This year, plans for many of the races I’ve done have materialized just a couple days beforehand. Like for example, my team for last Thursday’s Northern Columbia Triathlon came together the night before, and then for today’s V2 Rollerskis Climb to Mountain Top, I wasn’t positive I was going until yesterday. I invited Dimitri too, but since he is phone-less, I wasn’t sure he would even be there for me to pick up in the morning.

I’ve been experimenting with pre-race caffeine this summer, and I’ve found that it doesn’t make a real difference in how I feel during the race, but it affects my performance a little. Before each of these last three races (Pedal and Plod, a run/bike race in Adams, MA where I was cycling on a team; the Northern Columbia Tri, a swim/bike/run where I also cycled on a team; and today’s rollerski race) I’ve driven to Dunkin’ D’s, ordered medium Cappuccinos and finished them before the end of the drive. Coffee is not a regular occurrence for me, but I know that it can work for some people when used in the right amount.

The Northern Columbia worked out fairly well, even though we had a couple mishaps. The swim went okay, Greg definitely held his own against a deep field. Going into the bike I think we were about 12th for teams. I started out really fast and maintained a solid pace until the hills, the first of which I took easy, then hammered at the next couple. I forgot about the last big hill, so I ended up not going too hard there, and I was a little bit cooked in the last couple miles. I came in as the second team. Then came the transfer, and I came into the zone looking for my teammate Evan, who was nowhere to be seen. I then looked up the hill towards the porta-potties and there was Evan, in line. It turns out that they had arrived barely 5 minutes earlier, and he hadn’t warmed up at all. There are several different speculations about what amount of time Ev was there for, but I ended up running up and putting the timing chip on his ankle after he had spent anywhere from :25 to 1:30 up there. Either way, my bike time suffered because the timing map was at the end of the transition, and I think I was the fastest if you don’t count the transition. Evan crushed the run, even though he hadn’t warmed up and had barely time to get to the transition. He was third fastest for the run, with about 5:15 miles. That put us first for teams, so we were happy anyway. Results for the Tri teams are here. Individuals are here.

The Climb to Mountain Top is a 10k+ rollerski race that starts just north of Rutland. The course record for men is held by Andrew Johnson, set a couple years ago. The course rolls and goes slightly uphill for the first 7 kilometers, then goes sharply uphill for then next 2.7 ish k to the finish. It would have been hard even if it were 40ºF cooler. It was probably 87ºF and humid at the start, and hotter at the finish.

The race started slowly. In fact it was so slow that I was able to be about 2nd or 3rd in the pack for the first couple kilometers. A guy that Dimitri said he though was from the US Nordic Combined B-team attacked at about 2k, and Dimitri himself soon followed. They yoyoed off the front for a while. All of a sudden I was leading the pack on my fast skis at about 4k, and I soon skied away from the pack to join the two leaders. We had a decent sized lead at one point, but the pack kept catching us. Eventually, Dimitri dropped back to the pack, and when the pack started catching us, the USST guy motioned for me to take over. That was my opportunity. Since I knew the hills were going to be deathly, I wanted to have a sizable lead and have people catch me. Since I was never in any trouble physically on the flat/rolling section, I knew I could gain a little distance on the pack. I could have gone a lot harder because of my skis, but chose not to knowing what was ahead. The finishing hills start abruptly, and from the time they start to the finish, there is no stretch of road that is even close to being downhill. I started hurting almost immediately, as did everyone else. The heat really got to us. I got caught with a little less than 2k to go. Despite the conditions, I managed to hang on to 5th. The only people who passed me were Peter Hegman, a guy I didn’t recognize on fast skis who ended up winning, Jimmy Levins, and Noah Brautigam. It was impressive that Peter was in such good shape, but he really suffered in the heat (him laying down in a ditch post-race to cool off was painful to watch). I attribute my good result to my zippy rollerskis. I really wanted to have the slow skis for the race, but they only offered one pair of SNS matched V2 skis, which they gave to Dimitri. Guess I’ll have to wait till the early season time trials to know how I stack up to the rest of the college guys. Results are here.

