Air Force Classic

[Harry Meatmotor]

@Steve O 118157 wrote:

And it wouldn’t cost $65.

…snip…

So next year I think I may volunteer to marshall.

PRO-TIP: Volunteering to help could net you free registration for the Crystal Ride…

[Harry Meatmotor]

@Tim Kelley 118098 wrote:

I believe that was actually Damian Lopez Alphonso (the guy who lost both arms below his elbows) that was riding under Tracy’s number. (Google his name and prepare to be impressed)

Also – not to shamelessly shill, but here’s his GoFundMe page for anyone inclined to help support him!

[Vicegrip]

@Sunyata 118162 wrote:

Were they all extremely matchy-matchy in their kits and helmets (and probably even shoes)? If so, I am pretty sure I know who you are talking about. They are mountain bikers and kick my ass every time I ride with them.

Yep. Considering how good they made tandem riding look I say they get a pass on the matchy matchy

[hozn]

@Steve O 118157 wrote:

This was the first time I’ve ridden the Air Force Cycling Challenge, and, to be frank, it wasn’t all that much fun. Although it’s good to be on closed roads, they are mostly big highways without really any scenery.

Yeah, I’ve never really understood the huge popularity of this particular ride; maybe I’ll do it someday with the kids, they might get a kick out of riding on the closed highways. I do agree that the weekend in general is fun, though, and love that Arlington hosts these events. Usually I try to watch at least one of the races — the Mens 123 (maybe 1234 this year) is fun. This year was just going with my son to participate in the kids race in Clarendon, which is always awesome.

As a tangential anecdote, my son claimed that he was going to win [heat 2 of the kids race] this year. I told him that sounded great and he should certainly try to ride fast, but make sure he stayed in control of his bike. Well, he was pretty much dead last [again]; he said that the big kids just went too fast and he couldn’t catch up. I told him that it’s not entirely fair in these races because the bigger-wheeled bikes with gears are simply going to be able to go faster [than 14″ wheels geared easy]. “But that is so mean!” “Well, life is kinda mean sometimes.” Next year he’ll have gears, though he probably has to move up into heat 1 soon. And those kids have real road bikes with Zipp wheels and everything. Everyone [in the kids race] gets a medal, but clearly that doesn’t hide the truth forever.

Edit: Unicycle in 2017 sounds great. I can ride a few meters at this point before losing it, so I’m almost ready.

[thucydides]

Going off on a non-sequitur here, but I’m just amazed at how many major events happened within about 200 miles this past weekend. Aside from you folks at AFC, there were two half-iron triathlons (Ironman Eagleman in Cambridge) and Challenge Williamsburg (you want to talk hot!) plus an off-road triathlon (Xterra Richmond) and the Chesapeake Bay Swim. I’ve done all these events excepting the bay swim (keep losing the lottery) and they’re all awesome in their own way. I just wish they didn’t conflict with each other.

[PotomacCyclist]

I might try the Challenge Williamsburg race again next year. I tried it the first year, when they had the swimmers go against the powerful current and almost 20 percent of the field dropped out. (They talked me into dropping out of the swim because I was struggling against that current too. I was too tired to get into an argument at that point, while I was still in the water.) I missed it the next two years, including this past weekend.

I doubt I’ll try Eagleman again. I tried that a few years ago, but I also had problems on the swim there. My goggles were clouded up with some sort of lotion, which I must have picked up from a towel at the gym. I couldn’t see anything in the water. I couldn’t even see the people standing in front of me while we were still standing on the shore. So I swam even more of a zig-zag than usual. I barely missed the time cutoff, but they didn’t even tell me until after I finished the entire bike ride (in the hot June heat with hardly any shade at all on that course). I got a nasty sunburn on my lower back and it didn’t even count.

Williamsburg is more interesting than Cambridge, MD.

If I don’t do the Williamsburg race, I might sign up for the Challenge Ride instead.

[sjclaeys]

@kwarkentien 118120 wrote:

Audrey Clement is NOT a County Board Member. She’s a perennial candidate of the Green Party but most recently is running as an “Independent” hoping that new moniker might change the outcome for her. But your observation about her laughable “reckless endangerment” statement is spot on. Plus, I can’t imagine what route she might have had to take to get to the Courthouse that would’ve have anything to do with the Clarendon Cup road closures that could be in any way perceived as a “risk to her life.” But what is a politician without hyperbole!!

Sorry for not more carefully reading the ArlNow article. Her statement is still pretty outrageous, especially since she is a Green.

[PotomacCyclist]

@Steve O 118157 wrote:

This was the first time I’ve ridden the Air Force Cycling Challenge, and, to be frank, it wasn’t all that much fun. Although it’s good to be on closed roads, they are mostly big highways without really any scenery. I guess the Air Force Memorial is kinda cool, but it looks the same on every lap.
Since I had set a personal goal of 6 laps and didn’t know what that would take, I wanted to build a buffer of time before the last couple of laps. So I only took one 2-minute water break and ended up riding alone most of the time (with the exception of the enjoyable 2/3rds lap I rode with sjclaeys). Even at that I only finished with about 8 minutes to spare, so I couldn’t have taken many other breaks anyway.

