December 30, 2011
The 2012 Racing Season: An Early Success?

When thinking about the 2012 season, I had two main goals. The first was to podium at masters nationals, but since that's not happening, I had to scale back my plans a bit and think of something a little more reasonable.

During the last month or so, it finally dawned on me. The greatest, yet still somewhat realistic, goal I could have this season would be to be mentioned on Rand's blog. It's still early in the season, and I hadn't really formulated a plan, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw this tweet last night:

@CPbike @wednesdaynight @thestaz hit refresh on my blog sometime Friday am, and it'll be the same result, but more publicized. Yay internet.

— randmmiller (@randmmiller) December 30, 2011

Could I have achieved my main goal, before the racing season even began? I set my alarm clock for "am" and then struggled to remember how to actually refresh a blog. Apparently I was a little too enthusiastic:

Eventually, am became pm, and finally the promised entry was posted. The aforementioned results were included, unfortunately with a little "creative" editing on Rand's part:

There it was, my moment of cycling glory, ruined by the red oval of death. In a way I'm kind of used to this sort of thing, as neither my name nor my team made it into NCCN's coverage of Turlock RR E3s last year. I suppose that's what happens when you lose a 3-up sprint.

posted by jacob around December 31, 2011 4:24:20 AM UTC

September 21, 2011
adventures in nonemployment

e-mails like this make me feel old:

They are making the tech as disruptive as possible in the mobile/real-time collaboration space.

i suppose the dating equivalent would be if a girl walked up to me, cigarette in hand, and asked, "do you like arcade fire?"

posted by jacob around September 21, 2011

September 15, 2011
welcome to the cload.

if you're reading this it means your feader is getting the new site. if not... i'm not sure how you're reading this?

i thought i knew what i was doing and changed the atom ids, but that made all the old entries show up new again. sorry.

posted by jacob around September 15, 2011

September 10, 2011
into the cload!

posted by jacob around September 10, 2011

August 30, 2010
winters rr

three times around a 24-mile loop with a small hill in the middle, a short, technical descent, then a long, fast slight downhill to the finish. i wasn't expecting much, but wanted to get another race in. i was waitlisted, and while i don't like pinning my bib at the last minute, the start was late as usual so there was plenty of time. as we rolled out, i took up my normal post at the very back of the pack.

the first two times up the climb the pace wasn't difficult, although some riders were dropping off the back. a quick burst of acceleration and i cruised right by them - maybe i had good legs today. i didn't recognize the normal climbing crowd (maybe after university they've all upgraded), and it occurred to me i may be the strongest climber in the bunch.

the descent wasn't as scary as the VP site made it out to be, but i took it mellow and got gapped the first two times down. worked in a group of six to chase back on the first lap, and on the second just did the pulling myself (i didn't see how many riders were on my wheel).

soon after catching back on on the second lap i felt something strike my right hand, followed by a flash of pain. i looked down, and there's a bee stinger sticking out of my finger, with a bit of bee guts hanging on it. i try to remove it with my teeth and suck out as much poison or whatever as i can. fortunately my finger wasn't swelling up too much, or becoming too numb to shift or brake, so i stayed in the pack for the third lap.

i'd decided that i wanted to push it on the climb the last lap, so that maybe i'd makde it into the lead group on the descent, and to reduce the field size as much as possible. we were on a straight section with a bit of a cross wind, so if you didn't mind being in the wind it was really easy to move up in the field. after the 35+ 1/2/3 field streaked past us, i looked ahead, saw a couple of rollers, and went to the front.

i pushed the pace on the uphills, and then soft pedaled on the way down, trying to get my legs ready for the climb and to maybe soften up the field. the road narrows and becomes quite twisty with ups and downs before the climb, and i pushed it here to make sure i stayed on the front. it was a good thing i'd gotten to the front as it would have been difficult to move up here.

we hit the climb (aka "feed zone") and i pushed it. i saw that i had a gap so i kept going as hard as i could maintain without blowing up. i seemed to have a pretty good gap over the top. one rider passed me on the first few turns, but that was it. as i neared the bottom, i said out loud to myself, "just two more turns," then finally a short straight descent and one last right turn on to the flat finishing section.

there was one guy on my wheel at the bottom of the descent, and we caught up to the other rider who'd passed me. we had a good gap and started working together well. of the three, i was definitely taking the biggest pulls, but i would have been upset if i'd had anything left when the pack caught us.

the moto ref told us we had a 40 second gap, and soon we hit 1km to go. my brain had totally shut down, and i was not ready for the sprint. there was a car in front of us, which i was concerned about, then the other two guys jumped. it was close but i just couldn't summon enough to come around and wound up third, a great result considering this wasn't a climbers' course (and my first upgrade points since may).

next up: fort ord circuit race.