The best part of the race may have been the trip to the reservoir (“the Rez”) afterwards, where Sam and Lucy both made us laugh really hard. Not to mention the water was awesome.

This week is an intensity block, which means:
Tomorrow: ski up Greylock. Workout: 3×15 intervals. Temp? low nineties again.
Thursday: probably level 4s, but it’ll be a little cooler.

I’m trying to decide what to do with the blog now that I’ll be a freshman in college. I will probably keep it, because it has valuable info that I’ll draw from later, but I definitely won’t update as much. Especially since Williams has a much cooler blog anyway. It is possible that I will post links to Williams blog articles.
I am ecstatic about college, and all the Williams people I meet through my job at the office of Alumni tell me is (1) that I’ll have a fantastic time, and (2) how jealous they are of me that I will be a freshman. I can’t wait!

And, here’s to not suffering heat stroke today!

I was thrilled to be able to do three races in two weeks, two of which were triathlons. I have been spending some of my lunch breaks in the pool, which I was surprised actually paid off, because I was much more comfortable in the water and was able to turn former struggling into much more efficient forward motion. I did not do so well in the swim the first time, but I felt much better the second time after failing once. The tris went fairly well, and I don’t have quite the time to discuss them in detail, but they both were good experiences in racing, and I was satisfied and I had fun in both.

On Thursday I got recruited to be the cyclist in the Adams Pedal and Plod, which was held this morning. I was to be racing with Nick Fogel, former Williams runner (turned Williams IM Hockey player) and even though he is training for hockey, he is still quite fast on his feet. I wasn’t surprised when he was up in sixth after the tough 4 mile run. I started my race with an older guy from the Berkshire Cycling Association, and we proceeded to hit the first hill (route 116 in Adams, it climbs for almost 1.5 miles) really hard. We caught ironman Kent Lemme pretty early on, then he passed us and kept a 15 or so second lead on us (there was no drafting allowed) around the second half of the first lap. I took the bottom of the climb really hard to catch Kent, and then went really deep into the ‘pain locker’ to stay with him over the top of the climb. Coming down into Cheshire was unexpectedly painful too, and once we got onto route 8, it took me all I had to stay with them. It was kind of epic, the three of us three wide in the middle of Route 8 battling. As we went past Berkshire Outfitters and came over the bridge, the BCA rider attacked but died going over the top. Kent attacked on the last hill coming into Adams, and gained 5 meters on me in the last straightaway. Surprisingly my legs held up to put in one last huge effort, and I took a huge risk coming around the last corner really hard. It paid off when I straighened up and was right behind Kent. We started to sprint in that last 100m and unfortunately for him, his cleat came out of his pedal and he wasn’t able to finish. Nick and I took second in the team classification and Kent was first for ironmen. I think I had the 2nd fastest split time in the bike, but they didn’t do splits so I’m not sure.

I still love bike racing!
Here’s what the bike course looked like. Very hilly.

That was it? It seems like my longest week in terms of training hours sort of breezed by. I specialized a little this week when I did ski-related workouts, with 30/30 classic intervals on Monday, specific explosive strength (not too painful when you’re doing it, but it sure hurts afterwards) on Wednesday and a distance skate ski on Thursday. What I tried to do on Thursday was improve my degrading skate technique, but that didn’t actually happen much because my rollerski poles are still too short.

Tuesday was interesting. I went out on what was supposed to be a 50 mile bikeride with a small but determined Tuesday night group, but what happened was we got to 40 miles and we got demolished by a thunderstorm. Hail, 25 mph sustained winds, blinding fog, a sudden 30 degree F decrease in temperature, frequent lightning and drenching rain stopped us, shivering, in the doorway of a roadside restaurant. We ended up riding for about two hours and calling Craig’s wife who, despite her apprehension about thunderstorms, came to pick us up. The four of us rode home with towels around our shoulders and the heat blasting at our hands.

