Everything from today's races has to be taken into context of how jacked up my body was after yesterdays ride. Severely glycogen depleted, muscles beat into submission (Black Mo is not forgiving!!). I woke up at 4:30am to pack up, leave our hotel and drive 3.5 hours from State College to Binghamton. Rob, Josinaldo, and I (aka the UR cycling team) decided to skip the Easterns crit, because we all suck at crits and none of us felt like doing the super technical crash prone course. Instead we all did two races today, against people who had fresh legs (starting to second guess this not racing over guys as jacked up as we are thing).
Anyways the course was 2.6km had literally no corners and a slight climb to the finish. When I refer to the hill I'm referring to that (it did in fact rise past the finish line). I was racing first the 123 race, an 18 lap race (~47km). Second and immediately following was a 34 race that was 16 laps (~41.5km). Both races took just a hair over an hour, the first race a bit longer time wise than the second.
Rolling around for warmup when you usually feel nice and springy, I felt none of those things. I felt terrible, I was pushing active recovery wattages and they felt like good solid efforts. It was bad. I knew my races were going to hurt, and they did. This is the thing though, they hurt not because I'm not capable of the power outputs. On fresh legs they would have been easy, they were hard because my legs had NOTHING left.
So the 123 race. I knew I was going to sit on the back, I still had a race and I had nothing left already. So I did basically exactly that. I was the last person in the field almost the entire race. It actually wasn't too bad. The course wasn't particularly selective and so I just sat on. 2 guys attacked from the start line, we never saw them again. 1 very nearly bridged up to them to finish 3rd and another finished somewhere in the nether. I tried to setup for my sprint, but didn't really have my heart into the aggressive riding needed for it, or the effort level. I sprinted from nearly the back of the pack and ended up taking 8th in the field sprint, 12th overall. I was gaining on everyone at a pretty awesome speed. Too bad I hadn't set myself up right, I could have done well in that sprint. NP was only 203w and avg power only 150w. By all objective measures it should have been easy, but it wasn't.
Next the 34 race. This was my first ride with Rob, and while we had said a while back we would set up a game plan of attack during the ~15 min between my races. We were both pretty shot though. Rob had taken 2nd about 30seconds ahead of the field with a leader long gone off a 2 laps to go flier. He said that if the opportunity presented itself he would tell me the code word... which we decided would be "Orange." I told him I'd see how my legs held up and hopefully we would talk during the race. We started and I instantly regretted starting the race, it hurt like your legs usually hurt at the end of a race you are barely holding onto in the last 5 minutes of the race, except at the beginning and we weren't really going hard. (visions of the pain of holding onto the P123 field with 1 lap to go at the Driveway Series after having raced the 34 earlier were flashing through my mind) Anyways we got going and I decided "screw it" I was just going to try and break away give it every last ounce and see what happened (this was only 2 laps into the race). I was trying to ride up next to Rob, squeezing past people when somebody drastically shifted lines pushing me over the yellow line, way over (I was toeing the line to begin with. I needed to go somewhere so I decided to attack. I gunned it up along the yellow line and as I passed rob screamed "ORANGES TILL I EXPLODE!!!"
In hindsight I really regret this, because I missed a possibly once in a lifetime moment to sprint past the group yelling "LEEEEROOOOY JENNKINS!!!" Which would have very accurately described what the futility of the attack, as well as it's haphazard nature. Instead the pack probably gave me a funny look as I launched off screaming about oranges. Two other guys caught my wheel and when I motioned for them to pull through, they gave me nothing. Just like that the move was basically shut down before it started. Rob came roaring past me in a group of 4 or 5, they came back and I went again, I came back and he went again. It worked very well but honestly I think it was by accident. I had failed to tell Rob, that following my attacks was a bad idea, and would just bring people up to me. So ultimately I think it was a "this might be happening!!! lets go together" I see people catch me and back off, he comes back and then I went again. In the end it worked out well. Rob got off the front with a group of 3 which eventually ballooned to 7. I sat back matched as many attacks as I could until the group gave up, and then slithered back into this painful dark hole. Attacking had been a terrible choice. Our race really still wasn't that hard so far (checked while riding, NP of about 230w for 40 minutes) I sat in till the end when the idea that "I think I can pop out one more SOLID sprint" popped into my mind. A group of 4 guys from "The Bike Shop" started forming a train and I hopped on the back. The were working well, coming into the last lap they were down to two guys and let other people take over pace making. I just sat on their sprinters wheel. Things got hectic on the back stretch, but he clearly was a good sprinter and was good at position we gunned it into some small gaps and I got into about 5th-6th position to start my sprint. Everything wound up and then.... the guy in front of me realized he had no sprint. He stumbled a bit but I was able to get around (losing a couple places) and gunned it. I quickly caught all but the lead two guys sprinting and was closing in pretty quickly, but there wasn't enough road. 3rd in the field sprint isn't bad. 10th overall. Overall race NP was 218w, average of 160w. The race ended up being harder and faster than the 123, and I think I can claim some responsibility for that (the "oranges" guy)
Overall I've got to be pretty happy, 12th and 10th on the worst legs I've ridden on probably all year. They still feel terrible... really really terrible. The races would have been easy otherwise and I probably could have done something good, but I raced hard yesterday. It'll make me stronger, and next week begins the string of races where I'm racing either just Cat 3 or Cat 34 and can go to hoping to have a shot at winning. Hollenbeck, Bristol, Tour of Syracuse (Omnium) and Killington Stage Race. I'm far stronger than ever before and really looking forward to hopefully pulling out a good string of results. Need to race smart though!!
