About Doug

Thu - August 24, 2006

New Blog

I started a new blog at dougswanson.blogspot.com , check it out. I had to do it, this one was getting kind of old school. Now I can update much easier. I know blogger is trendy and all that, but it does work remarkably well.

Posted at 04:34 PM Read More

Wed - August 16, 2006

I'm Back, sort of.

Well faithful blog readers, I am back. It's been a crazy month and I don't have energy to talk about it all on here right now, but I did want to get a brief recap of what has been going on. I am married. It was a great wedding, I really enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks to everyone for their support and love, we have been overwhelmed. Leading up the our big day we were doing wedding stuff all the time. There was a different party every night for a week. Then we went on our honeymoon to Vancouver, B.C. It was a great place, with perfect weather, and we took full advantage of it by hiking and site seeing and a little BC mountain biking just to top it off. The mountain biking out there is for real. I wish we had trails like that here.

I hope to start updating more frequently as I have time. Things are slowly getting back to normal. I've already done two races since I got back last week, Ore to Shore and a TNT time trial last night. Ore to Shore didn't quite go as planned, as in, I didn't win, or make any money. I guess I didn't expect too much since my training has pretty much been non-existant, but I always go for the win no matter how I feel. I got the holeshot and set myself up at the start, but this Simonson dude just dropped us all like a bad habit. I was the only guy to hang with him on the first climb, but then he rode me off his wheel. I kind of sat up because I didn't really have him marked but he proved to be very worthy of the win. I got into the chase group, recovered and then rode hard on the front on and off for an hour or so. No one else really wanted to chase too hard. So I maybe over did a little, but I wanted to win, not settle for second. Unfortunately, I forgot to eat a drink enough, I didn't have enough water with me, and I didn't take enough out on the course. Coupled with my hard efforts, I bonked bad and rode in on my low gears. We had a fun ride back in the VW camper with Scotty and Sara KJ. Sara won the race of course, since she is the best in the midwest at those kind of races.

Tuesday night I hit up the local TT series. It's right by my house so I couldn't resist the chance to hit it up once before the end. I didn't feel great, but I guess I felt good enough to win and set the course record. The times are all screwed up though. I don't know how hard it is to take TT times, but I guess it must be harder than you think because no one ever seems to be able to do it. It was fun anyway since I really like rocking the TT bike. It's still my coolest bike... Well, I need to hit it for tonight. I'm racing Spirit on Sunday, see all you MTB dudes up there.

Posted at 06:21 PM Read More

Wed - July 5, 2006

Another State Champ in the Family

Dan won the Minnesota State Crit Championship on the 4th. He really put together a strong ride and showed everyone a clean set of wheels at the line. I was able to help him a bit, pulling back moves and doing what I could to keep the race under control. Our whole team really showed their Green at this race. Everyone put in some amazing efforts. I say good job team! A clean sweep of the State Championships! With 3 different riders. It really goes to show you how much depth our team has.

Posted at 06:55 PM Read More

Sat - June 17, 2006

NVGP : Stage 3 Minneapolis Crit - Crash and Burn

My race ended last night at the Minneapolis crit. It started raining as soon as we started. And it got darker and scarier by the second. I was feeling great at first, but soon the rain was coming down in sheets and I couldn't see a thing. My contacts were killing and my tires started sliding around like I was on ice. Of course my brakes didn't work either, so the combination became too much. I couldn't believe we were actually racing in it. It was dangerous and stupid. I'm really upset that they didn't call the race sooner. As it was, about about 14 minutes I crashed into a barrier. I was unhurt but I fell off the back of the field. As I got up to speed and attempted to chase back on, I crashed into another set of barriers. My brakes just didn't work in time so I couldn't slow down. I impacted into the fences at well over 20 mph. Instantly, my arm was killing me and I could only think of getting off the course as soon as possible. I couldn't move my wrist without serious pain. I sat on the curb and some people helped me with my bike. By now I was soaked to the bone, I thought my race was over and my wrist was broken. The leaders came by and another crash happened at the same corner, and as I walked along the course, another crash on the next corner. I heard one lap to go, they were calling the race off. Quickly, I jumped on my bike and pedaled to the finish to get a time and the ability to race the next stage. I got into the car and tried to strip off my wet clothes but I could use my left hand at all. Any twisting motion made my wrist feel like hell. After some icing and rest, I felt like I would try to continue stage four. I got myself up and my stuff into the car. Dan got us down to the race. I then got on my bike and tried to figure out how I was going to hold on to the bar. I was ok on the tops and I could sort of use the brakes but I couldn't stand up at all or sit in the drops. The angle on my wrist was too painful. I knew I would be worthless in the race in this condition and for my safety and potentially that of others I had to bag it. I didn't want to crash because I could barely hold on to the bars. Besides that, Anne was flying in from Bangkok at 1 and I would now be able to greet her at the gate. I was really bummed to watch the race take off without me in it, but I knew I had made the right call. After getting Anne home I went to the Doc to get some x-rays. We didn't find any serious damage. Maybe a light crack on one of the middle bones there, but nothing to worry about too much. Mostly just a bad sprain. I think I should be back riding in few days. It doesn't really matter though. I am going on break. I knew NVGP was going to be my last race for a while. I was bummed I had to end it this way, but that's how it goes sometimes. Maybe I'll recover and do state road next weekend, but I'm not going to push it if I'm hurting. I've had a great spring and I have no regrets. I'm looking forward to spending some time with Anne and going up north to play in the lakes. I'm excited to get married in just over a month, and for our honeymoon to Canada. Once I'm back from that, I'm going to start training hard for Cyclocross and continue with my later season goal of making the worlds team. I might take the blog offline for a while and come up with something a little different for the next half of the season. I'll post more when I decide. Thanks to everyone for the support. I truly appreciate it. We'll keep in touch.

