Downeast Racing out West

Back in September, on the way to a 'cross race, my wife and I developed the idea of getting out of Maine in the depths of winter and enjoying the California sunshine for a week.  As we flushed out the details of the trip I started to work through the logistical challenge of getting a bike out west.  An equally daunting task was convincing my wife to let me off the leash each day of the "family vacation" so I could go push on the pedals.  There was a fair bit of back and forth, but in the end my bike was packed and shipped out west (using the service BikeFlight) and arrived a few day ahead of us.  The media has recently been covering the California drought, so it came as a huge surprise that inches of rain were falling on the greater San Fransisco area when our plane touched down.   I didn't waste anytime getting out on the bike as 9 hours after landing I was out on the roads.  Surprisingly, 50s and raining felt incredibly good compared to 20s and snowing.

The first morning in Sacramento I went out and explored some of the 1,000s of miles of bike paths.  The American River Bicycle Trail parallels the Sacramento River and will take you all the way out to Folsom Lake, if you have the time for an 80+ mile round trip ride.  In stark contrast to Maine, a 45 mile ride had less than 300' of elevation gained!

My second ride took me west through Davis, which is ranked as one of the most bike friendly towns in the country.  On my early morning ride west I saw dozens of people commuting from Davis towards Sacramento along the bike path that parallels the local highway. It is great to see Davis and Sacramento connected by not only the freeway, but bike specific lanes.  More encouraging was the number of people taking advantage of the infrastructure!

Just west of Davis is the Coastsl range, and you can find some serious climbing through this area.  I didn't have the time that day, as My final destination was the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield.  I met the family in the parking lot, did a wardrobe change and learned all about how mad scientists convert sugar into every flavor under the sun.  Sampling jelly beans and fudge was well deserved after the 75 mile ride from Sacramento to Fairfield.

Another trip west from Sacramento on day three to find some elevation change, and I found it on Mix Canyon Road.  An in depth description of the road can be found here (http://www.toughascent.com/blog/2010/08/23/vacaville-the-diabolical-duo-mix-canyon-gates-canyon-super-steep-hill-climbing/) but in summary, the last mile was an average gradient of 15% with numerous pitches over 20%.  

Downright brutal!  On the bright side, I found myself pealing off the layers and soaking up the sun in short sleeves in February!

I finished up the week with another ride along the American River Trail and enjoyed the sunrise over Sacramento, before packing up the bike and heading into the big city of San Francisco for a few days of family time and a little bit of rest. What a great way to explore a small piece of California and to get in a nice block of training.  Let's hope the blood did not get too thin in my week out west.

Programable Stopwatch on Computer Screen

Hi All,

Yes it's snowing again, so you are all probably headed down to the basement for another trainer session. When doing a structured workout on the trainer it is nice to have a big stopwatch counting down how much longer you have to go on each segment of the workout. If you go to this site

 http://www.online-stopwatch.com/countdown-timer/ 

you can download a programable stopwatch which can accept an infinite amount of entries, ex: 15min warm-up + 5min at 80% + 15sec sprint + 5min at 80% + 15sec sprint - repeat, repeat, repeat. The stopwatch fills the whole of your computer screen. You'll find it to be very helpful.

A break from the Polar Vortex

I have been in the Maine for the last 10 years and this is as cold a winter as I can remember.  With all the media hype of a polar vortex dominating the winter, it was great to flip the calendar to February and be greeted by a mild weekend.  Downeast Racing was not the only group with cycling on the brain, as an impromptu SMR was organized and 20+ rides pushed the pedals through South Portland and Cape Elizabeth on Saturday morning.  Downeast Racing was well represented (at the pointy end of the peloton) with 5 members of the team participating in the ride, but more importantly most of us took advantage of the weather to put in a sizable day of training before and/or after the SMR.  It was a welcomed break from the trainer and with the thermometer touching 40 degrees on Sunday  I couldn't pass up the opportunity of logging a few more miles on the road.  I reached out to team sponsor, Zev Myerowitz (an Ironman Triathlete) of Cape Chiropractic for some company and we put in an easy afternoon dodging rain showers and puddles in Cape Elizabeth.  The conditions were not perfect, the gloves and booties were soaked with water and road grime after 2.5 hours of riding, but I have to remind myself that it beats the trainer any day! Zev and I changed quickly, made a trip to local car wash to clean off our road bikes then we settled down to a bacon, mash potato and scallion pizza at Otto as a reward for our efforts.  If only every winter weekend could be so accommodating.  We can hope.

HOW THE TRAINER SAVED ME !!