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Black Mo Road Race
This race was brutal, absolutely brutal. I'm going to try to keep this PG, but it might not happen because 3.5 hours after finishing I'm still totally screwed up, out of hit and my legs ache.
First of the race course, I was racing collegiate A's. We were doing three 35km laps. Each lap had 3 major climbs, two cat 4's which were about one mile each at ~5% grade, then there was Black Mo a cat 2 by strava standards, 6km 6% average grade. Total of 815m of climbing per lap. The course is obviously brutal, but being a climbing race it should be suited to me.
I was very nervous on the start, my HR stayed around 160bpm to the base Black Mo, despite doing a good job pedaling easy averaging 125w. When we hit the base of the climb, a couple of the guys I knew I couldn't keep up with (remember Cameron Cogburn? Yeah I wasn't going to even try to keep up) dropped the hammer and I decided to use the Wiggins climbing method, I let 30 guys chase after them and settled down to about 10w above my previous 20min best power. It was a good move, I averaged 251w for the first climb which I did in 17:43. I picked off at least 15-20 riders and had a handful of guys on my shoulder sucking wind. Perfect, we had a group of 5 together and started rotating pulls. I pulled off once guy behind me picked up the pace. Not quite an attack, but when I filed into the back the guy in front of me lost the wheel and we were off the group. I was not happy, I should have jumped around him sooner but I didn't. I couldn't catch back on right now, so I settled down to my own pace. Still 2 laps to race!!
Pretty soon a group of four caught up to me and we started working together. It seemed pretty clear I was the strongest climber in the group. I was sitting high end tempo and guys were breathing very heavy, so I set the tempo up every climb and sat easy. Pretty soon we got word that a group of 18 had formed ahead and they were 1:50 ahead. I picked it up a bit on the climbs, hitting the two cat 4's at ~240w. After getting over those two and me letting every one else pull everywhere else the gap was down to 1 minute. At the base of black mo I dialed it back up to 240w, I felt good and thought I could hold it the whole time. I figured the other group would blow up and I'd be set since it had blown up big time the first climb, people would have a hard time with it twice. I'm not sure what happened but that didn't happen. I caught one guy, and I lost sight of guys. I eased up and let some guys catch up to me. I didn't want to just drive hard for nothing and get caught. It became pretty clear soon that my legs were toast.
I basically eased off we had a group of three and it was clear one of their legs were far more toast than me. We knew we were losing ground and just kept my upper end endurance to tempo over the climbs and into Black Mo. I knew I didn't have much left and there was a false flat up top so even if I got a gap I would likely get caught there. My decision was just to follow wheels. Not that there was much of a decision to make. I was in a special type of pain, my legs were hurting everywhere. I followed a guy from Columbia's wheels and it was all I could do, it would inch away from me and then I'd catch up. It was hard very very hard, I was digging myself into a very special very dark cave. He gestured for me to pull through, I didn't have anything left. He said something about not wanting to do cat and mouse games, I told him there was simply nothing left. He gapped me at one point pretty well, I managed to catch up. Then on the descent I was feeling better, I pulled through and we rotated a couple times and then he attacked. I tried to go and something else happened. Every muscle in both of my legs seized up and cramped hard.... very hard. I sat down and after loosening up as best I could I put out as much as I could. I was actually catching up, but he picked it up again. I didn't have it. I ended up coming across the finish line 30 seconds behind him, in 18th place.
This is when it became apparent how very very screwed up I was. I tried to get off my bike, everything cramped. My head was spinning, I felt like puking, my head and arms tingled. I sat down, it didn't go away. I needed help taking my shoes off and someone else put my tennis shoes on for me. It was good I didn't need to drive. As we drove the urge to puke picked up, I got chills and sweat. My whole upper body tingled. I managed to get some sugary foods down and it improved. I managed to shower it still improved.
4 hours later: My stomach still isn't right, my legs still ache when lying down, breathing seems hard at times, and my HR is still elevated (I've been laying down in it is at 100bpm, usually I would be at about 70bpm).
This race was a special kind of hard, I don't know whether it was that it was warmer than I've ridden in in quite a while (~70 F), or that I just went very hard. Set a new 20 min power record by 10w, up to 250w, 4.71 w/kg. NP was 203w. My threshold power was at about 200w in November, so I see a huge improvement but I'm also slightly dissapointed (despite having very little reason to be from a numbers standpoint). The group of 5 I was with initially over the top of the climb finished 6 minutes ahead of them. Maybe if I had been able to stick with them, got into that large group, eaten a bit more, ridden easier into that second climb I could have done that as well. It is all a guessing game, but I know that going up that climb the first time I felt great and I wasn't far off from it the second time up, with people to push me I might have matched it. Maybe I would have just been even worse off now though, who knows. Now I need to rest up sleep, and I have two races tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be back to normal because right now I'm very very redacted up.