Thats my new gauntlet. And the other pic is Tilford and Page battling in the rain. Tilford won because when it gets crazy he gets going.

Posted at 07:33 PM Read More

Thu - May 25, 2006

I gotta get a dot com...

I decided I am tired of the complicated web address. Last year I saw Pattycakes had a t-shirt that said www.patlemieux.com and he told me I needed to get on the ball. Well, it turns out dougswanson.com is already taken, but I do have the option of registering dougswanson.net. I'm not sure what I should do. Is it cooler to have a .com? I could get dougswansonnewsline.com but that's sorta long. Well, it doesn't really matter I guess, I was just thinking of how it would look on the t-shirt...

Posted at 04:34 PM Read More

Thu - May 11, 2006

Don't Spoil My Fun

This entry is dedicated to the red white and black of team Flanders. Sure they have a cool Euro sounding name, but does that give them the right to spoil all our fun at Opus on Tuesday!? Scott himself showed up and rallied the troops. He said, "Don't let those Swanson bros. go anywhere without one of you guys on there, and DON"T work with them!!" And so it went. Scott shut Dano out of his sweet early moves, and then, when Dan and I combined forces for the super ultimate finishing move with 7 laps to go, Adam Fromeing clings on and shuts us down! One last ditch effort was all I had left and with one to go I went for the glory move. Who other than Eric Dahl sticks to me like glue. I still ended up third on the day, but it was a hard earned third. Well played Flanders, well played. Just for that, I give you a photo of our large-footed super domestic. He is ready to throw down next week, short stem and all.

Posted at 06:57 PM Read More

Sat - March 25, 2006

Elite Nationals a Joke?

I was thinking about heading to Seven Springs for the Elite National championship road race and TT. I checked the other day and there were only 4 spots left in the field limit of 125. Wow. I looked at the list and it was almost ALL east coast guys, with the exception of Broadmark from the PNW. This one team, Abercrombie and Fitch had like 14 guys registered. That doesn't seen fair to me. If the field limit is only 125, one team shouldn't be allowed more than about 6-7 riders. I know Dan and I were talking about going, and Ian always goes to that, but none of us are going to get in at this point. I'm not ready to commit to the race yet either. I haven't even ridden a real road bike this season! GP always sends a few guys down there, but none of them got registered. This is another example of USA Cycling dropping the ball. I guess the fields are filling up like mad for the Masters categories as well. You shouldn't have to register in March for a race in July. And it shouldn't be first come first serve either. There should either be some kind of qualification or a lottery like Chequamegon. Dumb, dumb, dumb! But I did see Jed and the CXKing were registered. Good luck against all those juggernaut teams guys!

I am feeling better, but not great. It seems like each day since Tuesday I've been improving about 10 percent. It's a slow recovery process to be sure. I want to ride, but my body is forcing me to be patient. I did ride around on my beater bike for about a half hour. I just kept skidding. Then I crossed the street illegally in front of some cop, but I didn't get stopped. I must have looked like I had no idea what I was doing in jeans and stocking cap. I've been busy today working on bikes, picking up around the house and doing laundry and dishes, but now that is done and I'm bored. Maybe it's time for a nap.

I found a couple pairs of shoes in the basement that I don't need anymore. I have a pair of road and mountain shoes in good shape size 41.5. If this is your size and you want a good deal on some shoes, shoot me an email.

