Barry Wolfe Grand Prix

So instead of attending to the mountain of homework piling up before finals I figured I would write something about my race yesterday. With the team putting on the race and my assistance required later in the day I raced for the first time in about a month. With weeks of training weighing heavily on my body and mind I made my first mistake of the day in lining up in the back row. From the gun I felt sluggish and spent the majority of the race hanging on the back of the field. I gave a generous amount space to the numerous sketchy riders who proceeded to crash themselves and others out a total of five times before the race was through. After avoiding the largest crash with two to go I time-trialed my way to the finish, with a large number of riders sprinting past me to beat the crippled kid for 45-50th place. Bravo!!!! While the race wasn't the greatest for me I had a great time being cheered on by my teammates course marsheling during my race, allowing to dig myself that much deeper into my personal pain cave. Afterwards I hung around until the end of the day to help clean up alongside my U25 teammates, ending another successful day at the races.

School and training don't mix well

After two solid weeks of training I'm completely fried. In the past few days I've really come to realize why many aspiring athletes postpone upper level study, it's hard to do both at the same time. With a two midterms, assignments, and a final paper in the past 2 weeks, my fifteen hour weekly training schedule laid me out cold. While a 3-4 hr ride is a solid effort, having to be in the library and relatively productive afterwards makes it that much more difficult.
For a week my sleep was good, recovery was sufficient, my body was dealing with the heavy load on my shoulders. about mid week this week I began to feel as if my body was rejecting itself, always tired, I felt like shit. After I turned in my term paper for my environmental studies class I went home and passed out for a hour. At 11 am!. While I am no stranger to naps this signaled to me that I was scraping the bottom of the barrel of my abilities. I knew would have to grind it out until my gym session on monday and the start of two light weeks while I navigate the waters of dead week and finals.
Although these past weeks have been miserable at times they have taught me a lot. In order to train like I did in my lead up to worlds, I need to manage school better. I can't wait till the last minute to pull an all-nighter to finish papers and study for exams like I have in the past. So here is to pulling closer to both finish lines, graduating university and the Paralympics! It's gonna be a roller coaster, so hold on tight.

Dear Mom, I'm Sorry

In the past few years cycling has taken skin, eyebrows and a fair amount of my blood due to careless mistakes of my inexperience. With every crash I couldn't understand why my mom was always frantic until she talked to me, only calmed by me saying, "I'm ok, just a little banged up and sore." While this wasn't always totally truthful, as in the case of Colorado in 2009, it let my mom go about her day without worrying herself about me.

Today made me realize why my mom hates to watch me race, hates to watch me absolutely fly on my bicycle. Today in the Giro someone lost their son to the sport in Wouter Weylandt. As a bike racer I am conscience of what could happen if I fell at 45 mph, or clipped a car on a tight curve, but almost never think of them. Today I was forced to acknowledge that my sport can be a fatal one, and I cannot take racing and training lightly. I make the choice to kit up and roll out the door each day, from here on out forever thankful of my health and my understanding, supportive family.

Mom, I love you and am sorry for all the times I called Dad before you after hitting the deck.

And to cheer everyone up here are some UCSB kids celebrating easter.

A rocky start to road riding and a start to a new season

Between 2 major related midterms, a quick jaunt to LA for a Paralympic team
announcement and collegiate conference championships the weekend I spent at sea
otter with my NOW-MS society team was gently pushed aside.
After being on the bike for about a month since my break my goals at sea
otter were minimal, survival in the longer races would be awesome. My crit on
Thursday held a small field on a difficult course, I made it until 2.5 laps to
go until i ran out of brute acceleration to keep up with the field to finish
12th. The road race ended early with the field riding away on the main climb as
i dug myself into a deep hole then proceeded to limp back to my car after
finishing the lap destroyed and solo. The famous circuit race on Laguna Seca
ended better than expected, when I held out to finish with the second group on
the road after being unable to match the accelerations on the last time up the
climb. It was in this race where I really saw where my abilities stand. I had no problem climbing the steep pitched portion of the circuit at a constant pace, and was able to mark some of the early moves I saw dangerous as guys tried to get away. It was on the last lap where my body failed me. We came screaming into the climb, I was sitting 5th wheel or so, riding a hard tempo, and went into pursuit mode as we attacked the meat of the climb. On this lap I saw the winning move go up the road and while I tried my hardest to get there, I just don't yet have the strength and fitness to go with the guys with body types that would look at home on the Muur de Huy, not on a pursuit bike like myself. Coming home from that weekend and the next I have come to see able bodied racing at least for the present as damn good training. I can gut myself and attempt to play my lacking deck of cards, but cannot beat myself up when I finish short of a respectable placing.
More exciting than my mediocre placings at Sea Otter is that the Home
Depot Center velodrome will play host to the 2012 Para Track cycling world
championships, the last international competition before the venues open at the
London Paralympics that September. Please mark your calenders for the weekend of
Feb 10-12 to come cheer on Team USA on home territory as we compete against the
best in the world for the right to be called world champion.