First of the race course, I was racing collegiate A's. We were doing three 35km laps. Each lap had 3 major climbs, two cat 4's which were about one mile each at ~5% grade, then there was Black Mo a cat 2 by strava standards, 6km 6% average grade. Total of 815m of climbing per lap. The course is obviously brutal, but being a climbing race it should be suited to me.
I was very nervous on the start, my HR stayed around 160bpm to the base Black Mo, despite doing a good job pedaling easy averaging 125w. When we hit the base of the climb, a couple of the guys I knew I couldn't keep up with (remember Cameron Cogburn? Yeah I wasn't going to even try to keep up) dropped the hammer and I decided to use the Wiggins climbing method, I let 30 guys chase after them and settled down to about 10w above my previous 20min best power. It was a good move, I averaged 251w for the first climb which I did in 17:43. I picked off at least 15-20 riders and had a handful of guys on my shoulder sucking wind. Perfect, we had a group of 5 together and started rotating pulls. I pulled off once guy behind me picked up the pace. Not quite an attack, but when I filed into the back the guy in front of me lost the wheel and we were off the group. I was not happy, I should have jumped around him sooner but I didn't. I couldn't catch back on right now, so I settled down to my own pace. Still 2 laps to race!!
Pretty soon a group of four caught up to me and we started working together. It seemed pretty clear I was the strongest climber in the group. I was sitting high end tempo and guys were breathing very heavy, so I set the tempo up every climb and sat easy. Pretty soon we got word that a group of 18 had formed ahead and they were 1:50 ahead. I picked it up a bit on the climbs, hitting the two cat 4's at ~240w. After getting over those two and me letting every one else pull everywhere else the gap was down to 1 minute. At the base of black mo I dialed it back up to 240w, I felt good and thought I could hold it the whole time. I figured the other group would blow up and I'd be set since it had blown up big time the first climb, people would have a hard time with it twice. I'm not sure what happened but that didn't happen. I caught one guy, and I lost sight of guys. I eased up and let some guys catch up to me. I didn't want to just drive hard for nothing and get caught. It became pretty clear soon that my legs were toast.
I basically eased off we had a group of three and it was clear one of their legs were far more toast than me. We knew we were losing ground and just kept my upper end endurance to tempo over the climbs and into Black Mo. I knew I didn't have much left and there was a false flat up top so even if I got a gap I would likely get caught there. My decision was just to follow wheels. Not that there was much of a decision to make. I was in a special type of pain, my legs were hurting everywhere. I followed a guy from Columbia's wheels and it was all I could do, it would inch away from me and then I'd catch up. It was hard very very hard, I was digging myself into a very special very dark cave. He gestured for me to pull through, I didn't have anything left. He said something about not wanting to do cat and mouse games, I told him there was simply nothing left. He gapped me at one point pretty well, I managed to catch up. Then on the descent I was feeling better, I pulled through and we rotated a couple times and then he attacked. I tried to go and something else happened. Every muscle in both of my legs seized up and cramped hard.... very hard. I sat down and after loosening up as best I could I put out as much as I could. I was actually catching up, but he picked it up again. I didn't have it. I ended up coming across the finish line 30 seconds behind him, in 18th place.
This is when it became apparent how very very screwed up I was. I tried to get off my bike, everything cramped. My head was spinning, I felt like puking, my head and arms tingled. I sat down, it didn't go away. I needed help taking my shoes off and someone else put my tennis shoes on for me. It was good I didn't need to drive. As we drove the urge to puke picked up, I got chills and sweat. My whole upper body tingled. I managed to get some sugary foods down and it improved. I managed to shower it still improved.
4 hours later: My stomach still isn't right, my legs still ache when lying down, breathing seems hard at times, and my HR is still elevated (I've been laying down in it is at 100bpm, usually I would be at about 70bpm).
This race was a special kind of hard, I don't know whether it was that it was warmer than I've ridden in in quite a while (~70 F), or that I just went very hard. Set a new 20 min power record by 10w, up to 250w, 4.71 w/kg. NP was 203w. My threshold power was at about 200w in November, so I see a huge improvement but I'm also slightly dissapointed (despite having very little reason to be from a numbers standpoint). The group of 5 I was with initially over the top of the climb finished 6 minutes ahead of them. Maybe if I had been able to stick with them, got into that large group, eaten a bit more, ridden easier into that second climb I could have done that as well. It is all a guessing game, but I know that going up that climb the first time I felt great and I wasn't far off from it the second time up, with people to push me I might have matched it. Maybe I would have just been even worse off now though, who knows. Now I need to rest up sleep, and I have two races tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be back to normal because right now I'm very very redacted up.