Posted at 03:01 PM Read More

Tue - March 21, 2006

The Flu Got Me

Anne has been sick with the flu all weekend. I though I'd avoided it, but today I got sick. It was pretty crazy too. One minute I feel fine and I'm working away like normal, the next I'm freezing with muscle aches. So I went home and tried to sleep the best I could. I was hurting really bad. Every muscle that was kind of sore from riding hard all weekend was four times as painful. Now I'm recovering and I already feel ten times better. So hopefully it was kind of like a 6 hour flu for me. Who knows. With the weather last week and being sick today, I have had a hard time getting in a solid block of training. It will probably be okay though, I'm not too worried about it. I'm just anxious for it to get warm outside so we can bust out the nice bikes soon. Anyway, I guess I don't have anything else good to say today.

Posted at 06:51 PM Read More

Tue - March 7, 2006

Absent Minded.

I hate it when I forget what I was going to blog about...

Old School Crew. This was 1999. From Left (Dan, Pete Knutson, Me, Brian Eppen, Just Reinhart in Sobe and that's Cody VanOverbeke's arm)
Cool man cool.

Climbing "Snake Alley" in '02.

1998, my first "road" bike, a C-dale CX bike.

Back in the day man.

Posted at 06:24 PM Read More

Thu - February 23, 2006

Democracy

Well, we didn't actually vote, but the City of Plymouth invited cyclists to a roundtable discussion about the future of cycling in the city. It was very well attended which will go a ways in showing them we care. For the most part, the city has no idea what makes roads safe for riding. The general consensus of the night was that we need striped shoulders and bike lane signs. They are so proud of their trails, but I don't think they understood that bike path's are not what commuters and competitors can safely ride on. I can't see anything changing anytime soon, but at least they have some good ideas to start with. I think everyone who spoke brought up some valid points. My favorite was this Euro guy who was criticizing them for keeping the best trails a secret. "You need a map like this, only 4 times bigger!" He announced, "Do you hear what I am saying!" He was into it. I took some flak from everyone when I said that you can't turn the four lane road into a 2 lane with bike lanes. Maybe you can, but they had better be ready to hear a million complaints. "I just want a minimum 18 inches of shoulder on the bigger roads. Enough so that we look like we should be there." I told them. "I'm a professional cyclist, I ride every day, and the first thing I do is get out of Plymouth." Dan thought that was funny. Maybe, but I think it needed to be drilled home as much as possible last night. Now, about some mountain bike trails...

Posted at 06:35 AM Read More

Tue - January 31, 2006

Mentally Peaking

To peak or not to peak? A few years ago I was looking to do a little more structured training. So I bought the Cyclists Training Bible and went to town. I remember sitting in class, accounting I think, filling in my yearly hours. I noticed a big improvement but I never felt like I "peaked" for one race. Even though I did everything the book said, when the big day came I felt as fast as I always did, but high on some pinnacle. My theory is that I wasn't as mentally into the idea of being good only on one day. I enjoy racing all year, so I raced all year.

Erwin Vervecken won cyclocross worlds last weekend. Erwin has always raced well at the world championships, but doesn't seem to win a lot of big races up to that point. You could tell he was coming into form at the right time when he won the world cup the week before. He peaked for worlds. Or at least, believed that he did. Sven Nys on the other hand was crushing everyone all year. He is obviously the best cross racer in the world, yet he was struggling in this last month. But the question is, was Sven riding slower? Or was everyone else just riding faster?

I think that Sven is confident enough to win a cross race any day of the year. He doesn't 'save' anything and just goes out and rides as hard as he can. Erwin on the other hand can beat Sven at a select few races. He seems to be able to psyche himself up for a big day.

Training makes you physically stronger, most people would agree with that. But training also makes you mentally stronger. The harder you train the more you feel mentally ready when you arrive at the event. You race well not only because you are fit, but because you are confident. Erwin probably trained specifically around the World CX Champs, so when he got there, he knew he was ready and was more confident because of that. Sven on the other hand was winning all year, so when all these newly motivated dudes were breathing down his neck, he might have gotten a bit gripped. Now he was mentally weaker because he was like "Crap, I can't drop these guys!" and that makes you think you are not as physically prepared, even though he probably still was the fastest guy there.

This is a theory I was thinking about on my ride today. What do you all think?

Posted at 06:54 PM Read More

Thu - January 26, 2006

Weather to enjoy or weather to fear?

