looks like my first road race of the season will be my first ever stage race in a few weeks on my fuckin’ birthday
what could go wrong?
Nice job, Jacques!
I raced Saturday, and it went better and worse than expected. 3 laps of a rolling 20-mile course with a few more significant climbs. Traditionally, it pours and hails at this race, and it never goes well for me, even when it should. Saturday, my big concern was not getting dropped on a couple of short descents in the first 5 miles of the race. I positioned myself right where I wanted to be on a confident teammate’s wheel and on the outside of the pack coming into both of them and managed to stick comfortably with the group throughout. I was so stoked (descents are a very, very, very weak area for me) that I got a bit complacent and stopped paying attention. I went to the back of the group to grab a drink and blow snot rockets, and I saw someone signal an upcoming turn, but I thought they were pointing at something up in the sky, so I started looking up in the sky… and missed the turn. Well, I just really overshot it and had to almost stop to correct. Unfortunately, the turn was into a nasty headwind, and I had gapped myself just enough that I couldn’t get back to the group. I allllmost got there, but blew myself up after chasing for 4 miles. I tried to keep pushing, but felt pretty crappy and struggled with a strong wind. I ended up getting stuck behind another field that rode really slow for 10 miles and decided to call it after two laps. I’m pretty stoked to have stuck with the group through the descents. I’m annoyed I made such a dumb mistake to get dropped when I was otherwise feeling good and confident, but next time, I’ll do better.
^been there
first middle of the week championships of the world tonight. so cold and windy, i think i came in 5th in the sprint.
Nice!
I met dmotobear out at the racetrack Monday night in full Tarck kit. 
I also raced my ass off. The Monday racetrack race is great for practicing whatever and for getting good, hard efforts in during the week. However, it’s also flat and windy, so not conditions that favor a rider like me. My team had four people, and one of them, a very strong TT-er and sprinter attacked probably 10 or more times in the 18-mile race. I put in some work and managed to get in a pretty decent attack on the second-last lap, which felt pretty good. I was too bagged to sprint, so I got 8th, but my teammate won, so I feel pretty good about that.
[quote=GrandmaJordan]
[/quote] high five!
I raced again last night. Rain made it a bit interesting, but I did a lot better with conserving energy and positioning myself for the sprint. Got second in the group sprint, but there were two dudes who had broke away… so 4th.
I think I’ll do 3/4 next week instead of 4/5.
[quote=GrandmaJordan]Nice!
I met dmotobear out at the racetrack Monday night in full Tarck kit.
I also raced my ass off. The Monday racetrack race is great for practicing whatever and for getting good, hard efforts in during the week. However, it’s also flat and windy, so not conditions that favor a rider like me. My team had four people, and one of them, a very strong TT-er and sprinter attacked probably 10 or more times in the 18-mile race. I put in some work and managed to get in a pretty decent attack on the second-last lap, which felt pretty good. I was too bagged to sprint, so I got 8th, but my teammate won, so I feel pretty good about that.[/quote]
sweet! also, been there before (the missed turn), lost a MTB race because of that years ago. doesn’t feel good, but whatevs.
looking forward to the weeknight crit series around here, to get some upgrade points so I can start racing with my friends
I’m doing the Monday night cat4/5 Masters race… it’s ~22 miles.
On Tuesday I have the choice between cat4/5 at ~12 miles to get sweeeeet upgrade points, or cat3/4 at 22 miles for a better workout and race.
My goal is to be a strong cat 3 by the end of the season, do I need to concentrate more on upgrade points or race fitness right now? (must get top 6 for upgrade points)
I’d focus more on building fitness right now if there’s any question of where you stand, otherwise come July you’ll be hurtin’ for certain. If you can already dust everybody though, then go for the upgrade points.
Last Thursday was my first race at Floyd Bennett. I felt pretty good on the ride out, nice and warmed up by the time I got to the strips. But there was a 45 minute delay due to registration trouble, and all my good flowy blood was tamed by the time the race started. One lap in and I lost all feeling in my hands. Two laps in and the field jumped, and I couldn’t find the juice to stay in. Ended up finishing about 45 seconds behind the pack, numb as could be. Going over my Garmin data, my heart rate spiked up to 220 right around the time I dropped, so I guess I’m not in as good of shape as I thought I was.
Also, I slept through my marshal shift for Saturday morning, like a total piece of shit, so I’m out of the Central Park races til mid-May. Prospect Park sundays are about $35 a pop. Probably going to have to stick with Floyd.
I am finally out of my thesis cave and now that the weather is warming I have both the time and the inclination to start training… however our home collegiate races are this coming weekend. My heart rate’s only about 10 beats high and power about 40 watts low, that’s fixable in 7 days right?
Fortunately we’ll have a full squad in the As race so I don’t feel pressure to do too much work and blow my knee/other freaked out body parts this early. Main goal this season is to get back fitness to where I can race and not embarrass myself when I head back to California this summer.
Don’t worry everyone here will be burned out by then.
[quote=derrayyyvid]I’d focus more on building fitness right now if there’s any question of where you stand, otherwise come July you’ll be hurtin’ for certain. If you can already dust everybody though, then go for the upgrade points.
Last Thursday was my first race at Floyd Bennett. I felt pretty good on the ride out, nice and warmed up by the time I got to the strips. But there was a 45 minute delay due to registration trouble, and all my good flowy blood was tamed by the time the race started. One lap in and I lost all feeling in my hands. Two laps in and the field jumped, and I couldn’t find the juice to stay in. Ended up finishing about 45 seconds behind the pack, numb as could be. Going over my Garmin data, my heart rate spiked up to 220 right around the time I dropped, so I guess I’m not in as good of shape as I thought I was.