Monday, April 22, 2013
So Far this year
Things I've learned in races so far this year:
- While I've improved a lot, I still do not have what it takes to really compete with Cat 1 guys.
- Going all out from a rest is totally different from doing it after riding hard for a while.
- I spend too much energy at the points where spending energy makes little sense.
- Aero equipment makes a huge difference in the wind (seriously, yesterday without the aero helmet and climbing wheels despite having a smaller wind it took more watts to get the same speed into the wind)
Things I will change:
- I'm going to be the jerk who never pulls, basically ever and if i do it is like 10 seconds
- More 'bipolar' in terms of energy expenditure, either going really hard or barely at all
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Check your Legs Race: 123 field
So after the big screw up of yesterday, I was looking forward to something different. Last night swapped out the wheels and got ready for a whole other race. Today's race started with two decent climbs: both about a km long, the first was a 7% average grade and then a kilo of rolling hills, a downhill and you swooped into a very steady 10% grade that had a steeper section at the beggining @ 15% . Good climbs, both about 2.5-3 minutes long, perhaps not as long as I would like but they would have to do!! We had a small field at this race of 10, there were two guys I knew to watch. Wacek from Mt. Borah took 4th at Bloomfield yesterday, and then there was another tall skinny guy who won the Cat 2 race at Killington the previous year (Dereck Treadwell).
Starting out on the first climbs, we went what felt pretty easy just starting out. On the second climb Dereck gave a nice little dig and no one went with, so I jumped across. When I caught up to him he said, "I'm gonna pull back now just seeing who had the legs: you and I can go fast later." So I sat back down and rolled up to the top. We got up top and on some rollers up top somebody jumped and started soloing off the front a gutsy move. We asked around the small group to see if anyone knew who he was, if he was for real. No one knew him and we started chasing. We started down a nice long dowhill, but were not getting organized, then we turned into the flat section of the course with a pretty decent headwind. Here we got flowing, or at least it seemed like it at first. People were very jumpy, some people seemed like they had never pace lined before, some seemed like they just didn't have it. I ended up with "gap closing duty". For whatever reason, the guy in front of me was the jumpiest, and the least stable. I tried to switch spots with him but it didn't happen. I was struggling with this wind and it just wasn't happening. I got 2.5 pulls for every normal pull. I got the surges sitting on his wheel in the group, closing the gap too his wheels when he got out of the saddle everytime he hit the front and then I got my pull. It was awesome. I finally decided I was done tried to skip a pull and then the guy in front of me lost contact and I had to pull back another gap. Frustration levels were high. I was doing what I was supposed to do to try and save in the wind and I was spending too much energy. Then on one of my pulls, Dereck decided it was time to strike out on his own. I knew I didn't have it right away to respond, so I slipped back, caught a breather for 30 seconds to a minute, and then launched on past to catch up to the 3 who had just slipped off. I never made it, I was gaining for a good minute or two, looked like I would make the catch soon and then I just lost them. Hit a hill, didn't have the jump they had over it... time to slip back and hope someone fell off.
Back in our little group of 5, no there were three guys who seemed to be totally dead, me, and the jumpy guy. I gave the jump guy a stern talking to and he seemed hosntely sorry and then said essentially: let's dump the dead weight. I said sure, and we gave a small dig and we were off by ourselves. We rode decently up the climbs, but looking over the files it was nothing to right home about. I had dumped so much into the bridge attempt and into my little gap closing, I had depleted a lot already. They were good solid VO2ish efforts (250-275w) but I had done the second climb at 300w the first time and it really hadn't felt all that bad.
The rest of the race was pretty mundane, we got to the top of those climbs the second of three laps and the guy I was with said something along the lines of "I'm gonna stay with you." Apparently I 'impressed' him with my climbing despite having ridden hard before. We rode the rest of the race together similar pace both laps. No one fell back to were we were. Neither of us were strong on the flats, we lost 10 minutes to the leader and put 5 minutes into the group of four behind us. Not bad not great, but a whole lot better than yesterday.
I need to work on not working so hard in these races, I really burning myself up closing gaps and such which leaves me incapable of going with the moves. I felt like I tried to do it today but it just didn't work. I dunno though, I also think I need to work on going harder when I've been going hard already. Looking over my power file it was a hard race for me, I have to be happy with it and just be happy with the fact that I'll get stronger from it.
