Back on it.....almost!!

This weekend brought some good things; it also brought room for improvement.  Fact of the matter is that I was racing and that makes me happy.  We raced down in Leonardtown, MD for the MABRA (Mid Atlantic Bicycle Racing Association) Crit Championship.  As always, it would come down to Battley Harley Davidson and us.  I was eagerly excited to see how my glute would hold up.  The good.....it held up very well.  Improvement... I don't have race legs yet, and that showed in the last lap.  The plan was to save me for the last few laps and be the main lead out man for teammates Evan and Nema OR get in a late race break and attack the break with a few laps to go.  7 laps to go and I found myself with 2 non teammates off the front with a 10 second break.  We worked together for the next 6 laps until I launched my solo attack with 1 to go.  I created a bit of separation but unfortunately was caught by 1 of the 2 riders with half a lap to go.  As I was geared up to launch the 2nd attack, the field caught on and I watched our sprinters get ready for the end.  I jumped in to grab 9th place to get a little team money, and Nema took 2nd.  The good is that we rode very well as a team.  The bad is that a race like this....all we care about is 1st place and getting the jersey.  We lost!  I'm eager to get more racing in and come in to form for Nationals in late June.

MABRA Crit Championship...a good race, but we fell short!

 

I also received a recent phone from a friend in Kansas City who asked if I would like to ride as a composite rider for the Nature Valley Grand Prix  (5 day stage race in Minnesota).  I love that race; however its the week before Nationals in Augusta, GA.  It's also the same time as our family trip to northern Wisconsin, which I sadly missed last year.  Not sure it would be of my teams's best interest to burn myself out at NVGP and head to nationals tired.  Some schedule decisions to be made soon.

This coming weekend brings the Wilmington Grand Prix.  Saturday is a hard, fast crit in downtown Wilmington while Sunday is a 100+ mile road race.  (http://www.wilmgrandprix.com/About.aspx),  I'm excited to get some racing under my belt in hopes to be on form for nationals in late June.

For now its day to day with my glute and keeping it healthy.  As long as it holds off, I will continue to race as much as I can.

Updates.....and some!

Greetings....I know its been awhile since I've posted and we've got some things brewing up here.  Lots to catch up on.  First and foremost....

1. Vancouver/Erin Marathon-  what an awesome city!  That place has everything within a 10min drive.  mtns, ocean, snow, city life, culture.  It honestly feels like Madison, WI on steroids.  It has that artsy feel to it.  Oh wait, did I fail to mention it would probably be best to move there with a job!!!  Yeah, it's super expensive, but definitely a fun place to visit.

Erin did awesome with her first marathon.  Unlike me, she was super chill and relaxed in the days leading up to it.  "Jacob, let's go walk here and grab a beer and pizza" say's Erin.  Jacob thinks "Erin, you need to lay in bed, get your legs ready and eat pasta, oatmeal and banana's all day".  As you can see, Erin has a much more relaxed mentality for pre-race activities.... a good thing and a much needed balance in Jacob's life!!  Anyway, race day came along and Erin ran a 4hr40min marathon.  She was hoping for 4hr30min, but she was super happy with her finish.  I'm proud of her and being exposed to the whole running culture was quite different than cycling dorks like myself.  Post race activities included beer, nachos, more beer, pizza and some solid people watching downtown.  It was great!  The following day, we rented a car and headed up famous Hwy 99 (Sea to Sky Hwy) to Whistler.  It was a great day and great trip.

Erin getting her game face on for the race!

Yep, they have big trees there too!

 

2.  Cycling/Jacob/Racing-  it was great to have 4 days off the bike while in Vancouver; however it may have served a bad purpose for the old glute/back injury.  I got back to Philly Tuesday night, got a good night sleep, and headed out to ride Wednesday in preparation for last Sunday's Jeff Cup race.  Well....my glutie wasn't having it and sent some serious pain down that left leg again.  Nightmares of last fall's injury jumped in my head.  Long story short.... I had a pretty serious flair of that injury and had to miss Sunday's big Jeff Cup race.  A race that suites my strengths.  So not cool; however my teammate Rick Norton took 2nd place and we we're happy with that.  For now, I'm working as hard as possible to get this flair up back in order to race for the MABRA (Mid Atlantic Bicycle Racing Association) state crit championship this Sunday.  It's an important race as we need to defend our 1st place victory from last year...securing the jersey is very important (teammate Evan Fader won it last year).  Did I mention, it was at this race last year that I had my initial glutie injury?!?!?  Yep, I've got some demons to take care of at this race.  It's been rather frustrating as I'm in good form right now and simply want to race....badly!!

