How I Got Here
Before I dive into the RPI details, I thought I’d offer a little diversion on how I got started with cycling in recent years…I started cycling in 2017-2018, when my friends and neighbors, Brian Hall and Mike Hone, would let me ride with them. At that point, I was occasionally mountain biking up at Snoqualmie Pass for fun, and had an old 2006 Trek OCLV 5200 that I took out every now and then. They hooked me up with their friend, Venny, who owns Edge & Spoke in Redmond, and I bought his used Specialized Tarmac, which I still ride. In 2018, I rode just over 2,500 miles, outside and on Peloton, mostly by myself and sometimes with friends, but always just for fun. I also joined Mike's local team, Audi Cycling and I was lucky enough to head over to Spain and ride with a buddy who lives in the Basque country.
In 2019, I entered my first road race in March that year that ended in disaster with a crash just 4 miles in to a 40 mile category 5 race. Two weeks later, I entered my first gravel race, the Cascadia SuperG, on Mike's bike and had 3 flats, no gear changes (because I didn't know about Di2 crash protection mode), and ended up walking god knows how many miles in road shoes.
In August of 2019, I decided it would be fun to try cyclocross, and so, I bought my first new bike – a Specialized Crux Expert and off I went. In my first cx race at Lake Sammamish, WA, I was entered in the men’s 45+ category 4 field. I won that race and the next one, and I think the field was glad to see the back of me when I upgraded to cat 3 and won that race too at Magnusson Park. I also won the State Champs for my age. The season culminated with me racing at Masters Nationals which were held just outside of Seattle, where I’ve lived since 1999. In the non-championship race, I came in 5th from a starting position of 30th or thereabouts. Being on that wide-angle podium with my team-mate and local racing legend, Ian Tubbs, taking the win, was such a cool moment. The actual championship race was less successful where, from a starting position of 69 out of 71 riders, I came in 29th, a combination of fatigue, inexperience, and a bad starting position sealing my fate.
It didn’t matter though, I was now hooked. Even in 2019 after just a year of riding without actually training, I ended my first cyclocross season as a category 2 rider and felt like it could be possible to be competitive at the age-group Masters level and so I set myself a goal to be ready to challenge for the Masters Nationals title in 2022 when I’d be “racing-age” 50. That’s right – I’ve always believed in the process and I know these things take a long time to come together, especially when you’re starting on the ground floor. So, in December 2019, I set a goal 3 years into the future even though it seemed utterly ridiculous and far-fetched. I closed out 2019 having ridden 5,692 miles and competed in my first 9 cyclocross races.
Throughout 2020, I continued to ride more, eventually closing out the year with 7,579 miles on my bike, but still with no structured training or races, mainly just riding with my friends and also a lot of time on Zwift using my now sweat-encrusted and rusty 2006 Trek OCLV 5200. On Zwift, I was continually frustrated by getting dropped in key moments of races, not sure how the hell these riders could sustain the watts they did. It was then that I felt like I needed to get more serious about addressing my weaknesses, and so, in December of 2020 my team-mate, Cyclocross Masters National Champion, and number one ranked Zwift rider in the world at the time, Laura-Matsen-Ko, recommended her coach to me. I needed to first of all chat with my wife about the prospect of adding a new recurring expense to the family budget, and to my relief she was supportive of me doing that, knowing after 17 years of marriage, what makes me tick and seeing that I needed to pursue this, but also reminding me that family comes first…
|
Year |
Hours |
Miles |
|
2016 |
71 |
754 |
|
2017 |
63 |
812 |
|
2018 |
209 |
2,708 |
|
2019 |
396 |
5,692 |
|
2020 |
465 |
7,579 |
And so, I emailed Patrick Walle of Evoq.bike and thus began
my first coach-athlete relationship since I was in college (I ran track and
x-country at a small school in Louisiana and also throughout my childhood in
Scotland). It’s been 9 months now since I started working with Patrick and
while it’s not always obvious I’m getting better at putting out insane watts
for 1 or even 5 minutes on any given day, when I pull back and look up, I can
say that my endurance has improved dramatically, my FTP has improved
significantly (I’m 154lbs and it’s 335w), and my ability to put an effort in,
recover, and repeat is night and day. More on that in another post, but without
Patrick in my corner, there’s no way I could have been 9th in the GC
at RPI.
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