Today it was 45 degrees. Maybe even warmer. It felt pleasant, warm, it felt like spring. But one thing I couldn't get off my mind was "Should I enjoy this, or should I be afraid of what is almost certainly another sign of a serious global warm up?" It seems to me that mother nature is pissed off. The weather around the globe has been scary, unpredictable, severe. It's amazing how much damage we've done to the world in only a century. So I think I'm afraid. But then again, I was really enjoying the feeling of warmth and sweating again. At least a little bit. I'll really be scared when it's 100 degrees in May. I'm thinking of buying some land in Alaska.

Posted at 07:13 PM Read More

Mon - January 23, 2006

Free Training Advice

These days every other cyclist is blogging their training hours. And then they're all reading each others blogs and getting psyched out by the fact that the next guy is going harder and faster, riding longer at higher watts and with their heart rate pegged on red line. Or, at least, that's what everyone is saying.

If half of what I've read on other peoples blogs is true, people are overtraining like they don't even know. So today's free advice is this: slow down. In my opinion, if you are riding with an average heart rate of over 155, an average speed of over 20 mph or average watts or 200 or more you are going too hard. If you want to race well come May, June and further on this summer and fall you need to be putting in some slow miles. Thats my opinion, so take it for what it's worth.

Posted at 07:52 PM Read More

Wed - January 18, 2006

Thinking About My Goals

Lately I've been wondering what I can do next in cycling. I've kind of done the MTB thing, spending a couple years on the NORBA circuit. I've been to enough NRC road races to know that's not for me, at least not traveling to cities all over the country for it. And I've been to a few big UCI cross races and had bad luck in every one. But when I think about it, I feel like I had the most potential in those races. It's been three years since I've done a big UCI race and I know I've gotten better and faster. So I spoke with Anne and my team manager Chris Shaw about the possibility of having a go at the UCI's and CX nationals this year. Anne said I need to go for it now if that's what I want to do and Chris said Sweet, just remember to have fun. And so I've revised my 2006 season goals with the primary focus on cyclocross. I plan of doing the USGP of cross, as well as a few lower key UCI races in order to get a some points for a good call up position. Then I hope to race well enough at US CX Nationals to make the short list for the 2007 worlds team. Now that will be fun!

Am I being realistic? Or delusional? I think I can win a UCI race next year. I also think if I have a decent call up at Nationals I can be top 5. I could be delusional, but this is the year I find out. I've been afraid of traveling and racing with the big guns. It's been easy to stay home and race locally, but I need a new challenge. It's time to see what I can do. I'm adjusting my training plan to mentally prepare for any conditions I might face. I'm mapping out a cyclocross course in the yard at work and I'm going to relearn how to bunny hop 14" barriers. I'm also going to incorporate a lot of core workouts and even a little running as the CX season approaches. I'm not going to skimp on equipment either. I plan on having 2 identical Trek XO1's with all the carbon goodies and I'm going to get different tires, not tufo's. I'm also going to set up 2 sets of X-lite aeros with clincher tires so I have even more options for each course. Now that I have a job I'm not going to reuse old tires and stuff just because I can't afford new ones.

My other season goals are pretty much the same. I want to do well at the tour of 10k lakes stage race and the NVGP. I want to win Ore to Shore and Chequamegon but I think I'm going to have to skip the Iceman in order to do the Colorado USGP races. So, there's the plan. Comments?

Posted at 06:36 PM Read More

Mon - January 16, 2006

Trek Minnesota Training Camp

It's been a while since I last updated the site. Last weekend before last weekend (2 weekends ago) was busy! Anne and I headed up to Duluth for the first annual Trek team Minnesota training camp. Well, it was really just an excuse for us to go hang out with Scott and Sara. We stayed at their house and were treated to a fun night of skiing and snowboarding at Spirit Mountain. The next day we drove up the shore, checked into the cabin and got stuck in the driveway. Scott drove the Volvo while Anne and Sara gather salt and sand. I buzzed around in the four wheeler and cheered. Finally we made it up and headed out to Carlton peak for some snowshoeing. After we reached the summit, Scott and I took the path less traveled, down the side of a cliff. We had to hold on to trees and drop our way down. It was extreme snowshoeing at it's best. As soon as we got back to the car it was time for a little nordic ski. I was smoked so Anne and I let the KJ's kick off on their own while we went at our own pace. By the time we were done the bonk was in full effect. One more day of camp was filled with alpine skiing at Lutsen. It was a great weekend.

Posted at 06:54 AM Read More

WWLD? And The Bonk Bike

Category Upgrade and CX Nationals

The End

Getting Married

Comments.

Raining and Raining - Updated

About Me