| Stuzio | Where were you born? |
| Nate | Olney, Maryland (moved to LA when I was 3; moved to Berkeley to go to Cal) |
| Stuzio |
What is your threshold watt? |
| Nate | I think it should be around 420-440 when I'm in shape. I think I probably put out something like that on Diablo and Tam this last season. |
| Stuzio |
What is your max heart rate? Resting hear rate? |
| Nate | I've seen 191 or 192 once, but it's actually rare I see anything in the mid-to-upper 180s.
Resting hear rate varies. It can be into the lower 40s, but usually it's
in the upper 40s when I'm in shape and training steady. |
| Stuzio |
What is your best Watts/kg effort on sustain hill climb? |
| Nate | For a long hill like Diablo or Tam, maybe 5.8 or 5.9-ish if I'm fresh. Obviously somewhat less if it's in the middle of a road race or if it's a finishing climb at a race like Pescadero. |
| Stuzio | Chronical of race results from cat 5 to cat 1: |
| Nate |
| Date | Placing | Race | Category |
| 5/19/2007 | 42 | Modesto Criterium | 5 |
| 5/20/2007 | 6 | Modesto Road Race | 5 |
| 6/2/2007 | 1 | Ross Hill climb | 5 |
| 7/7/2007 | 1 | Coyote Creek Criterium | 5 |
| 7/14/2007 | 1 | Diablo Hill Climb (5th overall) | 5 |
| 8/11/2007 | 1 | Patterson Pass Road Race | 5 |
| 8/18/2007 | 25 | Dunnigan Hills Road Race | 5 |
| 9/15/2007 | 1 | Mt Tamalpais Hill Climb (4th overall) | 5 |
| 9/22/2007 | 2 | Everest Challenge (day 1) (10th overall) | 5 |
| | 1 | Everest challenge (day 2) (2nd overall) | 5 |
| | | Everest Challenge (4th overall) | 5 |
| 10/2007 | 2 | *Diablo Challenge (46:01; 13 seconds back) | 5 |
| 1/1/2008 | 1 | San Bruno Hill Climb (14:56; record is 14:42) |
4 |
| 1/26/2008 | 2 | Early Bird (Patterson) RR (4) |
4 |
| 2/10/2008 | 1 | Cherry Pie Crit (4) | 4 |
| 2/16/2008 | 1 | Cantua Creek RR (4) | 4 |
| 2/17/2008 | 2 | Pine Flat RR (4) | 4 |
| 3/2/2007 | 75 | Merco Foothill Road Race (3) |
3 |
| 3/9/2007 | 1 | Berkeley TTT | 3 |
| 3/15/2007 | 1 | Exeter ITT (3) | 3 |
| 3/16/2008 | 1 | Bariani/Zamora RR (3) | 3 |
| 3/22/2008 | 1 | Copperopolis RR (3) | 3 |
| 3/30/2008 | 1 | San Dimas Stage Race (3) (13:47 TT) |
3 |
| 4/5/2007 | DNF | Martinez Crit | 3 |
| 4/17/2008 | 1 | Sea Otter Circuit Race (2) | 2 |
| 4/18/2008 | 8 | Sea Otter RR - NRC (P/1/2) | 2 |
| 4/26/2008 | 4 | Wente Vineyards RR (P/1/2) | 2 |
| 5/3/2008 | 55 | Cat's Hill Crit (P/1/2) | 2 |
| 5/11/2008 | 1 | Berkeley Hills RR (P/1/2) | 2 |
| 5/18/2008 | 4 | Panoche RR (P/1/2) | 2 |
| 5/25/2008 | 10 | Mt Hamilton RR (P/1/2) | 2 |
| 6/7/2008 | 1 | Ross' Epic Hill Climb (P/1/2); course record 59:09! |
2 |
| 6/8/2008 | 4 | NorCal/NV TT Champs (elite men) |
2 |
| 6/14/2008 | DNP | Pescadero RR | 2 |
| 6/24/2008 | DNF | Tour of Pennsylvania (prologue - 12th) |
2 |
| 7/13/2008 | 10 | Spring Hill RR | 2 |
| 7/19/2008 | 14 | Watsonville Crit | 2 |
| 8/2/2008 | 4 | Nor/Cal Nevada Districs Road Race
Championships | 1 |
| 8/6/2008 | 10 | U.S. Elite Nationals - TT |
1 |
| 8/9/2008 | 6 | Patterson Pass RR | 1 |
| 8/30/2008 | 1 | Everest Challenge | 1 |
| 9/27/2008 | 1 | Mt Tamalpais hill (39:42) |
1 |
| 10/4/2008 | 1 | Diablo Challenge (43:33; course record!) |
1 |
|
| Stuzio |
What is your most proud race result? |
| Nate | I think that winning Berkeley Hills was good; I was happy with the result. Working hard to get our team on the podium in the Tour of Pennsylvania was also good and rewarding to see I could race well at the international level, albeit the U25 level. Helping my teammate win Pescadero after sliding out on the main descent was really great, but disappointing too, because I think it's a good course for me. I was definitely happy with the course record at Diablo, since it was one of my goals and it's my favorite climb around here... I don't think I have a favorite, though. I just enjoy riding, getting better, and trying to compete well. |
| Stuzio |
What is your most disappointing race/cycling experience: |
| Nate | Having a mechanical in Pennsylvania during the crit on day 1 and losing time, and finally crashing out on the last road stage. I felt like I was in decent shape and could have ridden to a high placing there if it hadn't been for those unfortunate mishaps. |
| Stuzio | Complete these sentences: |
| Nate | I knew I was good at cycling when... I don't know. I was never sure how good or bad I was until I started racing, and since then I've just tried to race as well as I can as I go along. I've had decent results so far, but I'm definitely still trying to get better and just see how I'll do. |
| Nate | I knew I had long ways to go in cycling when... People can climb at least as well as I can when I'm fresh at the end of a 5 hour race in the Pro Tour. |
| Stuzio | Do
you have any non-cycling related results that you achieved (cross-country, track..) |