Starting out on the first climbs, we went what felt pretty easy just starting out. On the second climb Dereck gave a nice little dig and no one went with, so I jumped across. When I caught up to him he said, "I'm gonna pull back now just seeing who had the legs: you and I can go fast later." So I sat back down and rolled up to the top. We got up top and on some rollers up top somebody jumped and started soloing off the front a gutsy move. We asked around the small group to see if anyone knew who he was, if he was for real. No one knew him and we started chasing. We started down a nice long dowhill, but were not getting organized, then we turned into the flat section of the course with a pretty decent headwind. Here we got flowing, or at least it seemed like it at first. People were very jumpy, some people seemed like they had never pace lined before, some seemed like they just didn't have it. I ended up with "gap closing duty". For whatever reason, the guy in front of me was the jumpiest, and the least stable. I tried to switch spots with him but it didn't happen. I was struggling with this wind and it just wasn't happening. I got 2.5 pulls for every normal pull. I got the surges sitting on his wheel in the group, closing the gap too his wheels when he got out of the saddle everytime he hit the front and then I got my pull. It was awesome. I finally decided I was done tried to skip a pull and then the guy in front of me lost contact and I had to pull back another gap. Frustration levels were high. I was doing what I was supposed to do to try and save in the wind and I was spending too much energy. Then on one of my pulls, Dereck decided it was time to strike out on his own. I knew I didn't have it right away to respond, so I slipped back, caught a breather for 30 seconds to a minute, and then launched on past to catch up to the 3 who had just slipped off. I never made it, I was gaining for a good minute or two, looked like I would make the catch soon and then I just lost them. Hit a hill, didn't have the jump they had over it... time to slip back and hope someone fell off.
Back in our little group of 5, no there were three guys who seemed to be totally dead, me, and the jumpy guy. I gave the jump guy a stern talking to and he seemed hosntely sorry and then said essentially: let's dump the dead weight. I said sure, and we gave a small dig and we were off by ourselves. We rode decently up the climbs, but looking over the files it was nothing to right home about. I had dumped so much into the bridge attempt and into my little gap closing, I had depleted a lot already. They were good solid VO2ish efforts (250-275w) but I had done the second climb at 300w the first time and it really hadn't felt all that bad.
The rest of the race was pretty mundane, we got to the top of those climbs the second of three laps and the guy I was with said something along the lines of "I'm gonna stay with you." Apparently I 'impressed' him with my climbing despite having ridden hard before. We rode the rest of the race together similar pace both laps. No one fell back to were we were. Neither of us were strong on the flats, we lost 10 minutes to the leader and put 5 minutes into the group of four behind us. Not bad not great, but a whole lot better than yesterday.
I need to work on not working so hard in these races, I really burning myself up closing gaps and such which leaves me incapable of going with the moves. I felt like I tried to do it today but it just didn't work. I dunno though, I also think I need to work on going harder when I've been going hard already. Looking over my power file it was a hard race for me, I have to be happy with it and just be happy with the fact that I'll get stronger from it.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Bloomfield Race
Today did not go as planned, I didn't have any mechanicals, it simply did not work out well. I have lots of excuses for why it didn't happen but the bottom line is this: I did not have the legs. I'll probably break down the excuses later, many of which I believe are valid, but at the same time I acknowledge that I did not have in my legs what was necessary for the day.
As always start with information about the course, it was a series of rolling hills, doing 6 18 km loops (or at least supposed to). 6 turns, one long straight (~5km), two medium long straights (~3-4km) and three shorter straights (~1-2km). It was coldish (high 30s), on and off snowing, mostly cloudy, and VERY windy (started at 25 mph, picked up to 35 mph and was gusting up to 55mph). The long straight, one short and one medium had a cross wind, one medium section had a headwind, and two short sections had tail winds. Wind was direct from the West and this was on gridlike streets (only going NSEW). Racing in a 123 field, started with 30 in the field. Background: last year I got dropped on the first lap here, caught back on and then got dropped in the same spot near the end of the second lap and called it quits. My goal for this race was to see where my fitness was in the 123 field, and try and finish the race. Equipment wise I went with my heavier 60mm deep HED CX wheels (toiroidal shaped), and as somewhat of a joke, I wore my TT helmet. I figured if there was ever a day for it, this was it. I was amazed I didn't get more comments on this. I get lots of snarky comments on my Giro Reverb helmet (which is kinda air attack like), but with the TT helmet I just got dirty looks like "Who the F*** does this guy think he is?" Lighten up guys, seriously.
So the race....
Started with a netural roll out, nothing too eventful here. Get to the main course as always as soon as the pace car takes off someone attacks, but no one was worried about this guys so we just hung out and road for a while (with a strong cross wind) we caught them, there were a series of attacks many of which were brought back. Ultimately a group of 3 containing Brendan Housler, Kevin Walker and some one I don't know rolled off the front (I believe he was Canadian though). I'm not sure who decided it was a good idea to let this trio off the front, because Brendan and Kevin are two guys I would have picked on the starting line to win the race. After it rolled off the front it dangled for a good 4-5 kilos in sight looking quite catchable. Then something happened and they just dissappeared. For some reason the MVP Healthcare team seemed to be happy to let it god (despite being an elite 12 team which was tied for most teammates in the group at 4). At this point the field had shrunk a lot but we really hadn't been going THAT hard. I was kinda mistified as to why, but anyways. When everyone gave up pulling I decided that this was lame and went to the front to try and pull it back. Brendan's team Mt.Borah was doing a bit of blocking but they were being fairly classy about it (pulling back lots of breaks). There were maybe 4 of us up front doing work, and people were sucking to be honest. I couldn't see the break anymore and I was able to get on the front and high end tempo for my pull. I could tell David Richardson was annoyed so I talked to him and said "Let's gutter the field in the cross-wind and try to bridge." I rode right over the the gutter with him on my wheel and hit it just above threshold @ 240w. The field dissappeared right away and I was feeling pretty good about this.
