Criterium Training Time

At the end of this month Michelob Ultra is sponsoring Cascadia Crit Series held in our fair city of Seattle. I for one, will be racing on the very streets that I get the privilege of training on everyday, those being the second and third criteriums of the series.

May 30th - 35th and Phinney, Fremont: Cat 4/5's @ 10:20am

June 5th - 20th and Ballard Ave, Ballard: Cat 4/5's @ 4:00pm

Yesterday I did 4 sets of intervals during my training ride in preparation for what I am anticipating a crit race will be like. Each set consisting of 4 all out, pedal to the metal sprints for 1 minute immediately followed by 1 minute of easy spinning, with 4 minutes of easy spinning between each set. I usually don't put much emphasis on intervals during my training because, well...its really painful, and I'd much rather save my efforts for all the 10-20% grade hills I ride on everyday.

Needless to say, my efforts should really be applied toward my weakness... sprinting, which means if I'm aiming to do well in Criteriums, "intervals" need to be a priority. With that said, during my recovery ride today I took a visit to both the Fremont course and the Ballard one. All I can say is, Holy Crap. Both of these courses are on the shittiest roads in Seattle...or close to the shittiest.

Let's take a look:

Fremont .8mile Loop counter-clockwise concrete road: 35th to Canal St. to Phinney to 35th:

Start at white Jeep, sprint to left 180 degree turn at the end of the road.


Said 180 turn (L to R), photo does no justice to cracks in the road, there will be many crashes at this very spot. Slowing from 30mph into this? Lame.


.2mile straight road with heavy separation between slabs of concrete


2nd turn L-R


Turn 3 L-R, smooth/fast to finish. If your watching from the patio @ Brouwer's Cafe this will be your view (except you'll likely have 1 of their 364 brews in hand)


How exciting.

Ballard 1km loop counter-clockwise on brick, concrete, and asphalt: 20th and Ballard Ave to Vernon to Shilshole to 22nd to Ballard Ave:

Starting Line at intersection


L-R Left hand turn on Vernon to slight downhill


Left hand turn onto Shilshole. I pity the fool who tries to take this one on the inside and gets a piece of that asphalt.


Nasty left turn onto brick 22nd


I mean real nasty


Then left back onto semi-asphalt Ballard Ave to finish. Hopefully avoiding both sewer caps.


Got my eye on the primes, just gotta keep my rubber on the road.

When Taking It Easy Goes Wrong, Sort Of [Pt. II]

The other day, the boys and I went out for a little ride. And by "the boys" I mean Brad and Matt. It's literally been months since we all rode together, which is really pathetic if you ask me. Considering the rare occasion, we decided to take it easy and ride out to Fremont and enjoy the classic Gas Works Park scenery. It's a pretty mellow 4 miles, fun for the whole family.

After powering through endless swarms of gnats, being as how we are riding along the water front most of the time, we made it safely to the ever crowded Gas Works... A little too crowded, so we chugged along in hopes of a more relaxing spot. We eventually found the said spot, on the other side of the water. So on our way to the Fremont Bridge for some water crossing we spotted a huge bike gang, who just so happened to be egging us on to join the ride. Naturally, and skeptically, we did.


This picture doesn't really do any justice to the size of the group, there were atleast 30 peeps.

So we caught up to the group and chatted a little bit only to discover that it seemed as though NOBODY in the group seemed to have any idea as to where they were all headed. Sounds awesome. We trucked along figuring that we'd end up at some bar close by (they seemed like the drinking type). As almost a half hour or so of zig zagging our way through town (due north, which should be a bitch of a hill climb but wasn't somehow?) we found ourselves out in Shoreline (Google Map it) at a grocery store of all places... Go figure, what the hell would 30+ grungy cyclists be doing there?

BEEEEER!

It was getting late and unfortunately Brad was hoodie-less, I was glove-less and Matt... Well Matt was probably fine, but all in all we weren't really prepared for what was talk of a late night bonfire and lots of beer. Before ditching everyone at the store we asked one of the "leaders" what this was all about. Turns out they are all members of the infamous Point Eight Three bike club. As one could imagine, the name was born after the groups first ride... where they only made it .83 miles before stopping at a bar and getting wasted beyond repair (forgive me for any minor inaccuracy, for I was not present for the birth of .83)

Needless to say, we will return for future rides and we will be well prepared :)


Brad Terry


Matt Gastelum


Flat tire break

Michelob Ultra Circut - BUST

Since today's race was too far for me to make it, I did my own "Tour of Seattle."

It was a pretty awesome ride. Found myself some 27% grade hill climb (Ooowee).
Check out my loop here.

2-Oh-Sickness Relief

Come out and support some local fun. (Via GoMeansGo)