So it just felt like a grind in hot weather. Good thing the medal is real gold.

On the other hand, I had a great time watching the pros race and drinking free starbucks promos and rooting through the bargain bins and enjoying a mint milkshake from Coldstone, etc. So the event is a good time, but not so much the ride for me. Honestly, if next year I wanted to do a bunch of miles before watching the Criterium, I could find a much nicer ride–say down to Mt. Vernon or something. And it wouldn’t cost $65.

That said, I do think supporting the whole weekend (I also watched the men’s race on Saturday after getting my packet) of cycling in Arlington is good.
So next year I think I may volunteer to marshall. At least that way I’ll have more social interactions without feeling like I have to keep pushing hard just to get around a set number of times.

Then in 2017 hozn and I will do it on unicycles.

I looked into unicycles a couple years ago, but I never got around to getting one. If I ever do get one, I would consider riding it at the Challenge Ride. Or trying to ride it. I don’t know if I would be able to finish a lap on a unicycle.

[PotomacCyclist]

After a brief amount of research, I see that the longest continuous unicycle ride, without stepping down once, is reportedly 105.57 miles. That would be tough even on a bike, not stepping down once. I don’t know how they verified this though. Did they get the expert unicycle watcher at the Human Transport Division of Guinness to check?

I also found a unicyclist forum where they mention that some guy rode across all 50 states on a unicycle, covering 9,136 miles. I guess if he can do that, I might be able to ride 9.5 miles on a unicycle one day.

[kwarkentien]

@MattAune 118134 wrote:

She risked her life because she literally lifted her bike over the fence in an attempt to cut across the course as the peloton of the pro race was approaching. She then got in an argument with some teammates about why it was such a problem for her to walk a block and cross the course at a guarded crossing.

Wow! Just wow! A quick hop up to Key Blvd would’ve fixed everything with no fuss, no muss. That’s a special kind of stupid.

[Lt. Dan]

@kwarkentien 118216 wrote:

. That’s a special kind of stupid.

Well, she’s a politician, so…….

[thucydides]

@PotomacCyclist 118180 wrote:

I might try the Challenge Williamsburg race again next year. I tried it the first year, when they had the swimmers go against the powerful current and almost 20 percent of the field dropped out. (They talked me into dropping out of the swim because I was struggling against that current too. I was too tired to get into an argument at that point, while I was still in the water.) I missed it the next two years, including this past weekend.

I doubt I’ll try Eagleman again. I tried that a few years ago, but I also had problems on the swim there. My goggles were clouded up with some sort of lotion, which I must have picked up from a towel at the gym. I couldn’t see anything in the water. I couldn’t even see the people standing in front of me while we were still standing on the shore. So I swam even more of a zig-zag than usual. I barely missed the time cutoff, but they didn’t even tell me until after I finished the entire bike ride (in the hot June heat with hardly any shade at all on that course). I got a nasty sunburn on my lower back and it didn’t even count.

Williamsburg is more interesting than Cambridge, MD.

If I don’t do the Williamsburg race, I might sign up for the Challenge Ride instead.

I did Williamsburg the year of the grizzly swim as well and it’s a MUCH better run race now. They also really screwed up logistics that year in a variety of ways (late shuttles, really late bag return, created massive gridlock which really annoyed locals). It’s now a well run race and I think they learned some things from the swim and now adjust things to mitigate the current if they can. (Although that year was a fluke with a supermoon tide and big rains earlier). Eagleman to me isn’t that great. (Of course I say this despite the fact that I’m doing IM Maryland this year which is Eagleman X2. How stupid is that?) You’ve got to get housing a year out and there’s really not much for the family to do if they come. So Williamsburg > Eagleman for sure. The main downside is the heat but that affects Eagleman and the Air Force Classic, too. Williamsburg had really well run water stations with plenty of ice. I’ve a friend who is pushing 70 and managed to get ice even when just about everyone else was done.

[PotomacCyclist]

I had heard better reviews from last year’s Williamsburg race. At the Tri-Mania expo this March at the American Univ. campus, I stopped by the Challenge Family Triathlon table. The guy at the table turned out to be the race director for the Williamsburg race. I didn’t know it at first. I mentioned that I had tried the Williamsburg race that first year and had some issues, including a safety issue.

A lot of people bailed out on the swim voluntarily. So many that all of the boats filled up and returned to shore. I was more stubborn and stayed out there in the middle of the James River. But I was really struggling against that current. It was the first time I’ve ever gotten that fatigued during an open water swim. I’m slow but I normally have no problem with the distance. That day, my shoulders got very sore and worn out, from fighting against that strong current. I swam for 10 minutes at one point and only moved forward about two feet. I could tell this because I got stuck next to one of the buoys. I thought that it had come loose from its anchor, but no, it was the current. I later read about similar experiences in other people’s race reports, including one from a pro athlete who thought about quitting during that swim.