3.  Job related life:  so my big professional career at the YMCA and Best Buy have taken a bit of a turn.  Best Buy gave me an ultimatum and said I either need to work more hours (I was putting in a whole 5-10hr a week) or kindly turn in my Best Buy name tag and walk away.  Sadly, I walked away.  I'm only joking but not really.  They did ask me to work more hours or not at all and with my schedule, I had to give it up.  So, I'm still the employee of the month at the YMCA and continue to shine there!!!  No bridges burned with Best Buy as they said I could come back anytime I want.

So long my little name tag!!  Its been real!!

4.  I need a serious haircut soon!  This is getting ridiculous.

That's it for now.  Focus is getting my injury taken care of in hopes to be back to racing soon.           

What up Vancouver, B.C.!!

So, I'm in Vancouver at the moment and gearing up for Erin's first marathon.  Wait... did I say I'm gearing up?  She is gearing up.  I think I'm more jacked up than she is.  We are enjoying Vancouver and I'll post up more details when I'm back in Philly.  For now, here's some pictures to get things rolling.  Good luck Erin.  I know you are ready for this as you've been all over your training program this winter.  #%&@ the demons!! 

Rogers Arena.  Home of the Canucks (crazy scene here right now with playoffs going on)

Erin Sutton rocking out the Saucony's.  Big 1st marathon tomorrow for Esut!!!

Gotta love free coffee for the die hard fans.









Did I hear an ER in there?

So it's been a few days since I wrote and looking back at my last post, I could sense some hope in my voice regarding my awesome digestive system.  Well, well, well....if you take a peak at the picture below, you can see that things took a turn for the worse.  Let's just say that Fri/Sat/Sun and Mon were long days......ok really long days!!  While my puking went away Friday night, the big diarrhea sure didn't.   As a matter of fact, it got bad enough that I was having some serious issues with dehydration.  (Okay, maybe too much information, but who cares, we all get it at some point.)  Sunday reached a new pinnacle, and I decided to head to the ER in the late night/early morning hours.  Let me tell you... ER middle of the night= interesting scene.  While there, an older woman came in with a broken hip as she fell out of bed.  She was scared and confused as they brought her in...poor woman!  Also, I heard the announcement come in for a 42yr old who OD'd on something.  5 minutes later, there she was strapped down to the ambulance gurney, head between hands and talking stupid.  All the while, I'm quietly laying in my room, door open, and taking in the scene with 3L of saline solution dripping into my right arm.  Dr. Hicks and nurse Kelly took care of me well and by 3:30am, I was back in Rudy driving home.  All this takes place, every night, at a time that you and I are most often sleeping soundly.

Being sick over the weekend, I missed Sunday's Carl Dolan race in Columbia, MD.  I'm happy to report that we won the race.  Teammate Evan Fader won in his typical fashion, a sprint finish.  Big team victory as I know they had to work hard to bring back a number of breaks while Evan remained fresh and tucked away in the middle of the field.

Easter weekend brings nothing planned on our schedule.  I may or may not seek out a local race to hit up. 

Looking ahead, I am traveling to Vancouver, BC next week to watch Erin's first marathon.  I'm looking forward to seeing her and visiting a new city.  Please let me know if you have any suggestions about the city.

For now, I'm going to continue enjoying eating breakfast...non white rice, non saltines, and non Gatorade.     

Surrender

Wow........I was sick!!!  Yesterday I woke up to a serious desire to hug the cold, porcelain toilet.  I ended up spending a good chunk of my day right there in the bathroom.  In any event, today is Saturday and after several attempts, I think I finally got Gatorade and saltine's to stay in my system.  Yesterday was simply a day of surrender.  I had plans ranging from cleaning to riding, but your body can easily remind you at any time that you do nothing unless you're healthy.  Point be said, don't take your health for granted.  Yesterday was awesome!!! 

The remedy!

Anyway, I am scheduled to race in Columbia, MD Sunday for the Carl Dolan Memorial (http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=13080).  It is a 2.1mile circuit race with a small kicker into the start/finish.  Start time is scheduled for 3:15pm.  I'm not sure yet if I will race as right now I am super weak.  Today is all about getting as much food/liquid into my system as I can.  We'll see how I feel later today and tomorrow morning.   

Crazy Weekend/Rainy Tuesday

Tuesday is here and that means its time to update the blog.  As I type this, rain is falling in heavy amounts.  I guess we'll be on the trainer later today.  Maybe it'll clear up.  Let's be positive.

This past Saturday and Sunday was a solid weekend of racing.  All things considered, I was happy with it, although, I/we have a lot of room for improvement.  I often times am rather hard on myself and yet I need to remember that this was my first bout of racing since last August when I was injured.  My top end form is not quite there yet.  It'll come. 