Friday I took a trip to the pool to try to ready myself for the upcoming triathlon (thursday july 16). I learned a lot from the woman who coached me. I found out that I have to lengthen my glide and make the most out of each stroke just like skiing! The difference of course is breathing…I’m having the most trouble with that. Once I can figure out how to breathe I think I’ll be an okay swimmer! I’m heading to the pool at some point on Tuesday and possibly at lunch on Wednesday to ready myself once more. Seeing as I’m not allowed to graduate Williams College without knowing how to swim (just search that PDF for “swim test”) I figured I should start learning.

And finally yesterday I travelled up to Hanover to ride in the 28th annual Prouty century bike ride benefitting the Norris Cotton Cancer Center and Dartmouth Medical. I rode with the “Holderness Bull Riders” but saw a lot of other people I knew, including SMS and my understanding is that there was a larger contingent from Williams also riding, but we didn’t encounter them.

All in all this week I trained 12 hours with workouts every day. I still feel really good. I do feel guilty because cheated and carried some of the hours from yesterday’s Prouty over to today, though. Hope no one minds.

I couldn’t restrain myself; when I saw the road yesterday I just had to climb Mt. Greylock on my bike. It was so worth it. I regret to say that this is only the second time I’ve ascended the roughly 2500 ft. from the reservoir to the summit, but that’s because I got into cycling a little late and the road has been under construction for three years. The views were excellent and I even got a glimpse at my distant beloved white mountains. Check out some low quality pictures.

Here is a long overdue portion of the blog, a MotionBased link:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/dashboard.mb?episodePk.pkValue=8340981

the reservoir

beautiful houses near the entrance to MtG State Park

the hopper valley

the summit from fitch overlook

adams

they say that Mt. Greylock is 9ft short of being considered an “official” mountain by USGS. i think the tower makes up for that though. it still is the highest point in massachusetts

they also say you used to be able to see Boston from here until there was just too much smog. you actually can see the white mtns though, if you look the right way

the famous Mt. Greylock tower. I once climbed up to the light room, when i was in about 6th grade, and i was the highest person on land in massachusetts!

Thanks for viewing!

Ian

Wednesday was the Proctor Circuit race, basically a criterium with 5 different dangerous 90º turns, three of them at high speed. It took place in the giant parking lot behind Nascar’s Loudon speedway, which is basically a glorified desert with some access roads running through it. It has been hot every year I’ve been there, and I think it’s the hardest race we do. The pace is always high and the turns always cause a couple crashes.

Anyway I was right in the race the entire time but 3/5 of the times I attacked, my foot came right out of the pedal and I almost crashed. When the attacks worked and there was someone with me, they would not be willing to do any work, so the boys-A peloton rejoined us. I finished ninth because I broke away too early on the final lap and then was caught in the wind eventually when I did have a lead. Better luck next time.

Here is how the last two weeks of racing have gone for me:
Holderness Road Race: 4th
Gould Road Race: 15th
KUA Points Race (track): 1st
Exeter Time Trial: 1st

Do you see a pattern?
The pattern is that I really only get by in cycling because of my capacity to be in a lot of pain and oxygen debt and still work harder. I finished well in the Holderness Road Race because I was able to claw my way back on the last uphill section before the finish line and almost catch the lead group of three.

In the Gould Race the team from Exeter used their four team members to somewhat of an advantage…one of them would attack right after another and when they got caught they would just tuck in out of the wind and rest. By the uphill section to the finish line I just got mad and wanted to break some people, so I pushed the pace quite hard and dislodged two of the Exeter boys from the pack by the time the finish hill came. At that point I just didn’t want to go at all for the finish, so I let the guys who were still on my tail pass me and took last in the pack sprint. Someone asked me later why I went so hard and I couldn’t give them a straight answer other than that I wanted to hurt people. I thought that maybe physical contact would be inappropriate in a race setting, so I decided to hurt them using my legs and my bike.

