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.

Building Fitness

It's been a hard 3 days in a row of racing.

I raced Floyd on Tuesday night and did not make the break. Wednesday I raced at the track and qualified for the "A" feature. And last night rode to and raced at Rockleigh with several team mates, it felt very hard, was in several moves but not in the two-man break. Got 4th in the field sprint.

My body feels different, happy and tired bike racer.

Spring is not here... (yet)

Ritchey Tom Slick "Fortress" tire with metal shard
Originally uploaded by 40x14

But it's coming soon. One thing about winter riding is that the roads often contain hidden surprises.

Starting in November I installed a set of Ritchey's tom slick "fortress" tires. I don't know if these are still made or not, but they're pretty tough. For example, I pulled this metal shard out of the tire and the innertube was undamaged.

The Ritchey is even tougher than the Continental all season or gatorskin tires.

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.

Success!

.... has it's ups and downs.

Ups
Two days ago (Monday) I rode as if imbued with superhuman strength at the velodrome, although I felt a bit unsure how to wield this unexpected power.


Scored two wins and a second place for first place on the omnium.

What's changed? Looking over my road racing data, I was hitting 140-150 cadence in almost every road race. I wanted to start using more muscle strength. This is the reason for changes #1 and #2.

1> 49x15 instead of 47x15.
2> Moved the cleats back a bit for greater leverage (same as moving toes forward) .
3> Raised the saddle a bit.
4> Rode hard at Unionvale (the day before).
5> Rested for two days prior to Unionvale.
6> Felt relaxed.

The last thing, #6 is also important, riding relaxed helps efficiency. I was also mentally concentrating on efficiency. And steak tartare from les enfants terribles the night before.

Downs
Today (Wednesday) I was still feeling a little spent and only got one or two points at the velodrome. Meaning that I had only one sprint (matches to burn) per race, and then spent the rest of each race holding on for dear life. It was also harder to relax in a bigger field.

Two days in a row

I volunteered to help with race organization at Floyd Bennet Field. I got the 1/2/3 field. It was my first time doing this, I found it to be interesting and worthwhile, and a little nerve racking at the end.


Two days of racing/training...

Tuesday, road bikes at Floyd:
The FBF 3/4 race felt easy, but in the end I popped my sprint too soon for a finish in the top 15 not top 10. Need to approach it more like the track. It goes a little like this, Follow follow follow... hold it, 200 yards to go, that's half a lap, wait, wait, keep spinning, hold that wheel, not yet, set up, come around, cross eyes, 100 yards to go, don't blink or black out, just another 1/4 lap, still holding on, come out of the turn, 75 to go, wind it, 50 to go NOW! Except there may be some gear shifting involved.

Heart rate hit and briefly sustained 190, previous max seemd to be 185. I want to think it's due to the hard effort I put in on Saturday.

Wednesday, Kissena Velodrome:
My legs felt so dead on the way out that I stopped and almost turned around. I pulled out my phone and then realized that I had no obligations and nobody cared if I wasn't racing. I also knew I wouldn't be getting any competitive training for the rest of the week and I was already 1/2 way there. So after getting clobbered in the first race of the night (there are 4) I geared down from 49x15 to 47x15 and everything got a little better. Somehow this enabled me to qualify for the "A" series. It is fun/different racing with new team mates.