Brian Sacawa: Sounds Like Now

TBC Stage 1: Suffer

Today was the opening stage of the 20th annual Tucson Bicycle Classic, a three-day stage race punctuating the end of the road cycling season. Today's stage, a 4.4 mile prologue time trial--AKA suffer-fest--was a very fast out and back course. The first part of the course was completely uphill with a little nasty kick up to the turn-around. And then fly back to the line.

I had a few concerns going into the start today: 1) My traveling the last two weeks limited my training time and intensity. Would that effect my performance today, or would it serve as a very nice taper? 2) It was burning up in the desert at 2pm. Would I be able to stay hydrated even though it was such a short course? 3) Should I do the uphill section of the course in the small ring or big ring? 4) Should I save any energy at all or simply go all out for the duration? The answers: 1) I don't know. 2) Sort of. But glad I took water on board--kept my mouth moist and my head cool at the turn-around. 3) Big ring. 4) No. Hammer all the way--it's just 4.4 miles. You do those anaerobic intervals for a reason.

I went out hard and settled into a speed of 30mph for the first section, which was not a very severe gradient at all. I knew the course since I had reconned it a few days earlier and I knew that the second half of the uphill portion was harder. But I didn't bother saving anything. As that section apporached, I stayed in the big ring, a lesson learned from the State Championships and hammered up the climb. The final hill to the turn-around tent was nasty, especially after the tough opening 2 miles. I didn't let up at the turn-around though and kept up my pace--well, I kept up my heart rate at 194+, which was pushing ever so closely to my max the entire time. By the time I crossed the line I had just about caught two riders (we went off in 30 second intervals), nearly thrown up (someone once told me that you need to ride until you feel like you're going to throw up and then go harder), and done a terrific ride.

When the results went up, I had clocked 09:42 for the course, which is an average speed of 27.2mph. I also scored a second place finish (18 seconds off the winner), which puts me in a great spot for GC contention. So because of the good ride today, I can sit on the wheels tomorrow, scope out my rivals, and conserve energy for Sunday's circuit race. It would be great to get a time bonus at the finish tomorrow since depending on where today's winner ends up, I could be in yellow after tomorrow's stage.

SF diary

Some random thoughts and lessons learned from my trip to the bay area this time:

• When performing a work in which the climax depends on the accumlation of events produced by a 12-second digital delay over 13-15 minutes do not alert the sound technician to the fact that this may, repeat, may cause the system to feedback. Do not tell him this and do not tell him it's okay to monitor the fader during the performance. Instead, let the system begin to feed back (if it is going to) and then let the sound technician figure out how to solve the problem. No need to be preemptive in this situation. The bottom may drop out of the work you're performing.

• It was disappointing to discover that the SkyMall no longer carries the Evacu8 personal life-saving device. However, the fact that DogOff is still available almost makes up for it.

• Bringing five of your own teabags will save you close to $10. Hot water is free.

• It's much farther to 1131 Polk Street from the Powell Street station than you think.

• A baritone saxophone with case will seem much heavier than 33lbs as you walk from the Powell Street station to 1131 Polk Street.

• Marcus Maroney gets a special prize for being S.L.NOW's 10,000th visitor.

Thanks to all my readers.

Sounds and surprises in SF

Last night was the Other Minds BRINK show at the Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco. It was a great show and very well attended. Thanks to everyone who came out. One thing stuck out during my portion of the show--namely that the Hemlock Tavern is indeed a tavern. And being a tavern in a hip part of San Francisco means having a cool jukebox that plays all night and many wonderful talkative patrons. Translation: maybe not the best place to perform a work by Alvin Lucier! All kidding aside, it is brilliant Charles Amirkhanian and the folks at Other Minds were bold enough and brave enough to present a new music series in a bar. Nobody can blame them for not trying to reach out to new audiences. That's exactly the type of thinking and action that will do our cause some good. And I'm honored that I was able to take part in a venture like that in a small way.

