8/21/09: Hammer Props

Hammer Nutrition is one of our original sponsors. The company and their products have been instrumental in our success. We solicited some direct feedback (pun intended) from our team members to see what importance they attach to using Hammer products and how they feel about the company. Here are some of the comments:

Diran Ayandele - Hammer! I love everything about Hammer. I love the company's guiding principles. I love the loyalty they've shown our team. I love the athlete support they provide in general. Oh yeah, and the products are the finest on the market as well.

Nate Llerandi - I have the privilege of being one of the early Hammer Nutrition customers, from back in 1989. I started using the core Hammer supplements back then leading into my senior year of competitive collegiate swimming and experienced my most successful season by far. From that point on I was sold on the quality and efficacy of Hammer’s nutritional solutions. Using a balance of pre-, during- and post-workout/race supplements gives me an edge I’m not willing to forego.

Ben Buxton - I started using Hammer Nutrition this year and the most noticeable difference for me is the speed of recovery after hard training sessions as well as feeling strong at the end long training rides. I use Recoverite religiously after every training session for glycogen replenishment as well as Hammer Whey for protein supplementation. On the bike, HEED, Hammer Gel and Endurolytes have helped me finish strong on both hard training days as well as races.

Peter Dunlap - This is my first year using the Hammer product line for training and racing. Their energy products have worked well for me and using the endurolytes has made a night and day difference in my performance in longer road races. The biggest revelations for me, however, has been Recoverite. After making Recoverite a part of my post-race routine I've been amazed at how much better I feel the next day. For the first time I've been able to have good results racing on consecutive days. Excellent stuff!

Matt Duncan - There are many things I like about Hammer products. My top one is my improved recovery without the stomach issues I was getting with other products. Even on my toughest training and racing days I have felt remarkably good the following day since I have been following the Hammer recovery process.

Matt Drinker - I've been using Hammer products (HEED, Recoverite, GEL) for the first time this season and have seen a huge improvement in energy and recovery time. I won't race or train without it anymore!

Brad Winn - Just wanted to give a short review of Hammer's Endurolyte capsules. Maybe some of you have already used these extensively, but I only recently was turned on to them, and they work great. During the last stage at Gila, it was about 80 degrees and the race was quite long. I ended up taking a total of 6 capsules over 5 hours along with a bottle of HEED, and I felt GREAT, even at the end of 102 miles of racing. I really do think the Endurolytes had something to do with this. On an earlier stage I tried a different supplement capsule and just didn't feel very good at all. Maybe it was just me, but I think the Endurolytes did their job and helped me to do mine. Bottom line, I'm going to be using these every time it's even remotely warm, and I would definitely recommend them!

8/13/09: End of Season Thoughts

If anyone had said at the beginning of the season that I'd win 4 races in 2009, I would have had a good chuckle. With Mt. Evans as the big goal, I would have been very pleased with just the one win. Overall, for the races I focused on more individually than for the team, it was a much more consistent and solid season than I had hoped to achieve:

Deer Trail - 2nd
Haystack TTT - 1st
Lookout Mtn HC - 3rd
Sunshine HC - 4th
Mike Horgan HC - 1st
Dead Dog Stage Race - 2nd overall
* Road Race - 1st
* Crit - 12th
* TT - 3rd
Mt. Evans HC - 1st

In the crits, with the directive being helping to tee up the sprinters for their shot at victory, I did my best to help make this happen. Helping control the race and leaving it all out on the course during my stint in the leadout train left me way off the back heading into the finish line. Given the team's success in these races, it was a role well worth taking on - not just by me but by everyone who participated. The team is very strong.

Salida and Sunshine HC were the 2 cricks in my neck. At Sunshine, I was still recovering from a bronchial infection and at Salida a flat tire took away my ability to at least have a shot at a top 10 spot. But, that's OK. Looking at the big picture, I've got no regrets with how the season unfolded. Rarely does everything go according to plan. And, if I'm being honest, Salida is the only sub-par result. I can live with that.

Looking at the rest of the 3s peloton, I noticed several things worth mentioning. First, the team I'm on, Feedback Sports Racing, has had an incredible year. Not just in the 3s, but in the 2s as well. Whether we won races or not, we clearly helped dictate how they would unfold. What a great team to be a part of!! Secondly, the quality of the 3s is as high as ever. Some new guys stepped up and some of the old guard really improved this year - Ben Buxton, Jayson Middlemiss and Jordan Sherr to name the first 3 which come to mind (old guard types). Lars Finanger and Todd Robertson impressed me with their dogged consistency in any type of race.

2010 will be interesting. I've upgraded to the 2s, for starters. Not sure if I'll throw my hat in the ring in the P/1/2 races or focus on 35+. Or both, depending on the race. For example, why go to Dead Dog this year and race in a 35+ field of only 7 riders? In any case, it will be nice to have that flexibility. Also going to be shoring up my weaknesses, which forever have been on my top end speed - from the days as an age group swimmer, through my entire swimming career and now as a cyclist. My power/weight ratio lags way, way behind at the top end of things - the 5sec, 30sec and 1min values. Interestingly enough, P/W is strongest at the 5min VO2Max range, with my 20min and 60min values not far behind.

As always, it's been a fun season. Enjoying my downtime until Labor Day before blowing the dust off the bike and starting to get the rust out in preparation for 2010. For those still racing, good luck!