He and I took a couple pulls, going pretty smooth and then he shouted to me as I dropped back saying "I'm getting no draft off you." No shit sherlock, I'm sorry I'm small and I aero weenied out for this wind. (Excuse #1 His w/CdA are definately better than mine! I don't think 115lb riders aero weenied out != 175lb rider not weenied out) I was pushing just below threshold on his wheel and well above taking pulls. I was simply hoping he was hurting just as bad and kept it going. Anyways I was starting to crack a bit about 10 minutes into this attempted bridge, we still couldn't see the leaders and he seemed to decide the draft he got off me wasn't worth having me, he gave a dig into a short steep little hill and I couldn't respond. For some reason I really didn't have much pop today, I had plenty of go until I tried to pop though. It was as though if I tried to dig into the anaerobic stores I was empty and I had to recover from it and got nothing in return. (Excuse #2: I have been doing a bit of calorie deficit for 3 weeks now to get down a bit before the mountain climbing race I've got next weekend. I think I may have failed to replenish glycogen stores after some hard rides this week, resulting in some lost "pop")
I decided drift back to the main group after this, no use to soldier on in nomansland just to get caught and shelled (this might have been one of my better decisions in the race). I got caught, they were rev-ing a bit to try and catch David and I so catching onto the back was a bit hard, but I managed and after some counters we settled down. Started riding a nice endurance pace. There was a point on this second lap where I was riding side by side with Lance Johnson from MVP at 140w just chilling out, drinking water and talking. It really was an endurance ride.... and then it ended.
On the third lap every hill was an acceleration (remember how I didn't have any the pop.) I was struggling but holding in, trying to be efficeint in my field positioning, moving up when I could. At one point, I'm not really sure what happened, I think they accelerated up a hill and around the corner and I was just floating on the back of the back. Not going easy but not suffering too bad, and then all of a sudden there were 5 bike lengths between me and the back. I settled down to about threshold and figured I would just catch up when they let off again.... which I did. Then the attacked again. I rode threshold a bit more, but I was hungry now. I wasn't comfortable taking my hands off the bars to eat, and eating and drilling it don't go together. I decided I would eat. I ate, settled down to keep riding. I figured I would just ride endurance pace in... or at least that was what I was telling myself. After crossing the start finish and hearing "3 laps to go" I realized that I was already running close to empty, I was way behind on calories and I have a race tomorrow. I decided it was best to save what was left, race hard tomrrow. Having a bad race today is one thing, being stubborn and making a bad one tomorrow is another.
A note on races that are this windy: borderline extremely dangerous. I saw people on shallow wheels get pushed 2-3 feet. I was very very vigilant about paying attention and was able to manage it alright (as in no worse than the worst guy on shallow wheels). It was squirrly and there were some wide-open fields. It don't think anyone crashed, but that is pretty impressive. Anyways, this is the only race I've been in where I wished that I had shallower wheels for handling purposes, and honestly that probably wouldn't have helped more. The aero helmet also generated far more side push than I expected. I was considering riding with it more often, but I don't think I will. I don't really care if people think of me as an aero quack because I'm happy to own that title. Seriously though.... crazy dirty looks, not even like picking on you just sideways glances and an evil eye.
So yeah, I'm not happy about being dropped. I haven't slept well this past week, and it was a hard training week (I've been getting 6 hours of sleep trying to get the rides in, catch up on school work and all the other stuff that needs to happen). I need to fix that and I think that if I had more sleep this past week, or it had been far less windy, or I had been more loaded up energy wise I would have been better, but coulda shoulda woulda. I didn't have it today. Eating up, sleeping and and going out again tomorrow. Hopefully it will treat me better, and I will race better. The weather forcast is at least better.
As always start with information about the course, it was a series of rolling hills, doing 6 18 km loops (or at least supposed to). 6 turns, one long straight (~5km), two medium long straights (~3-4km) and three shorter straights (~1-2km). It was coldish (high 30s), on and off snowing, mostly cloudy, and VERY windy (started at 25 mph, picked up to 35 mph and was gusting up to 55mph). The long straight, one short and one medium had a cross wind, one medium section had a headwind, and two short sections had tail winds. Wind was direct from the West and this was on gridlike streets (only going NSEW). Racing in a 123 field, started with 30 in the field. Background: last year I got dropped on the first lap here, caught back on and then got dropped in the same spot near the end of the second lap and called it quits. My goal for this race was to see where my fitness was in the 123 field, and try and finish the race. Equipment wise I went with my heavier 60mm deep HED CX wheels (toiroidal shaped), and as somewhat of a joke, I wore my TT helmet. I figured if there was ever a day for it, this was it. I was amazed I didn't get more comments on this. I get lots of snarky comments on my Giro Reverb helmet (which is kinda air attack like), but with the TT helmet I just got dirty looks like "Who the F*** does this guy think he is?" Lighten up guys, seriously.