Sharing the bill with me was sound artist Dorsey Dunn, who is, in fact, himself also a saxophonist. While he didn't bring his saxophone to the show, Dorsey played his set on laptop, which mainly included saxophone samples. So it was an all saxophone night at Hemlock in a way. And maybe it was the saxophone connection--an instant bond of friendship?--that prompted him to let me crash at his apartment for the night since I didn't have a place to stay (or it could also be that he's just a very nice guy!). Honesly, it didn't seem worth it to get a hotel for the night since I've got an early flight. $100+ for 4-5 hours in a hotel? I was just going to head to the airport after the show and wait for my plane. But BART doesn't run that late. And by the time everything was packed and people were talked to and thanked, it was too late. So I'm lucky to have a place to stay tonight that isn't on benches in the airport terminal.

Anyhow, so there were two surprises last night--one pleasant surprise and one completely unexpected surprise. The former was that Heather came out to the show. It was nice to finally put a face with the words I'd been reading on the screen. It's too bad that she happens to be amazingly busy and needed to get up early and that I was desperately trying to sort out how to get the airport. Otherwise I'm sure we would have had a really nice chat.

The big surprise was that someone I hadn't seen in 10 years, since high school, made an appearance. Sam Pomeroy. It was great to see him. And I wish we had longer to catch up. But as he told me as he took his leave, "Ten years is a lot to catch up on in one night." True but I'm glad we made contact again. I'm still not certain how he found out about the gig. Usually, if I'll be in the SF area, I'll post on the forum, which Sam's been known to lurk around, giving him a heads up. But this time I forgot to post, something I remembered only as we were landing at SFO. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Sam was there and it was cool. So Hemlock, BRINK, new music, and unexpected surprises make for a good night. Goodnight.

AZ RR Championships

I'd been waiting to post about this to give our illustrious photographer time to upload his photos from the race. However, it turns out that Sabino Sam went up to Flagstaff on the wrong day(!) and therefore, there are no photos of me from the race to share. At any rate, two weekends ago I rode the Arizona State Road Racing Championships. It was a beautiful day in northern Arizona. The course was 46 miles long--three laps around Mormon Lake. Nothing interesting about the route to speak of, really. There were a few rollers, a wicked crosswind on the east side of the lake, and a nasty 1K climb up to the finish line.

I worked out my plan to perfection. I battled to be at the front of the peleton although I never did any actual work on the front. I was in the first 10-15 riders for the entire race. This allowed me to cover all the attacks and accelerations as they came. But they were really few and far between. This wasn't a course for a long solo breakaway. The crosswinds would just murder you if you tried to go off the front. So it was best to sit in and that's what I did for the remainder of the race.

We rode the first two laps at a moderate pace. There were a couple of half-hearted attacks and accelerations, but nothing too big to handle. The first time up to the finish, I jumped off the front just to see if anyone would follow, which no one did. So I sat up and drifted back in. I just wanted to test the waters. It was apparent from very early on in the race that nobody really wanted to "race" and that it was going to come down to a bunch sprint at the end. I liked my chances in this situation, especially since it was an uphill finish and I like hills.

The race really got underway with about 5 miles to go, just after we went through the feed zone for the last time. There were a series of 5 or 6 accelerations that got us up a cruising speed of 43mph, which shattered the peleton. I was able to stay with the front group as everyone began fighting for position at the front up to the base of the climb. (N.B. you never want to be in the back of a group at the base of a climb--someone could jump off the front and there would be no way you'd ever cover their attack.) (By time we crossed the line, we'd opened up a 30+ second time gap to the next group.) My only mistake in the race--and it was a costly one--was at the base of the last climb up to the line. The decision I had to make was do I do the last climb in the big ring or the small ring? I chose the small ring gambling that my power output with the small ring and a small cog in the back would be greater than if I mashed the big ring in a large cog in the back. Bad choice. I shifted into the exact gear I wanted but quickly found myself towards the back of the bunch. It was too late. I was nowhere near the sprint and finished the same time as the winner, but at the back of the bunch.

Looking back on it, I don't know why I even thought about being in the small ring. Almost immediately I remembered the finish at Viards de Lans in the 2004 when Armstrong outsprinted Basso, Ullrich, Kloden, and others in the mountaintop finish. I heard Paul Sherwin's commentary from that stage in my head: "Phil, Armstrong is sitting at the back of the group and is in the correct gear to accelerate." He was in the big ring and 23 in the back. Damn. Well, it was a good learning experience and I rode a great race. So in the uphill sprint at TBC this weekend, I'll know what gear to be in!