The last two races have been more fun than the road races. At KUA, I was once again a loner in the A division, so I tried to figure out a way to play that to my advantage a little. I knew based on the Gould race that no one other than me was willing to actually pull the pack at all, so I decided on a strategy that worked for me and another teammate last year. The race takes place on a 1/3 mile race car track near KUA, and every 5 laps there is a sprint for points. As we were gearing up for the sprint, I stayed at the back of the pack and just watched. I took about 7th across the line, and then moved to the right (the outside) of the track, watching patiently. When I saw an Andover kid take off, I hopped right on his wheel and soon there were three of us, and we had about a 2 second advantage. I was a little surprised the group had given us this much berth, so I got excited and began to sprint, yelling something like, “WE HAVE A GAP, LET’S GO GUYS!” and they looked at me like I had three heads. So about half a lap later I looked back and the two kids were sitting up! The pack was still behind them. I made a decision right there to stay away as long as I could. 5 laps went by, and I won the second sprint. Ten laps, fifteen. I had about a ten second gap when the lap-20-double-point sprint happened, and it was increasing. Every sprint lap my lead on the pack would go down by a few seconds by virtue of the fact that I was time-trialling at a constant pace and they were sprinting to the line. Then they would slow the next two laps and I would be able to gain those couple seconds back and add a couple on my own. I think my average speed for the race was 24.3, basically because I was in the drops in the aero position the entire time producing a steady hard effort. My lead got up to 24 seconds at one point when the pack and I were on the same straightaway but I was not able to catch them by the time the 40-lap race ended.

The Exeter race was a little less exciting because of its time trial format, but because of Nordic I am well-acquainted with the concept. I was the only boy in the Boys A division not to have a teammate, which meant that I did the time trial on my own instead of with a partner. It was a very technical course, with four 90 degree and two 180 degree turns. The trick to the 180 degree turns was to actually approach them really fast, break really hard, turn slowly, and then accelerate with everything you had. Doing the 90 degree turns well was just a question of picking the right line through the manhole covers and drain grates, and not hitting the hay bales at the end of the turn. We saw a bunch of crashes, luckily none of which happened in boys’ A, so I was safe. I ended up winning by almost 15 seconds over the team from Andover. What made me happy was that I started last, so I could pick off the teams as I moved up. I passed everyone except Andover and Exeter team 1, but I could see them as they passed on the other side of the road after the 180 turns, so I knew roughly how I was doing based on at what point on the road we passed each other. The rest of our team also did well. We had several podiums, one from Nate and Jordan, one from Lily, and one from Betsey and Lane, and one from Ethan and Julien.

My training log proudly displays 36.5 hours now, after over 4 weeks of training. I’m on track! Damn, that training month went by quickly. I’m moving on from the “Patience” period to the “Patience and Buildup” period and entering phase two of training for Williams Nordic 2010. I just thought I’d say that cause it sounded cool.

In other news: there are 19 days left of school. It’s bittersweet, but when I think about it, I’d much rather be out of here corresponding once in a while than still be here. It’s been a hard three years for sure, and believe it or not, this spring has been the hardest semester of high school I have ever had. I keep reminding myself it will be over soon.

My final bit of news: I joined an athlete sponsorship website recently, not thinking much of it. A couple weeks ago I submitted an application for sponsorship by Rudy Project. They emailed me back today saying I my application had been accepted! I was thrilled to hear that, so now whenever you visit my “About” page, you’ll see the proudly displayed Rudy logo and link. Here it is again just for good measure.

Soon you’ll see me wearing awesome sunglasses and possibly a helmet to display my sponsor’s name. Thank you Rudy Project!

Ian

This will be a short one. I recently got a Twitter account, and I am fascinated with it. I find it such a cool idea that you can follow your friends and celebrities all in one place.

If you want to follow me, I’m at http://www.twitter.com/iannesbitt. I’m thinking of posting more workout-oriented stuff there.

Yesterday was unbearably windy, so when we decided to go west to Rumney, we were basically blown backwards. We weren’t able to go up Hall’s Brook because it took so long to go west. On the other hand when we came back on Rt. 25, I was able to cruise at about 37 at some parts. Today we’re doing intervals and I’ll be lifting tomorrow.

I love cycling, but it always hurts more than skiing.

Tags: Cycling, Training
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