Also, I slept through my marshal shift for Saturday morning, like a total piece of shit, so I’m out of the Central Park races til mid-May. Prospect Park sundays are about $35 a pop. Probably going to have to stick with Floyd.[/quote]
floyd bennett is a weird race. i did it a couple of years ago when i was around visiting a friend. spent the entire race in 2 person breakaway and took all the primes. don’t remember if we stayed away till thee end, but i’m pretty sure i was on the podium.
re: dmoto’s question. do you want to increase your skills or get upgrade points? that’s your answer.
I’m going the easy route and doing 4/5 tonight, legs are fried from yesterday.
Had a hard race, was deep in the red at a few points, but was able to get great positioning on the last lap. I was 5th wheel going into the last corners when the marshal neutralized the race so an ambulance could pick up an injured rider. I feel like I could have done pretty well in the sprint, hoping tonight is similar.
Do you know what happened? I didn’t realize there’d been a crash until the ambulance rolled in as my friend and I were leaving.
My race last night was pretty terrible. I don’t know if it was the heat, or that I ate kind of weird, or if I was dehydrated or what, but after 3 very punchy laps, I was toasted and dropped. I finished the race via long, solo TT, so at least I got my workout in, but man, I need to work on that intensity.
Hey! I wanna do a race. Its all on local trails. 28 miles. The longest climb is about 20 minutes and not steep, but there is a bunch of shorter techy punchy stuff too.
Gonna do SS.
I have like 7 weeks till the race… Im pretty fit, but dont have great top end endurance.
What kind of training should I be doing in general… to get fast for it?
Our race had a few noobs that were doing sketchy things in the pack… lots of overlapping wheels… I’m assuming it was something to do with that… I heard a bit of yelling “inside” before the wreck, but it was a ways behind me.
[quote=Todd]Hey! I wanna do a race. Its all on local trails. 28 miles. The longest climb is about 20 minutes and not steep, but there is a bunch of shorter techy punchy stuff too.
Gonna do SS.
I have like 7 weeks till the race… Im pretty fit, but dont have great top end endurance.
What kind of training should I be doing in general… to get fast for it?[/quote]
not sure what you mean by top end endurance, but i’ll assume you mean “top of the line endurance” because that would be a funny thing to say, and also a desirable attribute for bike racing. go to a place where you can ride without interruption for 15-20 minutes at a time and then go as fast as you can for the duration of the interval. if you can, do another one after you’ve fully recovered.
came in 6th tonight, sprinting from a pretty big group at the middle-week world champs of riding in circles.
Top end as in anaerobic? 30x30s are a nightmare but insanely effective. Like the name implies: 30 all out, 30 total recovery. Mimics those crazy punches that are sometimes the ticket for techy climbs.
If those start feeling comfy you can do ladders:
30x30, 5min
20x20, 5min
15x15, 4 min
I made it through once when I was absolutely flying, but generally fail (which I think is the point).
Doing those once a week, plus a day or two of sweet spot (just below all-out hour pace) for 2x20 or 3-4x10 is good. I also like “hour of power” on the road - same power but 60-70 rpm paying attention to activation. Start with 15/20min then build a few minutes up each week until you’re trying to do an hour straight. I should dig into my archives and find a few more - 20min sweet spot with 1min anaerobic every 5th minute is solid too
I tend to like 2 sweet spot days, 2 higher intensity days, 2 longer rides (over 2hr, 4hr pace all the time with near threshold on climbs) and a recovery day. Consistency is big, so 6 days on the bike is better than going crazy for 5hr one day then having to recover for the next three (save that for races).
Tonight was our first race in the local training series. 18mi loop so basically an all out crit. I knew I didn’t have the fitness to cover moves… But got irritated that no one would cover moves so I did a lot of work. After a turn with ~3mi to go my lunch started doing things and I pulled the plug. Better than I anticipated!
Thanks dudes, that’s helpful. I put together a calendar that I hope I can follow.
Raced another RR yesterday; went okay, but not great. They started p/1/2 women with the 3s and masters women, together but scored seperate, so we were in a big group and taking up the whole rode. it wasn’t too windy, so we never strung out and it was hard to do anything if you got trapped anywhere midpack to the back.
I tried to set a higher pace when i did get to the front due to boredom and put in one solid attack, but was immediately chased by a group who didnt put together any organization. Teammate was off the front for a bit going into the last lap and two people countered, then there was immediately a big crash not far from the front. I was behind it along with another strong teammate and the effort to catch back up to the group ahead (since they were on the heals of people who attacked and had no idea that there was a crash) killed me. My legs were fully loaded with lactic acid and I struggled the rest of the race. Clung on to this group for the last 14 or so miles and finished 13 out of 15 in the front group (we started with 40 or so), 11th in p-1-2. Legs felt like absolute shit.
Recovering from an effort like that is always rough, nice work to stay with it.
Our home collegiate weekend just happened. After amazingly sunny and warm weather all week, Montana gave us a big “fuck you” and brought over an inch of rain, low 40s, and lots of wind. Saturday I volunteered as a follow car for the morning road races and ended up frantically changing to make my start and got zero warmup. Field of 9 went out really hard and I came off with ~500m to go on the main climb on the lap, then chased and stayed about 30s off the back for 20min or so before getting hit with some of the worst weather I’ve ridden in and finishing the lap solo. Looking at my data my numbers were better than anticipated, I just have no anaerobic fitness and it showed.