posted by jacob around August 30, 2010

May 29, 2010
pre-race thoughts: mt. hamilton

so i'm finally starting to get excited about racing hamilton tomorrow. you'd think that a race that starts with a 30km climb would be a good one for me, but the descent is probably a little more technical than i'd like, and then the next 60km are rollers, possibly with a head wind. fortunately, the descent is only half the climb, so there's still a net altitude gain at the finish.

i am optimistic that i can get a good result. a lot of the riders that placed higher than me at berkeley hills and wente are registered, but for some (probably irrational) reason i feel like i can do better on a longer climb than them.

i'm hoping to stay with the lead group through second little descent, and then go as hard i can on top half of climb. going over a gap is probably my best chance at top-ten finish, but that certainly easier said than done.

whatever happens, it's probably going to be the toughest day of racing so far this season. my overall goal is to not have fun, but to suffer and push myself as hard as i can.

posted by jacob around October 17, 2011 1:27:29 PM UTC

May 9, 2010
berkeley hills

Berkeley Hills Road Race, Elite 4 (54 mi, 20.7 mph, 4,812 ft of climbing).

forboding clouds and a light rain greeted our rollout, but it stopped by the time we made the turn onto castro ranch road. i was relieved as i'd lost one of my arm warmers doing laundry, and was a little underdressed. with the cold weather and occasional rain, and alternating climbs and descents, my legs were not feeling their best.

no notable attacks or breaks for the first two laps; i was gapped a bit on the big descent but caught back up both laps. i'd estimate about 25 made it to mama bear on the last lap, but i imagine we droppd a few the final time up.

i'd been sitting at the back the whole race, but headed to the front for that climb, then trailed off for the final descent. this was a little more tense as people were trying to get in good position for the final climb.

a whole athlete rider attacked, and as we began papa bear a group of six were chasing him. i picked up a few positions, but couldn't quite catch them, and ended up 8th, which i am more than happy with.

next up is mt hamilton classic at the end of the month, unless i get tricked into doing panoche as well.

posted by jacob around May 9, 2010

May 8, 2010
berkeley hills RR preview

berkeley hills road race is tomorrow. took it easy on the training this week: two rides, two spin classes, so i should be fairly rested (as long as i get some sleep). decent amount of climbing and non-technical descents so i'll hopefully be able to stick around. maybe there will actually be some attacks/breaks this time? hopefully i can work with some mice and see if we can make something happen.

also it might rain?

posted by jacob around May 8, 2010

April 26, 2010
climbing rate added

i added "climbing rate" - feet per hour - to my greasemonkey script for strava. couldn't get prefs figured out so watts per kg will have to wait for another night.

posted by jacob around April 26, 2010

April 26, 2010
wente RR recap

ah, wente road race!

• late start: CHECK
• short drive: CHECK
• great weather: CHECK
• decent climbing: CHECK

even with all these going for it, i wasn't really expecting anything different from every weekend in the last month, namely getting dropped on the first lap. one thing was different: i pre-rode the course last weekend, and the more technical of the descents was followed immediately by another climb, so i could probably catch back up if i fell behind on the descent.

the course is a 15-mile loop with a 300-foot climb (max grade ~12%) leading to the finish. the race starts at the bottom so we did the climb four times. after the top there is a bit more climbing before the descent, then another climb and descent then a flat section with a small hill, and you're back to the start.

not much happened the first two laps, but the third time up the hill people were starting to drop off. i kept my pace up, and moved up in the pack. at the top of the hill, there was a small group (10-15 riders) starting to pull away, and i tried to bridge up. fortunately, there's a bit more climbing after we go over the highway, and i was able to bridge up before the descent. i got gapped a bit on the descent, but caught up again on the next climb, and hung on during the final descent.

the moto said we had about a 40 second gap on the chase group, but we didn't really get an organized paceline going. that was fine by me since i was trying to recover from the bridging and get ready for the final climb. as we approached the climb, the chatting in the pack quieted down, and the pace picked up a bit. i was getting nervous wondering how it would go.

i moved up a bit going into the start of the climb, and then tried to go as hard as i could. i think i went too hard initially, and a few people went by, but in the final bit i just went as hard as i could, HR holding steady at 183, then maxing out at 185 at the end, which is equal to the highest (legit) reading i've seen.

the pack was totally splintered at this point, and we had caught other groups, so i had no idea where my place was in the field. i wasn't optimistic, but figured top-10 or -15. i was so relieved to have simply finished with the main group after these last few weeks of suffering that i had to fight back tears on the way down to the car. embarrassing but true.

much to my surprise, i ended up fifth! totally unexpected and totally awesome. five seconds faster and i could have gotten third; wish i'd known.

no racing this weekend and then berkeley hills next weekend; hoping to scout that out sunday morning.

posted by jacob around April 26, 2010

April 25, 2010
show calories in strava

i just wrote a greasemonkey script to add calories & calories/hr to ride and segment views in strava. it uses this power-to-calories formula and then adds fields to the ride view:

and for individual segments:

if you use firefox and greasemonkey you can install it here.

