Crescendo, Peak, Start Over. A race report... sort of.

My last post was about over-training in order to (hopefully) bring about a peak.

Unfortunately the event I was peaking for, (NY State Master's Track championship) was canceled this year. According to the officials, the reason was too low of turnout but I think it had to do with the bad weather that was predicted for the weekend. New York does not have an indoor velodrome, although one may be in the works. An indoor velodrome would be great, and profitable if they sell food, beer, and allow gambling on site, in my opinion.

Rather than let all of that hard training go towards nothing, I wanted to find a raced suited to my training and found one. It is called the "Freedom Tour" criterium organized by high gear cyclery. It required that I hop on an NJ Transit train to Stirling, NJ then ride 8 miles to the start. It also featured a late afternoon start, which for me is a big plus.

I lined up with 42 other racers, and 25 laps later I was the first one across the finish line.

With my very basic understanding of physiology and training, I was able to bring about peak form. I raced hard, covered almost every move, and somehow still had enough juice to sprint for the finish.

I guess this means it's time to take a rest week, then begin a new 3-week cycle. The $100 prize is much less than what I spend on eating, training, and bike parts but it's the biggest prize check I've ever earned. I still don't think I'll be signing with a pro-team anytime soon (or ever). Just gettin' my ride on, here.

Power : 2 or 3 lightbulbs worth

Depending on whether we're talking about 75 or 100 watt bulbs my spindly legs could power more than two of them... for an hour. It seems like such a waste of energy... but I'm still pleased to be producing more power than in 2007.

It looks like the sprint is the area most improved. I got the powermeter in August 2007, so the 2007 numbers are probably less than perfect, but I wouldn't say they're irrelevant.



Signed up for my first cyclocross race of 2008 coming up this Saturday. Haven't been riding much so it will be interesting to see how it goes.