LMaster

Another question is to what extend, if at all, is it possible to be competitive in crits with a relatively weak sprint. Best 1s power is like 950W and best 5s power is right about 800W. Can I win with that kind of sprint in lower categories (4/5)?

aaronmcd

Cornering:
Practice. I never had trouble with it. Hardly ever thought much about it. I commuted 3-5 x per day and rode my bike around campus for years before starting racing, so thats a couple hundred corners per week. If all you do is train on open roads I can imagine cornering might be tricky at first. Go to an empty parking lot and zip around every which way.
Close quarters:
CDR said a few hours of drills and you'll be better than most lower cat racers. But not necessarily with regards to drafting close. For that you have to do it a ton, and not in a controlled paceline. You don't want to be thinking about it mid-race. So I'd say do a lot of fast group rides and races for that.

TheKillerPenguin

Naturally my joule 1.0 died again, third time in a week. Methinks I'll be giving powertap a call.

New battery. Intervals...take 2...

mattm

In short, yes.

aaronmcd

Training status:
2:15 with 30' climb a SST (felt a lot harder due to fatigue) and Z2/3 commute focus on spinning and sprinting the overpasses.

Group ride tomorrow, then rest day.

gsteinb

Why let it come down to a sprint then?

LMaster

My, likely incorrect, understanding; is that in flatter races or crits it's more difficult to just ride away from people given the power of the group in chasing down solo or small breakaway attempts.

The other reason I might at first is that f I'm always trying breakaways and such I get a little less experience trying to be efficient in a race, riding around others, and being able to finish in a more chaotic field sprint. Even though I see myself as much more of a climber type rider it seems to me like it would be a good idea to develop a solid all-around skillset from there start.

Wesley36

My sprint numbers are probably in a similar neighbourhood, and last season practice races taught me I have plenty of power for a bunch sprint, if I use it right. Timing and patience count for a lot.

gsteinb

one of the best crit riders in NJ can't sprint his way out of a paper bag. He goes, sits up. Goes again. Wins. It's good to try and improve at things…very good. But it's also good to know what's your best scenario for winning.

globecanvas

LMaster, you are planning bank shots in your head before picking up a cue stick. It's totally pointless to worry about shortchanging your efficiency practice because you might always be off the front.

Find some good group rides and practice efficiency and cornering. In 4/5 races honestly I think the biggest factor contributing to success is just being willing to animate and do stuff. Do some mass start races and practice being intentional -- don't burn energy unless you have a reason to, and when you have a reason to, commit all in. Everything else will come.

valygrl

LMaster - try to go to this clinic:

https://www.coloradocycling.org/sites...20March%2028th

I did the women's clinic last year. Very useful. We did cornering and bumping drills on grass and cornering & bunny hopping on pavement, paceline chalk-talk and on road paceline practice.

Gramercy

Your FTP is 330! I am guessing you used to run track in high school or college. You will probably be stronger than just about anyone you race this year in cat 4 or 5, maybe even 3.

LMaster

Probably somewhere between 290-300. Best 20' test is 320W. Still though, that's currently 4.7 w/kg for 20', but should be close to 5.5 w/kg by the time I get back to race lean. So likely looking at between 5-5.25 w/kg for FTP at that point. Largely correct on the running, started in college and had been running for about 3.5 years before I picked up cycling. Was initially doing it supplement coming back from a year and a half hip injury, but ended up enjoying it enough and improving enough to decide I wanted to dedicate a full year of training/racing to that and see what I think of it.

Super cool link! I'll absolutely take a look at that, thanks! That sounds exactly like some of the stuff I need and very much like what carpediem was talking about.

Yea, I do that sometimes. Definitely sounds like the general thought is to make a point of working on skills/racing, and that makes sense to me. Looks like I've got some work to do!

Yep

1x30 @ FTP within a one hour lunch ride. I finished it, but didn't feel like I could have gone an hour.

Ygduf

if you're relatively close on those numbers, you needn't really worry about the sprint. try and get away. if it comes to a sprint, you'll be the freshest anyway. practice your timing. and at 127 lbs, 900w is not a small sprint.

grolby

Yep. That is not an exceptional w/kg for a sprint, but it's solidly competitive. You may find high-speed drag race sprints to be difficult, but for sprinting out of a break or on an uphill finish, that's a decent jump. Focus on racing. Your numbers are more than adequate.

TMonk

Yesterday I rode the Swami's T/Th morning ride and got spanked. I used to be a regular on this ride a few years ago, when I was a little more fit, and the caliber of riders has gone up for sure since then. I would estimate that between 33-50% of the riders were cat2+ from Spy or Monster Media.

I rode way overly eager during the first part of the ride up the coast, spent too much time on the front. Looking at the data, I had a solid 11' with 280AP/315NP. When we headed in for the punchy hills, I was hurting. On the second to last climb, I got gapped and had to back off to ~300w, but caught up at the stoplight. Stoplight turns green right as I roll up, and 5" later I'm doing 400+ w in the draft. Holy crap these guys are hammering! When we hit the last climb, I didn't even try, shifted into the little ring and spun, hurting.

I was a little disappointed for a while, but I need to remember how stupidly I rode in the beginning, and the caliber of riders, it's no longer just a bunch of regular club riders that I can punk around.


This morning, I rode about ~50 mi this morning in 2:45 of ride time, 207w AP, about 2000kj's, felt pretty good. Rode from my apt (Linda Vista, for all you S Diegans) up to Encinitas, and detoured through La Jolla/Bird Rock on the way back.

Duke of Kent

I earned all of my upgrade points, from CAT3 to CAT2, in breaks. The vast majority in crits. As those were the vast majority of races in/around Chicago.

I'm 5'6", 141lbs in race trim.

Wylde06

4x10 at 95% on the TT bike. Felt like I was flying. And now I want to do all the TTs!

https://www.strava.com/activities/270462881

carpediemracing 

I'm too tired and just wiped out a response. I'll give it a go tomorrow.

tetonrider

i'm coming to socal (encinitas) in a few weeks. how long is the ride (time-wise)? it's an early morning ride, yes?

LMaster

About an hour doing cornering/skills work then a 1x20, 2x10 session today. Around/just above threshold for the 20' one, 103-105% of threshold for the 10 minute ones, very low Z3 in between for recovery.

mattm

weekday hammer ride; was having fun up until I flatted on a nail.

on the plus side, hit 1108w peak and 1000w for 10 seconds. not as good as a lot of people, but it'll do.

furiousferret

Leg is still really tight so I'm off the bike for at least a few more days, more likely weeks though. The condition varies greatly each day, so we'll see.

Sorry for the late responses, we've had a sql cluster at work that's gone haywire and all my time has gone into fixing it.

I plan on ordering one; I'm going to try to convince my boss to buy it but it will more than likely come out of my pocket.

The hip flexor is a group of muscles, the one I have an issue with is the psoas, which is the muscle that helps you stand and lift your knee. Fun fact; we're the only mammals to have a psoas (since we are the only true bipedal mammals). A few sessions in the gym I've noticed some hip flexor muscles are 3x stronger than others, which isn't helping matters. I suspect many cyclists have this same problem.

I may have to look into those, a good pedal stroke helps, and one legged drills have been useful. Still, if something can help my get through the top dead zone its worth checking out.

Snapping illiopsoas is exactly what I have. The hip socket is in pain (tendonitis probably) and I have to wait for that to get better. Like you, stretching seems to be the one thing that keeps it at bay.

gsteinb

I don't even like to walk the dogs. The idea of standing all day at a desk actually makes me weepy.