posted by jacob around April 25, 2010

April 23, 2010
wente RR pregame

wente RR is tomorrow. 50 miles and 4kft of climbing, according to the test ride last weekend. should be great weather.

my only goal is to have fun.

posted by jacob around April 23, 2010

April 3, 2010
copperdropolis redux

didn't spend the first lap chasing, but got dropped on the downhill near the end of the first lap. i just wanted to get down it at all without pressuring myself to keep up with everyone, so i guess i'm ok with that. i could still see the pack during the 2nd lap, and then started passing people in my field on the 3rd lap. instead of trading pulls with them like a smart cyclist i pushed hard and dropped them. passed eugene and then got a flat; 12 minute change and was the 2nd last finisher in my field. about 40% of my field didn't finish; pretty harsh day.

going to try to beat the rain and ride fairfax-bolinas in the morning for the first time on the S1.

posted by jacob around April 3, 2010

April 3, 2010
copperopolis (again)

waking up at 4am on a saturday: this is why i started bicycle racing! today i'm racing copperopolis, "the paris-roubaix of northern california." goals for today are pretty simple: to not spend the first two laps getting droped and chasing, and secondly to finish.

training this week went well; tied and broke my PRs for the two sides of hawk hill tuesday night on the S1, and went to spin class wednesday. either skins are amazing or i didn't push myself hard enough there.

time to go eat my rice.

posted by jacob around April 3, 2010

March 28, 2010
more like copperdropolis

since i didn't know the course, and probably overcompensating for last week, i was taking some of the "descents" and turns a little slower than the pack. went off the back a few times over the first lap but managed to get back on until the second lap where i fell off the back for good. lost about four minutes that lap, and then pretty much gave up and rode the last lap easy.

so, didn't do as well as i'd hoped but i think i only lost one GC place (to 16th).

looks like it's supposed to be rainy here this week so that should be fun. headlands goodbye ride tuesday morning, park ride tuesday night, going to try to make the last spin class on wednesday, copperopolis road race on saturday, and then hopefully an easier long ride on sunday.

time to sleep.

posted by jacob around March 28, 2010

March 27, 2010
good night

nice big pasta dinner and should get around 8 hours of sleep tonight. no idea what the gc looks like, although i'm at least two minutes down. we'll see what happens tomorrow.

posted by jacob around March 27, 2010

March 27, 2010
wrap up

circuit race and TT complete. circuit race was fairly easy; nobody pushed the whole time so just a few hard efforts to catch up after the turnarounds; probably too hard but it wasn't bad. a few riders went down after the first lap but otherwise it was easy and relaxing.

nearly caught my minute man but just didn't have enough in the wind to seal the deal. ~29:05 which would have won in cat 5, but at least one guy got 27:something so we'll see. time to go TT bike shopping!

met my meager goals for today, so still just trying to stay with the leaders tomorrow and we'll see how the legs feel after a few creme eggs tonight.

posted by jacob around March 27, 2010

March 27, 2010
happy new year

sitting in the car getting ready to warm up for topsport stage race. this is the first stage race for chris and i, and neither of us are all that excited, really. got to the hotel late, and up early, but fortunately my race isn't for another hour and a half so i have some time to relax and warm up. that hasn't typically been the case so far this season.

my goals this time around are to push myself as hard as i can during the TT, and then stay with the pack for the circuit and road races. we'll see how it goes. planning to start going to the late wednesday night spin class starting this week, since i don't think i'm getting in enough training during the week.

chris is heading out to the TT; we'll see how it goes.

posted by jacob around March 27, 2010

June 12, 2009
ups and downs

popovych's quote after stage 16 was great:

The last 7km they told me on the radio that Sastre was coming, really fast, chasing me. I did not want to believe it. When he finally passed me, I lost all my pedaling force. What a day! I stayed in the breakaway for 240km. It was so difficult. The tactic was good. Johan asked me to go in the breakaway and I did. And now ... we have nothing. After such a crazy day, so this is sport.

they summarize stage 16 at the start of stage 17, and you can see sastre passing popovych.

some of the nicest weather in some time in my ride up tam this morning; took the kneewarmers off in sausalito. tam was a little cloudy, but for once not foggy, which was nice both going up and down. and to top it off, not a single car on the final descent along highway 1. going to try to do fairfax-bolinas to the east peak tomorrow before the 48-hour phiktacular this weekend, but we'll see if the legs cooperate or not.

posted by jacob around June 12, 2009

June 11, 2009
don't look back

finally got around to finishing up stage 16 of the giro. completely heartbreaking when popovych looks back to see how far behind sastre is just as sastre is overtaking him; popovych can only shake his head... which he does again when finally reaching the finish line.

as for myself, i didn't manage to get a ride in today, but hope to do the east peak tomorrow. toshok took me out to fairfax on tuesday, and i think i'm still recovering. still no word on when i'll get my replacement bike...

a year ago today i rode all the metro lines and at at le train bleu. today i rode caltrain and ate at papalote.

posted by jacob around June 11, 2009