Originally Posted by
furiousferret
Just pat yourself on the back because it seems like you've earned it. Losing that weight is a big accomplishment.
I'm not 100% sure what you are asking, but it seems like you are happy with your accomplishments but frustrated with race results. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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So you have to ask yourself where the flaw is and work on it. Also, shouldn't you be doing Masters, or are you still in the 5's?
I'm just trying to get a handle on how to set realistic goals. Prior to racing, I could look at my speed and endurance, see improvement, and I knew I was doing well. My only yardstick was my own performance, and it's fairly easy to set goals: metric century, 40k goal times, hilly routes, etc. When I was riding on club rides, I didn't have any problem riding with the faster riders, and could leave the pack behind on hills. Now that I'm racing against packs of trained 25-40 yr olds, It's a little harder to see the progress. Granted, I'm still VERY green (1 big crit, 1 road race, and a couple of weekly training crits), but just making middle of the pack in cat 4 looks a loong way off.
Originally Posted by
rapwithtom
I was at 250lbs when I started cycling.
- they recover more quickly, so they have advantages in both racing and training..it will take you longer to become competitive than it would for a younger newbie, and also after efforts it'll be longer before you can go again ('waki pitch)
- though it will take a master more training to get to a w/kg level than it would a senior, the levels, at the longer durations, are not too different.
- short, ie neuromuscular, efforts, decline more with age than ftp type efforts. Youngsters' races at a given level are not significantly faster than masters at the same level, but the sprints are.
That sums up where I'm getting killed in the weekly crits. I'm leaving folks behind on the flat, in the descent, and on the turns, but they're killing me on the hill, and after 8 or 10 laps, it's hard to buy enough time on the flat to make up for it. In essence, the crit feels like a 30-50 minute series of intervals. I haven't been as good as I should be about doing extended sets of intervals, but my summer goal is to essentially recreate crit conditions on my training days by doing 30 minute sessions of 30 second interval/90 second tempo.
At any rate, I'm sort of thinking out loud here, and I appreciate the info and perspective. I'm pretty happy with how far I've come, but I'm really hoping to stand on the podium a few times by the end of the season.