The Fam. 

Columbus Part 2

I did not mention that Columbus has a leaders jersey this year. Shannon had the chance to ride in yellow for the womens p1/2/3 road race. The only draw back was all they had was large so she had to pin the jersey so that it did not flap all over the place in the wind.
Okay, well here comes the part of the race where I walk into the door. The individual TT was about 3.5 to 4 hours after the finish of the road race. Seeing as I did not get much sleep the night before I tried to get some in between the road race and TT. Due to the high humidity and sheer heat we all did the bulk of our warmup in the hotel room. This helped cut down on the fluid loss. After warming up we rode over to the start and did our thing. I took off feeling good and kept my 30 sec. man in sight the whole time then I felt the roughness of the road with about 3 miles to go. Then I looked down and sure enough my tire was going flat. Watching my speed I noticed that it was going down, while my percieved exertion was going up. So I kept going but after a mile of flat, my 30 sec man was further down the road than before. I ended up losing time to the second place guy in GC, which moved me to 2nd in GC.
Sunday morning, the crit. well, I got alot more sleep for this race and I was happy. My legs felt good and I had some of my oatmeal (glue as nathan calls it) which keeps me from getting hungry. The race started off good. I just stayed up in the front 5 the whole race which kept the accelerations and decelerations to a minimum. Nathan helped out when a situation arose, where the guy in 3rd (GC) got down the road and I was blocked out of the attack so could not react. Nate helped to real the guys closer to the pack. I was feeling good all the way to the end, Carlos countered on of my last attacks and I just could not get up to him. Keeping me in 2nd overall. I have to thank those of you who were there cheering us on during the race. This definately helps.
O yea, Shannon was able to pull the "W" for the womens crit.
Hopefully there wil be some pictures that can be posted from the race.

Matt "I cant sleep" Seagrave

Columbus Stage Race

Well, I am back at my folks house. This weekend was like walking down a dark hallway that has closed door. Yes you will get to your final destination ok, but for the short time when you walk smack into the door it hurts.
Fridays evening was the Prologue (1.5miles). Everything was going good then fourth pedal stroke into it I pulled right out of my pedal. I made it into my rhythm and was moving well then on the fourth or fifth turn I started to take the turn too much speed and about took a small group of people out so I had to grab my brakes, (and for those of you who are familiar with my TT, yes I did have my brakes set so they would grab for the prologue) after that I got my self back up to speed and was off and was able to secure a descent finish and within striking distance for tomorrow.
Saturday, this was interesting seeing as I did not get more than three hours of sleep. So when I got up for the road race I thought to myself. Well, I really hope I don't let the guys down today. I was feeling good, but just questioned the lack of sleep. Since we were staying just down the road from the start we rode there. From the gun everything was good and staying together with a few breaks. I never initiated anything but would just sit on wheels that rolled. With about 1.5 miles to go in the 4th of 5 laps troy was on the front with me on his wheel just cruising at about 22mph when I hear on the radio "you have a gap" so I half look over my shoulder and then tell Troy we have a gap so I jump instantaneously. This last mile of the loop goes through winding roads of downtown Columbus so I think get a gap and out of site. So I make it through this section past the feed zone and am able to get a bottle. Then put my head down and go and tell myself "it is only 30km" I pretty much rode scared the whole time. Taking a mental survey of how my body was doing every 5-10 minutes and made adjustments accordingly. When I came back into town I told myself get to the bridge, when I got to the bridge I stood up and tried to get to the line as fast as I could. So with the gap I had over 2nd place and the main group I was now the leader of the race.
I will finish this in another installment tonight or tomorrow.

Trivia

Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?

you can put your answer in the comments section, and I will post the correct answer in a couple days.

State Time Trial Continued

Ok, so Saturday mooning we get out the course around 7 a.m. and begin to unpack and get everything ready. My body was not waking up so I grabbed a Monster out of the cooler and took a sip. After a couple minutes on the bike and I was ready to get my warmup rolling. The warmup I do is anywhere from 45 to 55 minutes depending on the temperature outside. Nathan had figured out that from the car to the start line was about a ten minute ride. This was going to workout perfect for my warmup plans. With about 15 minutes until my start I get my bike off the trainer and put the disc on that Nate let me borrow for the weekend. Put the aero helmet on and put a fresh bottle in the cage and one more laying on my aerobars for the ride to the start line. Once I get to the start line I see I have about 8 minutes to go. So I double back and do two last very short pickups and then go to the start line with two minutes to go and wait. I am called up and ready to get this going.
I am off. 200 meters later a massive wind and downpour hit. I can not see a thing and my bike is being pushed all over the road this lasted about 12km or so. Once it stopped and I could read my computer I looked down to see my heart rate, I was good so I kept going at that intensity. A couple minutes later I looked down at my speed, because I was feeling really comfortable and saw 33mph. I was happy and at this point getting ready for the turn around. After the turn around I was able to catch a couple people. One guy I caught, I ended up going back and forth with for the rest of the race.
When the race was over a small group of us were asking each other what times we had posted. After checking with a few guys I had an idea that I finished top three, but was still not real sure. So the team waited around to find out what the official results were. I ended up taking the win. This what I had wanted, mostly because I have been struggling with getting comfortable on my TT bike and Saturday was the first day this year I was able to put a good ride together.

Matt

State Individual Time Trial

Today was the State Time Trial, and I have good news to share. Both Troy and myself took the state title. Troy in the U23 category and myself in the P12. I will give the detail later on when I am done eating.

Matt

A Wise Old Owl

A wise old owl sat on an oak,
The more he saw the less he spoke;
The less he spoke the more he heard;
Why aren't we like that wise old bird?

-Edward Hersey Richards-

Ponder!

He who knows not and knows not that he knows not,
He is a fool--shun him;
He who knows not and knows he knows not,
He is simple--teach him;
He who knows and knows not he knows,
He is asleep--wake hime;
He who knows and knows he knows,
He is wise; follow him.