Ride safe,
Nate

8/1/09: Salida RR State Champs

Salida is a beautiful little town, nestled among the mountains in south central Colorado, and home to the hardest road race in the state. Each lap is 12 miles and includes more than 1,300 feet of climbing per lap. This would be a perfect course for the Pro Tour World Championship race; Euro courses hold nothing over this course. Get antsy and spend your energy too early and the second half of the race will be the worst death march of your life. Wait too long and you risk too many folks being together at the end making the gallop to the finish more of a crap shoot.

My goal was to close out a successful season with another solid performance. In my only other showing at Salida 2 years ago, I experienced a terrible day physically but somehow managed a top 10 placing. I was motivated to improve upon that and all indications pointed to a potentially great race. I figured Lars Finanger and Todd Robertson would be the 2 riders to keep an eye on in order to decide exactly when to floor it and when to ease off the throttle.

During the 7-mile neutral promenade from downtown Salida to the actual start line, the legs felt good. The skies were crystal blue where we were headed and the temps were comfortable, though they were slated to rise to about 90 by the time the race itself heated up in the last couple laps. We were to complete 5.5 laps, with the finish line being atop the tough climb at the end of a 1,000m false flat which was straight as an arrow to the line.

Moves worth paying attention to went early and often. I started out holding back, letting others work to close the gaps and sitting in whenever possible. Lars and Todd were the main drivers of these moves, so it was definitely too dangerous to let those big diesels get up the road too far. Out of sight would definitely be out of mind. And, just like at Dead Dog, we had to deal with the maddeningly brainless riding of Brian from Hart. Another very strong rider, he appears to have no concept of how to fluidly work within a group. I lost track of how many times he grinded himself off the front of the paceline to stop it dead in the water. And no amount of coaching seemed to help. We were all a bit relieved when, during the end of the 2nd lap or thereabouts, he decided to push on up the road alone.

Unfortunately, Salida became the race where I had my Denis Menchov day - what could go wrong did and at the absolute worst time. I flatted at the halfway point, while in the lead group of roughly 15. On the descent at 2.5 laps, not far after the finish line, I skittered through an S curve and nearly wiped out and nearly wiped out a couple other guys. John Moro said it looked like my rear tire was going flat (which caused the skittering it turns out). But, the rest of the descent went fine so I chalked it up to some poor bike handling on my part. However, after the right turn at the start line and the next right turn onto the long stretch along the highway before beginning the climbing again, the rear tire felt about half full so I pulled over. Yep, going flat. My teammate, Ben, was in this lead group so as he rolled by I told him to keep going.

The timing was awful. Brian from Hart was still solo up the road and his lead had grown fairly quickly to nearly 2 minutes. Given how strong he was at races like Dead Dog, it was time to start reeling him in. The wheel change took about 2 minutes by the time the support truck pulled over and I found the right wheel to use (I opted for a 10spd SRAM given I run RED). I started back up right as Jordan Sherr, also from Hart, came by and he said he'd try to help me catch back up. A great gesture. For the life of me I could not get on his wheel! After a frustrating mile with my legs on fire, I looked down to see the brake pressed hard against the rim. SHIT! So, I stopped, centered the brake and made sure the wheel was also spinning centered, then got going. Now I was fine, but even further back. I caught Jordan and suggested we work together and see if we could catch back on to the lead group. But, I dropped him as the climbing again started. I wavered between easing off and staying with him, and forging ahead to try to catch the lead group; I decided I had to go for it or I would certainly never see the front of the race again. Sorry, Jordan! I blew past a bunch of guys and trimmed the lead to the leaders to about 45 seconds - I could just see them up the road. For the entire climb through the finish line, about 13-15 minutes, I averaged roughly 350w. An effort I was not going to be able to maintain for much longer.

Then, with about 1 3/4 laps to go, I exploded. At the bottom of the descent approaching the start line and the flat part of the course, the lead group extended its lead; the chase on the lone leader was full gas and the group was motivated. Cutting their lead on me to 45 seconds was the right tease at the wrong time. I completely overextended myself and paid dearly for it. My body imploded so hard that it was all I could do to keep the pedals turning over. Jordan came by me, steady as she goes, as dida couple more riders, in that last lap. The only thing that kept me going was the prospect of a top 20 finish to gain a precious BAT point for the team.

I limped across the line in 21st (irony at its finest). This course was every bit as hard as I remember from 2 years ago. First flat ever in a race since I started bike racing 5 seasons ago. Had to happen at some point.

I found Ben and Brad Winn from our 2s crew, and slumped down on the open bumper of a moving truck, full of post-race supplies. Someone, I can’t even remember who, handed me an already-open Coke, which I promptly chugged. Came right back up. Looked like cat puke on carpet. Nice. Must have sat there for close to 30 minutes trying to get my bearings so I could contemplate remounting my bike to first complete the race lap back to the start line and then the 7 miles back to Salida and my car. At that point, what should have been viewed as a perfect cooldown scenario instead loomed like a monumental effort.

Lars and Todd were the strongest 2 in the race, hands down. They dictated its ebb and flow. Hats off to them for their top 10 finishes, and to Jayson Middlemiss for his impressive 3rd! While this is not the way I would have liked to end the season, I am wholly looking forward to my scheduled month-long break. Figure Labor Day is a fitting day to blow the dust off the bike and start preparations for 2010.

Continued good luck to those who will continue to race the remainder of the season!

Ride safe,
Nate