That course is brutal, Dylan, and I hate that left hander towards the bottom of the descent. You’ll get 'em next time!
did the 3/4 crit last night and felt way better. Was able to bridge up to a breakaway, but they sat up when I got there. The effort made me get dropped when the pack caught us and I had to spend a prime lap chasing back on as they were revving up for the sprint. Saved my legs for the sprint and hit the last corner in 5th wheel, blew up just before the finish on the long (~.2mi straight.) and got swarmed at the line. I think I’m going to aim for 10th wheel or so in the last corner for next time.
another crit yesterday. missed the breakaway ft. former national champ. launched a counter that quickly started digging into the lead. that’s until the four dudes who were all on the same team (in a 7person chase) decided they wouldn’t work anymore despite being unrepresented in the break. WHT? they’ve all upgraded from juniors recently and do weird stuff like this all the time.
got another chase going with about 10 laps to go. sprinted for 2nd in that group, 9th overall. still mediocre results-wise, but i feel i can actually be active in these races and make stuff happen. so, i’ll take that.
took a week off. took off with about ten to go at yesterday’s middle-week crit. tea-mate 2nd, i 3rd.
racing tomorrow in buffalo.
anyone else doing stuff?
i’m too embarrassed by my lack of anaerobic fitness to show my face at a race. gonna give it another week or two of training, get out there at the end of the month… i dunno.
fitness is feeling good, been doing loooots of group rides… practice crit tuesdays & thursdays, track wednesday, 50 mile race-pace group ride saturday. on a much needed rest week this week.
Didn’t do as well at the track last week - missed the break in the tempo race and couldn’t drag it back myself. got a few points in the pts race but the same guy broke away. I heard he was some strong triathlete or something. Should have kept an eye on him. Gambled one lap too early in the unknown distance race. Thinking I should get more gears soon, I can probably push more than the 48x15 I have on there now.
Cat’s hill crit saturday - couldn’t get my ass up to the front and was dying on that 23% climb after 10 laps, but was still connected to the pack. Flatted with 3 to go, but I wasn’t going to get a result at that rate anyway
office park crit sunday - I think I rode it really well, except at the end. Got spooked thinking about the finishing corner somehow, and as I pulled up to my teammate who was at the front for some reason, I made the strange decision to try to lead him out even though I should have just gone for the sprint myself. I think it was an out to avoid facing my fears, as there was no sound logic behind it since he had just been pulling at the front 
Need to work on that.
long vid is long:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyvdlpOMKBA&feature=youtu.be
I think May is cursed for my training. I’ve had two weeks of way too much work to get in any training during the week, and now a week of bike fails and now family arriving, and then my wedding on the weekend. I’ll probably get a good amount of time on the mtb during the honeymoon, but… sigh. May always sucks for my training. Hope I can get it together for Baker City at the End of June and Cascade in July.
Oh! It looks like I could race the first day of Baker… Road race and uphill TT.
Not the rest of the stages? That last day is brutally awesome.
Did my first xc race two weeks ago. No one at USAC had responded to my pending upgrade request so I raced as a 2. Took the hole shot, was 2nd wheel coming into the first descent section, then proceeded to destroy my chain. Oops.
My upgrade finally went through this week after chatting with officials at the last race. There is a race in Missoula on Saturday on some newly built singletrack that works into the existing Marshall Mountain stuff (that is used for Missoula XCT). I’m still getting a feel for the new bike (3 rides total) and only have one ride on the new bars (which I need to cut down some), but managed to PR the local bike park-esque descent by a few seconds over my fastest time last Fall which is a good start.
Currently waffling on whether a 3hr drive each way is worth it when I don’t have a lot in the legs nor time on the mtb and will likely be strugglebusing in my first cat 1 race.
edit: looks like strong chance of thunderstorms and over a half inch of rain. If there’s one thing I do not ride in, it’s thunderstorms. I think that’s sealed the deal for me staying here and doing a long base ride.
Maybe some of day two… I have a wedding on the last day in Boise… I did that race a few years back and it was the best/worst. So painful.
wussup with y’all?
i’ve been getting some pretty consistent results at the midweek races. currently 3rd in the standings, hoping to better that tonight.
i realize i’m gonna have to do sone dedicated sprint training if i want to take the next step, though.
Still figuring out this ‘winning’ business.
Finally starting to mix myself up with the front at the end of a race, and not backing off due to nerves
Now I just need to get some decisiveness going and maybe I’ll podium soon.
Well, I did base and one solid build period, and then the month of May (supposed to be Build II) was a high-stress, work-heavy mess, with very inconsistent training and shitty shitty weather on the weekends I was able to get out and ride. I have just under 4 weeks to get ready for Baker City, and I’m not sure what the best approach is. This week, I’ll do Tabor (and SUCK) tomorrow, then the easy crit on Saturday, and a 117 mile gran fondo on Sunday. I suppose I’ll mostly have to race into shape, which I guess is okay because there are races going on for the next little while, anyway.
do as much ftp work as is possible to cram in three weeks time, then relax for a week.
also, finished second tonight which should put me in a three-way tie for the leader’s jersey! tie-breaker is # of races completed, which i think puts me on top.
[quote=y]do as much ftp work as is possible to cram in three weeks time, then relax for a week.
[/quote]
I totally agree. I think you’ll be faster with that than trying to race into shape.
Eh…
How much are you really going to increase your ftp in 3 weeks? Racing is speed work, which is just as important, if not more important if staying with a fast moving group is weak point.
I would guess that the hill climbing part of baker is going to go pretty good for you, JP, since you’re small, so watts per kg is in your favor. Getting some racing intensity might help with the surging and help you maintain speed and a take shelter in a group when theyre moving fast.
All of what Amy said, plus I find that my pack confidence fades over time unless I’m doing fast group rides periodically.
Photos from Monday are up yay. I need a smaller skinsuit.
http://i.imgur.com/bmVu4Qu.jpg
don’t get me wrong, i think you (and anyone else who wants to improve at bike racing) should do all the bike racing you can.
i just think that a focus on ftp intervals will give you (and probably most people) the most benefit in terms of training.
racing just isn’t quality training… too much surging, and you have no choice but to go over your goal training power if the race dictates that… which leads to much less time in the zone you’re aiming at for training. If you think you need vo2, controlled vo2 intervals will be better than racing. if you think you need to raise ftp, controlled ftp intervals will be better than racing.