Black Socks

Past weekend was Memorial Day weekend, a three day weekend where people enjoy the first days of summer grilling, drinking and relaxing... while normal people enjoy their Memorial day with such activities, cyclists prefer to race; for three days, a circuit race, a time trial and a road race with a mountain-top finish.

Day by day highlights of the Killington Stage Race,

Stage #1: Lack of energy was the highlight of the day, driving all night and arriving the hotel at midnight and lack of sleep showed its effects right at the downhill start of the race. My HR was lot higher than what it was supposed to be. I couldn't helped but dropped from the pack after the last KoM sprint, this was expected after forcing myself into the 'overdrive mode' for so long. I pedaled into the finish by myself 2 min 40 sec behind the leading group. 80th out of 95 starters

Stage #2 - ITT: 10 miles on ascending/flat course, fighting against the wind, hammering in the aero-position was my best performance. I was patient enough to pass the riders in front of me slowly one by one which was an improvement. Result is 54th ouf of 95, 29 min 48 sec, 2:39 behind the winner.

Stage #3 - 'Epic' road Race: I was much ready for the last day of racing, my strategy was 'race smart', this includes riding most efficiently in the peloton, being patient and being smart in the overall. I missed the last one, being smart. At the midpoint of the race there was a big climb which separated the group, after the climb I managed to get into a group of 4 first than 7 and catch the leading pack just before the dirt section starts, things couldn't work out better for me, but I had dropped a bottle flying downhill to the pack, and I was only left with half a bottle with 20 miles left. It first demoralized me than altered my decision making and finally I got dropped in the dirt section. Trying to make my way up to the peloton for 15 miles didn't work out, I hit the final climb of the day, dehydrated, demotivated, tired and overheated. Probably lost a lot of time on the climb too... last feelings before the finish line was the extreme burning of the toes, actually legs were already burnt and finished they were numb back then I could only feel my toes and the feeling was an extreme burning... I was dreaming of a bath tub and laying inside it... way to finish a race... 66th in the stage, 65th in the GC after three days.

Stage racing is a lot more than just turning the cranks faster. Picture is from the start of Stage 3 i am wearing #759, second rider to the left in white-blue-green RVB kit and black socks.

(another) 20 km Time Trial

it's been a while since the last one and I really missed the pain, NOT. anyway Dr. Dugas said an estimate of the current performance is needed so I did another 20k. Results was not awesome, just a few seconds better than my first one last year in September... conclusion I haven't done anything since last September.

Soldier Field Criterium #1 - June 17

After mentally and nutritionally getting prepared for the race all day, I still wasn’t registered when I left work around 5pm. I was nervous because my knee was bothering me for the last couple of weeks and I had to take a week off the bike, besides this was going to be my first race of the real season.

Once I got to the race area, the first thing Andrew asked me was if I was registered. ‘Of course, no’, then he said ‘they are already full’. Well, good news for me; I was really nervous, wasn’t sure if I was ready to race and didn’t know if I wanted to do this. I put my name on the waitlist and went to ride off the Lake Front with Big John. We got back and almost all of the team was there, so many people were registered getting ready for their races, this made me ‘wanna race!’, but I still had time to hear from that waitlist. So we went to warm-up at Northerly Island. It was less than fifteen minutes before the start, when they told me I was in and hand me out my bib-number. After a couple laps on the race course we were in line for the start.

I was in the second row just behind Dan at the start, after the start I was probably fifth or sixth wheel. However I lost ground so quick, after the first couple laps I was riding in the midpack, considering a pack of 75 riders that wasn’t really good. My weakness was the turns, I’m not quite sure if I was trying to take the wrong line on the turns or slowing down too much or what else? But I know ‘more the turns are, the worse the race is for me’. Halfway into the race I was at the back of the big bunch probably 30-40 riders in front of me. I was able to gain position on the beck stretch but then lost it in the last two turns before the finish. Once I was riding in the drops on the final stretch and couldn’t handle the bike quite well into the first turn and ended up taking it unnecessarily wide and lost a few seconds. Another poor cornering was happened in turn five somehow I exit the ~180 turn really wide, people behind me (people I passed on the back stretch) passed me on my left, where I should be riding, even worse; I was too fast and too inside for the last turn, so I slowed down more going into turn 6, let a couple riders pass me. All these bad cornering made me work harder on the straight portions of the race, I was strong enough to hold on to the main pack as every other team member was getting droped, but due to poor handling I couldn’t do better than the back of the main pack. I believe I finished somewhere around 20th.

All the people cheering up for me; that definitely helped, a lot. I felt lot stronger when I heard Vanessa, Bryan, Nate, Mike, Dean and those others I couldn’t remember now, yelling my name. Thanks a lot guys and it wouldn’t be such fun without you around.

Not racing for three and a half months, taking a week off the bike recently, skipping a lot of weekend training, I cannot complain about how I finished the race, also my first race of ‘09 as a Spidermonkey.

Saturday Steady-state ride

It was for two hours. average pace was 34.1kmp and power was 220 watts. less than an hour to 100km.

Hill TT 6km

Since I've been training like an idiot, maybe I should also get back to blogging about my training. Here is my first climbing time trial results, 6 km in 5% grade and I did it in 17min, 1 seconds. Let's hit the wall !!!

Some Bike Racing and Results

I have entered two Collegiate Cycling events this season so far, there is another one this weekend.

Michigan State University was the first one. Four laps on a 4.4 miles rectangular lap, with one side of the reclangle in total dirt. It was a lot of fun though. I had almost forgot how racing hurts... I didn't get a good position but who cares. I know I'd have cared too. The point is there are a lot of dedicated younglings, who spend twice the time on their bikes. That wouldn't be fair if I won.

Our secnd race was at Purdue. A 4mile lap with a huge climb, I really mean it it was huge. Three laps on this hilly trail was even better than the dirt. When climbing I felt all the pain I thought I'd already left behind. Well apparently I didn't left anything behind. It was all there, burning legs, pain, difficulty in breating. Followed by the happiest hours of being exhausted... I couldn't do pretty good in this too.

Our next race is in University of Wisconsin Madison, this is a criterium. 20 to 30 minutes on flat and fast city roads. We will see how does it feel like.

yeni sezon

yeni sezona basladik artik diyebilirim sanirsam.
Turkiye'ye gittik 92 kilo olarak geri dondum, giderken de ayni kilodaydim gerci. uc tane antreman yaptim simdiye kadar.

1. 16 ocak 07: 20dk kosu arada 4x50m sprintler. sonra da havuzda 30dk teknik calistim.

2. 17 ocak 07: 30dk bisiklet, 20dk kosu sonlara dogru 4x50m sprint.

3. 18 ocak 07: havuzda bir saat teknik calisma.
500yrd isinma
5 tur fist-swimming
5 tur fingertips
5 tur side kicks
1000yrd freestyle fartlek
= 2250yrds