Worlds, better late than never, right?

Here are a few race reports posted to my club team website a few months back.
Today was the opening of competition with the men single bikes contesting the
pursuit and the tandems racing the kilometer. While my start time was unknown i
was told to ride over alone to the track at the start of competition. That 2
kilometers to the velodrome were two of the longest kilos i've ever ridden.
When I arrived the USA cabin was buzzing with activity, my bike was in the stand
being triple checked by the mechanic, my coach and finally the director. With
two hours still to go i was directed to lay down, keep warm and relax, it was
just another day at the track. The first hour was the worst on my nerves, as i
had nothing to do but listen to music and watch the more disabled categories
race 3 Kilometers, the same as myself. I was soon on the massage table, getting
a massage to warm my legs up before my proper warm up started. When I hopped the
trainer my instincts kicked in, hey! I know how to do this! From there it was
just another track session, except today my coach Adam was standing at my
shoulder my entire warm up, making sure it went pitch perfect.
I rolled to the line with my legs firing, heart beating strong, still fully
wrapped up against the chill that never seemed to leave the track. I hardly
noticed the couple minutes sitting on deck, only that i would no doubt set a
current fast time, with no one hitting the mark of 4 minutes even I had set in
LA two weeks prior. My heat arrived and my bike was carried to the gate,
surrounded my UCI officials. I comparatively jumped on my bike as my opponent
from Russia was missing an arm as well as his lower leg.
The clock began its 10 second count down and i did what i do best, nail the
start. I left the gate clean, careful not to overcook my start lap. I heard my
splits but not much else, only that i started well but lost precious tenths of a
second each lap through out the effort. With two laps to go I came roaring up on
my opponent, weaving all over the track as he descended in to the cave that is
pursuiting. I made a clean pass and brought it home, stopping the clock at
3:54.1 , good enough for 3rd at the time and 7th by the end of qualifications.
In doing so i set a 6 sec personal best, set a new American record, and most
importantly finally made the US national team. While I failed to make the medal
rounds, I now have a new benchmark and have seen for myself how fast the Brits
really are.

So the weekend has gone, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Alba Italy catching up
on sleep as i almost pulled an all-nighter celebrating the conclusion of my
first world championships. Saturday was the hardest day for me during
competition, the kilo was on Sat and without having done a successful kilo
against the clock in training I was nervous all day, wanting to build on my
success from Friday.
After warm up I made the long walk from the USA cabin to the start line, only to
have my coach discover my rear disc was flat as he put my bike into the gate. As
the staff rushed to change wheels I sat at the gate, attempting to control the
flood of nerves washing over me. My bike was fixed and the countdown started. I
jumped the gate early but but still ripped off a fast start lap, leading to two
second PR and another 7th place. I was frustrated with my ride but with the
knowledge that I was to ride the team sprint the next day I got a quick leg
flush on the massage table and went to meet my dad and brother for lunch.
Sunday was an early trip to the velodrome. The men's tandem qualified 6th in the
flying 200 and improved to 5th in the match sprints throughout the day. In team
sprint quals we were 4th to last due to the 4th place finish at worlds last
year. In the ride prior to ours the Chinese set a new world record in the 51
second region and we placed 2nd to move into fourth behind the Czechs and the
British who reset the world record in both their runs. In the evening when
finals rolled around we ended up 4th, losing the bronze by 7 tenths of a second.
While I did not medal my worlds must be considered a success, i went from being
a so called "One lap wonder" to being running the fastest male 3 km pursuit in
US Paralympic history.