Hi All,

I have been racing, first running then riding, uninterupted since 1969. During that time I've always been an outdoor guy running/riding in the sun, rain, fog, snow, wind ... you get the picture. There was no excuse for not going because, when you get to the starting line, people really could give two figs about your sob stories of bad weather or the sniffles. Then on June 24, 2012 I broke my elbow and finally had an excuse for not riding outside on the bike. But ... but, but, but .... was that a viable excuse for not training?? For putting my ambitions on hold??? You see, about 10 days before, the course for the 2012 Nationals road race had been released and it feature a long climb to the finish - very much tailor made for me. Everyone joneses for a national title, right? So of course, for this narative to properly continue, the answer to putting training and ambition on pause was "no". Even though I had to undergo 3 surgeries in 4 days (Rocky rising out of Philadelphia hardscrabble has nothing on me!) I was able to, with one hand and lying flat on my back, order a Cycle Ops Jet Fluid Pro power trainer via my iPhone.

Six days after the break I was on the trainer (borrowed from Ta Herrera because my Jet Fluid Pro hadn't arrived yet). See...

What did I learn? The secret for me with the trainer was to stay mentally fresh and to build through the period. I figured I'd be on the trainer for 7 weeks. To stay fresh I ....

 

- Scheduled hard days and easy days. Stayed disciplined on the easy

  days and just enjoyed the spin (1 hour)

- Varied what I did on the hard days

    - Did Spinning classes by watching them on YouTube (45 minutes

      each + 15 min. warm-up and down)

    - Followed training videos (ex: Robbie Ventura's "Crit Racing"

      video - a very worthwhile purchase)

    - Did workouts sent to me by my professional trainer friends -

      usually 1.5 hrs of time on the trainer

- 3x per week I did 2-a-days on the trainer w/ each session being 45

   minutes. That built strength

 

So, schedule your workout week so that each workout has purpose - strength, speed, rest. By throwing in the variety, you will be able to bridge the winter or injury in fine shape. The help of my professional trainer buddies proved invaluable. Their training programs settled me down, eliminated the learning curve and allowed me to approach the period with confidence. Their programs progressively built my endurance, speed and overall fitness. Ten weeks after the break, I was fortunate enough to have a dominant performance at Nationals and bag a nice, new jersey.

 

I hope you find this post helpfull.

 

Hank   

        

 

 

 

 

T-Max interval workout

Looking for a way to increase power and VO2 max? Check this article out.

http://ow.ly/gJmSW

Can also be found here: http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/training-fitness/ultimate-interval?cm_mmc=Facebook-_-Bicycling-_-Content-Training-_-ultimate-interval

If you've run out of cycling videos, this may be an interesting option for your trainer workouts.

Hank

Cohesion, Team Announcement

Thanks for following and joining in on the excitement that is Downeast Racing. As you can see we are in process of launching the team this week. We will be spending some time with our shop, sponsors, and fellow teammates this week, but hope to have an event where we can meet a larger group of people soon - so be ready for that! Check out our roster Here.

Through concept and creation, Downeast Racing has been about cohesion. The team is made up of a group of cyclists who have spent a great deal of time together on training rides, racing with and against one another over the years, and who all have love for the sport. We have a variety of national caliber riders in different categories and disciplines. And, together, plan to combine those experiences into a group effort for a team's success.

The time available to develop and put together a team was sparse, but the results have been excellent. We will be touting a total roster of 12 riders, ages 21-63. It is a pleasure to be on a team of riders with whom I have raced and ridden alongside for most of my time on a bike. Many of these individuals were the guys I looked up to when I first started riding, and without one specific person on the team I may have never found cycling. I've seen many of these riders improve over the years, and am more than excited to ride in the same colors as them (although a couple might be seen with the flare of current/prior national championship colors for varied disciplines!).

Pairing up with Gorham Bike & Ski has made for a great partner in our endeavor thanks to Jamie, Dave, and Giant Bicycles. There are a boatload of other organizations and individuals who deserve a great deal of thanks - and we'll let you know about them all as we move along here. The classic, steadfast, and proven TCR Advanced equipped with SRAM Force 22 will lead Downeast Racing on many, many successful races. You might also notice that they match our kits (or vice versa)!

TEAM ROSTER

Hi All - Thanks for visiting our Downeast Racing site. Here is an update on who is on the team. Listed alphbetically, the team members are:

Troy Barry
Jeff Dixon
Travis Kroot
Joe Lynch
Matt Moon
James Morrison
Hank Pfeifle
Eliot Pitney
Joe Taylor Reis
Fred Thomas
Dereck Treadwell
Dan Vaillancourt

And a special acknowledgement of teammate Matt Jacobson who dabbles in triathlons but specializes in entreprenurialism and enthusiasm. We need our Giant bikes just to keep up with this guy.

Speaking for myself, when the weather turns above 24 degrees, I look forward to seeing you on the roads.

Hank