So the race....
Started with a netural roll out, nothing too eventful here. Get to the main course as always as soon as the pace car takes off someone attacks, but no one was worried about this guys so we just hung out and road for a while (with a strong cross wind) we caught them, there were a series of attacks many of which were brought back. Ultimately a group of 3 containing Brendan Housler, Kevin Walker and some one I don't know rolled off the front (I believe he was Canadian though). I'm not sure who decided it was a good idea to let this trio off the front, because Brendan and Kevin are two guys I would have picked on the starting line to win the race. After it rolled off the front it dangled for a good 4-5 kilos in sight looking quite catchable. Then something happened and they just dissappeared. For some reason the MVP Healthcare team seemed to be happy to let it god (despite being an elite 12 team which was tied for most teammates in the group at 4). At this point the field had shrunk a lot but we really hadn't been going THAT hard. I was kinda mistified as to why, but anyways. When everyone gave up pulling I decided that this was lame and went to the front to try and pull it back. Brendan's team Mt.Borah was doing a bit of blocking but they were being fairly classy about it (pulling back lots of breaks). There were maybe 4 of us up front doing work, and people were sucking to be honest. I couldn't see the break anymore and I was able to get on the front and high end tempo for my pull. I could tell David Richardson was annoyed so I talked to him and said "Let's gutter the field in the cross-wind and try to bridge." I rode right over the the gutter with him on my wheel and hit it just above threshold @ 240w. The field dissappeared right away and I was feeling pretty good about this.
He and I took a couple pulls, going pretty smooth and then he shouted to me as I dropped back saying "I'm getting no draft off you." No shit sherlock, I'm sorry I'm small and I aero weenied out for this wind. (Excuse #1 His w/CdA are definately better than mine! I don't think 115lb riders aero weenied out != 175lb rider not weenied out) I was pushing just below threshold on his wheel and well above taking pulls. I was simply hoping he was hurting just as bad and kept it going. Anyways I was starting to crack a bit about 10 minutes into this attempted bridge, we still couldn't see the leaders and he seemed to decide the draft he got off me wasn't worth having me, he gave a dig into a short steep little hill and I couldn't respond. For some reason I really didn't have much pop today, I had plenty of go until I tried to pop though. It was as though if I tried to dig into the anaerobic stores I was empty and I had to recover from it and got nothing in return. (Excuse #2: I have been doing a bit of calorie deficit for 3 weeks now to get down a bit before the mountain climbing race I've got next weekend. I think I may have failed to replenish glycogen stores after some hard rides this week, resulting in some lost "pop")
I decided drift back to the main group after this, no use to soldier on in nomansland just to get caught and shelled (this might have been one of my better decisions in the race). I got caught, they were rev-ing a bit to try and catch David and I so catching onto the back was a bit hard, but I managed and after some counters we settled down. Started riding a nice endurance pace. There was a point on this second lap where I was riding side by side with Lance Johnson from MVP at 140w just chilling out, drinking water and talking. It really was an endurance ride.... and then it ended.
On the third lap every hill was an acceleration (remember how I didn't have any the pop.) I was struggling but holding in, trying to be efficeint in my field positioning, moving up when I could. At one point, I'm not really sure what happened, I think they accelerated up a hill and around the corner and I was just floating on the back of the back. Not going easy but not suffering too bad, and then all of a sudden there were 5 bike lengths between me and the back. I settled down to about threshold and figured I would just catch up when they let off again.... which I did. Then the attacked again. I rode threshold a bit more, but I was hungry now. I wasn't comfortable taking my hands off the bars to eat, and eating and drilling it don't go together. I decided I would eat. I ate, settled down to keep riding. I figured I would just ride endurance pace in... or at least that was what I was telling myself. After crossing the start finish and hearing "3 laps to go" I realized that I was already running close to empty, I was way behind on calories and I have a race tomorrow. I decided it was best to save what was left, race hard tomrrow. Having a bad race today is one thing, being stubborn and making a bad one tomorrow is another.
A note on races that are this windy: borderline extremely dangerous. I saw people on shallow wheels get pushed 2-3 feet. I was very very vigilant about paying attention and was able to manage it alright (as in no worse than the worst guy on shallow wheels). It was squirrly and there were some wide-open fields. It don't think anyone crashed, but that is pretty impressive. Anyways, this is the only race I've been in where I wished that I had shallower wheels for handling purposes, and honestly that probably wouldn't have helped more. The aero helmet also generated far more side push than I expected. I was considering riding with it more often, but I don't think I will. I don't really care if people think of me as an aero quack because I'm happy to own that title. Seriously though.... crazy dirty looks, not even like picking on you just sideways glances and an evil eye.