| Nate | I ran a 9:58 3200m and 4:49 1600m in high-school. A couple years ago I ran a 33:34 10k on the road. It's funny, though, because all the cyclists I know who started as runners are better runners than I ever was by a long shot, haha. Justin Laue, Chris Phipps, Paul Mach... they're all way faster on 2 feet. |
| Stuzio | College/major? |
| Nate | I was in the ISF department at Cal (Interdisciplinary Studies Field) and focused on intellectual history. |
| Stuzio | How much do you train in a typical week (hrs, miles, type of workout)? |
| Nate | I usually do 20-24 hours a week, give or take. I think that usually works out to be 400 miles or maybe a bit more. |
| Stuzio | Chamois cream or no chamois cream? |
| Nate | No cream for me. :) |
| Stuzio | What does your teammate say about you? |
| Nate | Boring maybe. I go to bed at 10 or 10:30 most nights. I think Roman called me anti-social the other day, haha. |
| Stuzio | What goes through your mind during a TT race? |
| Nate | I'm usually not thinking about anything except how I'm feeling and how far I have to go, so I can try to gauge how hard to go, how fast to pedal, whether to sit up for a hill, etc. It's the same as whenever I'm on my bike, except that there's no traffic to worry about and no race tactics to consider. Riding is kind of like meditating for me, it washes everything out of my head except how I'm feeling and what I'm doing with my bike. I really enjoy that experience. |
| Stuzio | Have you ever tried Kim Chee? |
| Nate | Yeah; I've tried lots of different foods. I often like spicy foods when I go out, though, so I'll often get spicy Chinese soups, Korean barbeque or spicy salsa for my chips. Supposedly capsacin is an anti-inflammatory, so you might as well eat spicy food, right? |
| Stuzio | After winning 2008 Everest Challenge, could you have gone faster/harder at that race if needed? |
| Nate | Well, the race is hard as it is, and day one almost necessarily depletes your glycogen stores all the way. That being said, there aren't many people that do the event, so it's not really raced with the same intensity as most other events... I would really love to see the Everest Challenge grow into a bigger race. It would even be a great place for a 3 or 4 day stage race, but I doubt that will happen. |
| Stuzio | If love of your life (woman) asked you to stop racing... would you? |
| Nate | Well, I don't think my girlfriend would ask that of me unless there was a really good reason for it. She also races and is really quite good at it, so she understands what it's like to love the commitment and discipline it takes to race competitively. That being said, I'm the first one to recognize that there are a lot of things more important than bike racing. I really love cycling, sportsmanship and facing the physical challenge of getting your body to grow stronger and faster, but I do it because I love it, not because I think it's really that important. I think that sport is important as a human activity, in a broad sense, but I'd give it up if it was in conflict with something more important (like the woman I love). |
| Stuzio | How long will you pursue professional racing career before calling it quit and get a "real job"? |
| Nate | Well, I'm really hoping that 2009 will allow me to get the results and experience I'll need to be appealing to a professional team, but if it doesn't work out for 2010, I'll really have to consider whether it's worth continuing on my current course. I might go for another year or two. We'll see. Hopefully I'm not faced with that choice, because if I am, it will probably mean that I haven't met my goal of making a living doing what I love. |
| Stuzio | What is your idea of "real job"? |
| Nate | Whatever it is that most people do to make a living. Heaven forbid I get stuck doing something that isn't stimulating, interesting and productive in some way or another. I definitely like to be able to live comfortably, but I also want to be able to find something that is rewarding work. I might one day become a teacher, but we'll see. You never know until it happens. |
| Stuzio | Velonews or Cyclingnews? |
| Nate | Cyclingnews; it has more stuff. |
| Stuzio | Clincher or Tubular? |
| Nate | Clinchers for all but a handful of hilly races or time trials. |
| Stuzio | What advice would you give to a new racer just starting out? |
| Nate | Listen to your body and be willing to push it as hard as it will go, but be careful not to push too hard. |
| Stuzio | What is your idea of best vacation? |
| Nate | Someplace warm with lots of trees, good roads and trails for riding and some water, i.e. a lake, river, or ocean. My girlfriend definitely would have to be there, though, so we could go riding together and she could show me how much I have to learn on my mountain bike. |
| Stuzio | Do you sleep in an altitude tent? |
| Nate | I'm sure I'd like to, but those things are expensive. I don't suppose you know anyone with a spare to lend me? |