When I looked up, I saw that there were no boats at all in the river. That got me somewhat concerned. I was almost in the middle of the James River, fighting a strong current, not making much headway and getting fatigued. The only thing I could do was continue fighting that current. About 5 or 10 minutes later, one of the boats finally returned. They pulled up alongside me and one of the volunteers started talking to me. I always wear silicone earplugs in the water, so I didn’t hear him at first. Then I heard him. He started trying to convince me to drop out. He pointed out that I hadn’t made any progress in 10 minutes or so. He was right, but I didn’t want to drop out. We started getting into a debate. I kept asking him what the time was, to see if there was any chance of making the time cutoff. He wouldn’t say. Maybe he didn’t have that info, which was a possibility. I was too tired to continue the discussion, being in the water and still fighting that current. So I gave in and climbed onboard the boat. They drove me back to shore on a separate jet ski.

Of course I was disappointed in what had happened. But then I thought about the old saying that if life hands you lemons… I knew that the Jamestown historic settlement was just across the road and I still had my bike there. I rode along the cobblestone roads around the settlement site, even though the buildings no longer exist. I rode along the Colonial Parkway and back to Williamsburg. I actually saw more of the history and sights than the people who stayed in the race. Many of them may not have had the time, or energy, to ride around there after the race, or before.

Despite all this, I do plan to return there at some point. I wanted to sign up last year, but I messed up my training in winter 2014, got sick (from not eating enough during long workouts), and decided not to register. I signed up for the Challenge Ride instead, where I was also undertrained. Then, as I noted earlier, I did a hard run hill workout a couple days after the ride and messed up my quads. (That’s the precise medical description.) I was never the same for the rest of the year because I never took enough time off to let the quads heal completely. After the Nation’s Triathlon in Sept., I took a few months off with almost complete rest. No running at all and no real bike workouts. I only did one or two easy CaBi rides in three months, then the Thanksgiving bike scavenger hunt/charity ride.

I don’t mind the heat, but I did mind the lack of shade at Eagleman. That and the remote location. So each June, I’ll decide between the Challenge Ride, Williamsburg or nothing (like I did this time).

[thucydides]

Sorry to hear about 2013, though that’s pretty cool how you took advantage of the rest of the day. I managed to do the whole swim. Basically when I (finally) figured out what was going I did an all out sprint into the current until I got free of the big washing-machine that had built up from all the different swim waves getting stuck in about one acre of water. After that it wasn’t too bad, but I know the whole swim took a load out of me that I paid for on the run. Overall I think the Rev3 people got really really lucky that no one drowned. I seem cursed on half-irons and weather. I did Musselman last year in the middle of a huge storm. 20 mph sustained winds with greater gusts. The lake boiled. 3 foot waves come from every direction. That race ended up with about the same percentage of folks dropping as Williamsburg in 2013. This year back in Williamsburg it was the heat. Ah well, the variation helps keep it interesting.

[PotomacCyclist]

I was spending much of this year focusing on the swim, because it is such a weakness for me. But I guess I got a little burned out and took a couple breaks. (As a result, I didn’t feel ready for the Swim Across the Potomac, from Alexandria to National Harbor, and didn’t bother to sign up. The swim was the weekend before the Challenge Ride and the triathlons.)

I found that long pull buoy sets seemed to help my swim-specific strength quite a bit. As a side benefit, I found that it improved my upper-body strength in general. Normally, they say that to work on strength, you should be doing harder exercises/heavier weight where the rep range is only in the 3 to 6 range. Swim sets where you are hundreds or thousands of strokes wouldn’t seem to qualify as a true strength workout (although it’s good for technique and muscular endurance).

But when I got back to doing occasional strength workouts, I was finally able to ramp up to doing one-arm push-ups, for the first time ever. I was only doing one upper-body strength session every 2 or 3 weeks. That’s not nearly enough to make big gains in strength. I found the staggered push-ups and the one-arm incline bench push-ups to be easier and easier, so I went for the true one-arm push-ups with a hand on the floor. (Bench push-ups are easier. The one-arm version is tougher, but it’s easier than one-arm push-ups on the floor.) I managed to do a few reps, whereas in the past, I had always struggled just to hold the one-arm start position. The only change I made this year was all those swim pull sessions, with a pull buoy and ankle bands. I didn’t even do that much paddle work.

I’ve heard some people claim that standard two-hand push-ups helped them to develop a lot of strength, even when the push-ups got so easy that they were doing dozens or even hundreds of reps per session. I thought that didn’t make any sense, because of the rep range. But after my experience with the swim pull sets and the one-arm push-ups, I think there’s something to it.

Anyway, I need to do more hill work on the bike and run. My biking and running could probably get a boost from a little more sport-specific strength. Actually, doing any bike training would help. I haven’t really done any athletic-type bike workouts this year, although I’ve done several longer (but slow) CaBi rides in the 2-hr range and above. (I dock and undock the bikes to get under the 30-min. limit, most of the time.)

[Author]

Posts