey to many of the faults of genre fiction (overwrought language being its most egregious fault), but it rises above its sins by aptly defining many of the intangibles which we conversely love and hate our sports.

Right now I'm dealing with a couple of things. 'Cross season ended for me last weekend, although I can't really say that it ever began. I started four races this season, and finished two. The picture above is from the Saturday race of Portland's USGP of Cyclocross. I raced the B division, not feeling up to tangling with Ryan Trebon, Tim Johnson, and Jeremy Powers. Since I registered early I started near the front, and after two laps found myself in the lead group of five. The course kinked and turned all over the place, wriggling around a motocross course at Portland International Raceway before diving in and out of the infield's trees. The leaders pushed the pace and I felt...profound discomfort. Soon, as the last lap approached, the lead group began to come apart, just the way a pack will split when swimming or running, as the racers with higher anaerobic thresholds will be able to maintain higher rates of speed for longer (they're not in the "red zone," so to speak; once you start to work in that anaerobic realm, you've got about five minutes before the postman comes calling). I caught the guy in third, noticed his discomfort outstripped mine, and passed him. I came across the line alone, third.

Outwardly, I'd told friends that I just wanted to finish this race, that 'Cross season was just about having fun this year. Inwardly, I thought what I think before every race, no matter the odds: win. Still, I'd stayed realistic, and coming in 3rd put me in my best mood of the week. These were Category 2 'Cross racers—no slouches, and there were over one hundred of them. 3rd? It seemed beyond believable.

Of course, Cyclocross is capricious mistress, and the next day paid me back in full. After getting a spot on the front line, I completed two laps before I took a turn too sharply and pinch flatted. About one yard beyond the exit of the pit, I had about a mile+ run ahead of me if I wanted to get a spare wheel. Natch. Done.

That's when you feel pain, even though it is figurative pain. Frustration is closer to the truth, but that doesn't do the frantic not possible, not possible warning bells that echo through you as you walk your bike off the race course. Mechanicals leave your mind blank, take away something that, seconds before, had been real. Before the flat I was in the lead pack, a few seconds behind my podium-mates from the day before. Now I was...headed home, the reason for my day gone in whiff of air.

And then you face the next reality: 'Cross is over, it's time to get ready for next year's triathlon season. I took about 8 days off after Clearwater, but now I'm back to pretty much full time, trying to get 15-20K of swimming, 200 miles of biking, and 50-60 miles of running a week. I've found a renewed pleasure in the training, though. There's a section in OAR which talks about why Quenton Cassidy, the narrator, runs. He runs because it's his raison d'etre, his reason for being. That may sound reductive or single-minded beyond belief and, well, it is. But once you get beyond the philosophies and the feel-gooders and the "mystic" runners (Parker's words), the only thing left is the sport itself. I interview kids for part of my job out here in New Belgium, and I always ask the sporty kids why they pursue their particular sports, just to see how they do with this impossible question. Almost all of them say "I don't know...because I like it?" Unlike adults, who temporize, quibble and worry, kids are (when talking about their sports or activities) happily free of artifice. Most of you know that I worry about the self-centered nature of this sport, that there are so many other things I could be doing to make good in this world. For the time being, though, seeing that I can't imagine life without racing bikes and triathlons, I'm making my peace with the sport. The only thing left at that point, of course, is to find the discomfort and get used to it: it will be there the next time you put the hammer down and, you know, that's exactly what you're looking for.