So yeah, I'm not happy about being dropped. I haven't slept well this past week, and it was a hard training week (I've been getting 6 hours of sleep trying to get the rides in, catch up on school work and all the other stuff that needs to happen). I need to fix that and I think that if I had more sleep this past week, or it had been far less windy, or I had been more loaded up energy wise I would have been better, but coulda shoulda woulda. I didn't have it today. Eating up, sleeping and and going out again tomorrow. Hopefully it will treat me better, and I will race better. The weather forcast is at least better.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Hornby Hills Kermis (123 field) 2013
I was very nervous going into this race, like all the races in upstate NY, my memories of this race are of me suffering like CRAZY and getting dropped. So I remembered it hurt and I couldn't keep up, and I really didn't want to get popped one lap in this time (or for that matter 2,3,4 so on, I wanted to make it in). The course here is hard, 12km loops with two main climbs, one 1.3km, 6% avg grade climb and another which we refer to as "the wall" 0.6km average grade of 11.5% (steepest section @ 22%). The first climb is all on dirt (mostly very well packed) and the second is paved but has fine sand all over it, you cannot really stand up.
First lap starts with a downhill, then we turn onto the dirt road/climb and are welcomed by what the called "larger rocks" at the start line. Turns out they means that the road had sections where instead of being dirt they used sharp stones stones pave fill in nasty sections. End result being that 3 people got flats immediately (out of a 28 person field), it has slippery and hard to stay upright on the rocks and it felt horrible, but eventually they were over it and we continue up the well packed dirt. The group stayed together, then we rolled along a flat road and climbed the wall, it hurt but I made it up with the group, I think we lost a couple here but not many. This is were I became unhitched last year so I was already past that point (woo hoo!). The we descended back down, past the start/finish and I started to notice my tire felt low. At this point I was wondering if I had done something to the wheel because I felt a thump on every wheel rotation, but I kept riding. If it was broken, well it was already broken! Made it up the longer climb with the group again, but less then half the field made it up this time. Feeling pretty good, we role into "the wall" and I'm starting to come unhitched... I'm fighting, but I lose it.
I start riding with a couple other guys. Come up to a corner, I'm not feeling confident in my wheel so I slow more than he does. We become unhitched, but I catch back up on a descent... then the guy in front of me loses the wheel for no reason. I'm pushing on the way up the climb (dang those rocks feel BIG), and the road feels bumpier than the last two times. (I assumed this was just because I was going slower though.) I get unhitched from these guys, I get caught by the next small group but just sitting behind them is feeling hard. We hit the wall again and I mentally just broke, I'm pushing and pushing and keep going backwards. I'm thinking about all the hard work, and how it isn't helping, how I'm suffering after all this work. Then I hit a rock and I'm like... wait a second. Get off the bike and sure enough: maybe 20psi.
I think I got a slow leak after lap 1, all that wheel feeling stuff was from the tire losing air. Sure enough look at the garmin data first time up the first hill: 275w, 21.2kmh second time: 275w, 20.7kmh. So... half a kmh. I'm not sure how many watts that is but whatever it was it kept on increasing as the tire got flatter. Stupid slow leaks. Instantly all those bad feelings and negative thoughts just went poof. Next time, hopefully no flats and we can see what I can actually do.
First lap starts with a downhill, then we turn onto the dirt road/climb and are welcomed by what the called "larger rocks" at the start line. Turns out they means that the road had sections where instead of being dirt they used sharp stones stones pave fill in nasty sections. End result being that 3 people got flats immediately (out of a 28 person field), it has slippery and hard to stay upright on the rocks and it felt horrible, but eventually they were over it and we continue up the well packed dirt. The group stayed together, then we rolled along a flat road and climbed the wall, it hurt but I made it up with the group, I think we lost a couple here but not many. This is were I became unhitched last year so I was already past that point (woo hoo!). The we descended back down, past the start/finish and I started to notice my tire felt low. At this point I was wondering if I had done something to the wheel because I felt a thump on every wheel rotation, but I kept riding. If it was broken, well it was already broken! Made it up the longer climb with the group again, but less then half the field made it up this time. Feeling pretty good, we role into "the wall" and I'm starting to come unhitched... I'm fighting, but I lose it.
I start riding with a couple other guys. Come up to a corner, I'm not feeling confident in my wheel so I slow more than he does. We become unhitched, but I catch back up on a descent... then the guy in front of me loses the wheel for no reason. I'm pushing on the way up the climb (dang those rocks feel BIG), and the road feels bumpier than the last two times. (I assumed this was just because I was going slower though.) I get unhitched from these guys, I get caught by the next small group but just sitting behind them is feeling hard. We hit the wall again and I mentally just broke, I'm pushing and pushing and keep going backwards. I'm thinking about all the hard work, and how it isn't helping, how I'm suffering after all this work. Then I hit a rock and I'm like... wait a second. Get off the bike and sure enough: maybe 20psi.
I think I got a slow leak after lap 1, all that wheel feeling stuff was from the tire losing air. Sure enough look at the garmin data first time up the first hill: 275w, 21.2kmh second time: 275w, 20.7kmh. So... half a kmh. I'm not sure how many watts that is but whatever it was it kept on increasing as the tire got flatter. Stupid slow leaks. Instantly all those bad feelings and negative thoughts just went poof. Next time, hopefully no flats and we can see what I can actually do.
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