Saturday 4/9-  Fulton Road Race in Peach Bottom, PA.  This was a 60 mile road race that ended up being an extremely competitive field.  The Harley's showed up and that always means we are going to have our hands full.  There was also a few random strong last minute entries including Stephan Kincaid and Clayton Barrows.  Always got to give a loud shout out for Stephan!!  Anyway, from the gun, there was an attack and soon we had 1 Harley and 1 Kelly (teammate Todd Hesel) up the road.  Fast forward 15 miles and I attacked looking to create a little turmoil in the field and see if I could slowly bridge up to Todd.  1 Harley followed with me and soon we caught.  Now, we have 2 Harley's and 2 Kelly's up the road.  A few soft pedal strokes later and Clayton Barrows, another Harley and another Kelly (teammate Blair Berbert) bridged up.  The break was established and everyone was happy with it.  We would roll as a unit until the 45 mile mark when activity would begin.  Unfortunately, things got ugly for us Kelly's as the 3 of us popped on a climb.....not good!  Blair and I bridged back up, but spent a lot of precious energy to get back on.  Less then 10 miles left and soon a Harley and Clayton were off the front.  Blair and I chased with the other 2 Harleys on our wheel.  Not a good ending for us as we ended up 5th, 6th, and 7th.  Again, we were in the break where we wanted to be but now need to work on the finish.  It'll come!

Sunday:  Immediately following the Fulton race, Blair and I consolidated cars and headed north for the crazy Battenkill.  Huge thanks to Greg Horrocks, his family, Pizza Jeff, and Erik Mitchell for the hotel room, feeds and support.  We could not have done battenkill without you.  Boo yah!!!



Only pic I have from the Battenkill... I know it's lame!!



The batttenkill race was held in the Cambridge, NY area.  It is gorgeous up there.  Blair and I drove up late Saturday night to race at 1:45pm Sunday.  The field was stiff with competition and consisted of somewhere between 125-150 riders.  Our plan was to sit quietly since we did not have a full team there and see if we could get in a late break.  This 100 mile race was awesome.  The dirt roads presented a new challenge that I've never raced against and keeping your composure is key.  Screaming down gravel/dirt hills at 40mph will test your mind...good stuff.  Anyway, Blair and I stayed in the top 20 for the majority of the race as attrition wore on.  Coming into the last 5-10k was a nasty

dirt climb in which I slowly came off the field of 30 guys who were all chasing the lead 2 riders.  They stayed away, the field came in a few minutes after, and I came in a minute later followed by 50 some riders that came in 15-30 minutes after us. The field was shredded as the climbs, dirt/gravel and distance took their toll.  Definitely one of the top 10 hardest races I've ever done and again I was happy with my performance, although I need to keeping working on my top end as I'm not happy I came off with 5k to go.  Immediately after the race, some cookies, chocolate milk and good chatter, Blair and I were on the road headed south for a long night in the car.  Legs felt like oak trees, yet we were both smiling.  Life is good!

This weekend brings more racing.  Not exactly sure where, but I'll post soon.     

Oatmeal Tuesday... oatmeal everyday!

Happy Tuesday to all.  I woke up to some warm rain in the area....clear skies are coming... I hope. 

 Lots to catch up on.  It was a busy weekend, unfortunately....no racing!  I'll start with that.  A few of us were going to hit up a race in Morgantown, WV on Saturday; however cold rain, long drive (5hrs) and lack of it being a mandatory team race and you can guess....we bailed.  Instead, I got in a solid training day with the Java Boy's in the Philly area.  Good times.  Sunday, I ended up meeting my teammate Blair Berbert in Greencastle, PA for a gut retching 80 mile ride.  Oh and did I mention, it was 9,000 feet of climbing.  Love training with Blair as we push each other.  Best of luck to him as he prepares for Tour of the Gila in New Mexico to be held later this month.


Blair and I this weekend in Greencastle, PA... Really Blair, yellow bar tape!?!?!?

Non bike related:  Last Friday, I made a move from my awesome Parc Bistro apartment to a great little 3 bdrm house, owned by my friend Jim Godshall.  It was all about finances as I've loved every minute of living above the Parc Bistro.  Bob Repash (GM) and the entire staff are awesome.  Hands down... they serve the best food in Skippack.  Stop by sometime and tell them Jacob sent you.  I really didn't want to leave, but unfortunately, right now, it's all about saving money.  I've moved into a little 3 bedroom ranch and my buddy Jim has been so accommodating to me.  New place is always exciting.  I'll throw some pictures up soon! 

Race related:  We have plans to attend the Fulton Road Race this Saturday (http://www.bikereg.com/events/Register.asp?EventID=13106) and use it as a training race.  As with any race, we won't forget that it's a RACE.... we want to win it.  The bigger event comes Sunday with Battenkill (http://www.tourofthebattenkill.com/).  As stated below, it's a big deal.  Blair and I are headed up to see what kind of early season legs we really have.  I'll post results afterwards. 

For now, a ride is calling my name.  I also need to call my friends and Best Buy and get some hours.  Oatmeal is now gone and coffee is down to a drip.