On the BRINK of OM

Just back from Miami today and I'm already heading back out on the road. This Wednesday I'll be featured on Other Minds' new BRINK series at the Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco. I'm splitting the bill with sound artist Dorsey Dunn. Any SF bloggers planning to come out?

Red eye

Saturday's concert with the New World Symphony was a lot of fun. The orchestra played well and I delivered the goods, surviving the anxiety before the "Montagues and Capulets" entrance. One of the perks about my trip to Miami this time was that it was the first time since my tenure with the group that I haven't had a 6am flight out of Fort Lauderdale. Instead, I had a red eye. Pick your poison, I guess. Three hours of sleep before a full day of teaching, including an 8am techniques class! I will sleep well tonight.

Symphonic relief

As mentioned previously, I've been in Miami all week with the New World Symphony. This Saturday's concert, a benefit for the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, will be broadcast on NPR. It's quite a program for the saxophone, featuring Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story as well as Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Suites 1 & 2. (For the record, the tenor saxophone entrance in the Second Suite's "Montagues and Capulets" is as close to fear a saxophonist will ever feel in orchestral literature--sit for the whole movement and then come in "cold" on a piano low C#.) Kenji Bunch's Lichtenstein Triptych rounds out an exciting program. If you're intersted in listening to the concert, click here for a list of NPR affiliates carrying the concert. If your local affiliate isn't carrying the show and you still want to listen, visit WLRN 91.3 and click on "listen live" to stream the broadcast. Downbeat is 8pm EST.

The brain drain

I love my job. I'm excited and fortunate to be teaching saxophone at the University of Arizona. My students are wonderful and very talented. It's an extremely rewarding profession to be able to share the experiences and knowledge that I've accumulated with my students--the next generation of artists, performers, and educators. But I'd be lying if I said that the move from student to professor did not come with an adjustment period. There's the initial adjustment of being in a new place--Tucson is way different than Ann Arbor or the east coast, where I'm from--and from being the disciple to the being the "master." These two adjustments didn't take long. And there was the initial few weeks of my students "feeling me out" and getting comfortable with me--and me getting to know them and figuring out "the plan" for each of them. But that's happened and we're all on the right track.

What I'm not quite adjusted to is the schedule. But it's not so much the schedule as the "brain drain" I feel at the end of the day. It's easy to describe. When I go home after a day of teaching--especially Tuesdays--my mind is gone. That's it. It doesn't work. I just feel like sitting on the couch staring at the wall with my tongue hanging out. I'd say that the biggest change from student to professor is the amount of responsibility one must shoulder. As a student, you worry about yourself and sometimes that's even too much. But as the professor, I worry about my students, my colleagues, my commitments, both professional and at the U of A . . . and oh yeah, sometimes even myself! My students depend on me and I need to be there for them. And I don't mind this at all. I like it, actually. I like it a lot.

I'm sure I will get used to the brain drain. I'm sure I'll develop strategies for dealing with it. But for now I'm glad to be in Miami with the New World Symphony this week! More on that in a bit . . .

Apology

Ok, ok, ok. I'm sorry, blog. I've been neglecting you. But I didn't mean to--really. Can I make it up to you? Back to a post a day, perhaps? Two posts a day? Three? Come on, I think one should suffice. How about one post and some roses and chocolates? Anyway, I know that I owe you an explanation, and I'll get to it very soon. I promise. It's a little something I like to call the brain drain.

Kitt Peak TT

Last Sunday was the Kitt Peak Time Trial, an 11.6 mile hill climb up to the Kitt Peak National Observatory. While I didn't clock my target time of under an hour, nobody in the CAT5s did. When the results finally came in, I placed fourth in the race, only a little more than one minute off the leader, and ended up fetching 3rd place overall for the Lerua's Mountain Series classification. My first podium finish. It's recovery time now and it seems as though even if I was thinking about Mt Graham and the Arizona State Hill Climb Championships, I don't think it's going to happen. Best to recover and stay focused on TBC. (The photo above is me at the start. The white dot above my head at the top of Kitt Peak is one of the telescopes and also the finish line--about 3400 feet in the sky from the start line. Photo By: Mason Ibas Photography.)