Masters Racing (All Disciplines) - Just hanging out shooting the bull

So I take it this was run as a Circuit Race, since the laps were over a mile? The big difference being that, if it was an actual crit, I believe the guys impeded by the crash would be entitled to a free lap to reattach to the pack. Not so in a CR.

Sounds like significant progress, indeed. Way to go.

My apologies, you are quite right. It hadn't occurred to me, but in the later race it was made clear to a guy who got crashed out that he was welcome to re-attach himself to the bunch but couldn't compete or score points. So yes, my description of it as a crit was mistaken.

Felt like one, though. :)

Ugh! Flatted both tires (thorns) within a mile of the start. :mad: Teammate flatted on the back straight after starting late because he had a flat at the line. He managed to get a ride back to the start which is good because he had my car keys.

Never saw Racer Ex. A number of other people that I know got flats. Don't know why there were so many thorns on the road this year. It was almost like it was sabotage but I'm not quite enough of a conspiracy theorist to really believe that.

Now I need to get new tubulars (my rear tire had 13 miles on it :mad:) so that I can go back out there in two weeks for the TTT. I am having second thoughts about it though.

Wow.... Now THAT sucks! Had it rained recently? That can really get the thorns in the road.

No rain as far as I know. Just a lot of thorns and people with expensive flat tires.

Chasm, Great result. Finishing with the pack is real progress.

Cleave, A double flat in a state ITT more than sucks. I cannot believe it.

We made it to our first stop in SoCal which is San Diego. We flew into Orange County and picked up our road bikes and drove down to the hotel. We did a frozen yogurt and Starbuck's ride to La Jolla from our hotel in the golden triangle. After a full stomach of yogurt and coffee we climbed up Mount Soledad and back to La Jolla Shores an up Scripps Hill. When we lived in SD in our late 20s, we thought that was a hard climb but today it was easy with a sloshing stomach. 20 miles and 1800 feet of climbing. Tomorrow is a ride up the coast to Carlsbad.

http://www.breathhold.com/BF/tandem.jpg

SoCal/SoNV TT Champs. 48:36, fastest tandem, one of the fastest times overall. Lucky that we were flat free, Jancouver and several other people had the same issue as Cleave.

Full report to follow in the 33 after I eat my pizza and coleslaw.

Track workouts tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a ride up the coast to Carlsbad.

That is one gorgeous route...

Congrats R' Ex. Gotta love the tandem!

R' Ex. That is an extremely pro time. <bowing as I type this>

We made it to our first stop in SoCal which is San Diego. We flew into Orange County and picked up our road bikes and drove down to the hotel. We did a frozen yogurt and Starbuck's ride to La Jolla from our hotel in the golden triangle. After a full stomach of yogurt and coffee we climbed up Mount Soledad and back to La Jolla Shores an up Scripps Hill. When we lived in SD in our late 20s, we thought that was a hard climb but today it was easy with a sloshing stomach. 20 miles and 1800 feet of climbing. Tomorrow is a ride up the coast to Carlsbad.
Welcome back to San Diego! I'll be at Fiesta Island tomorrow morning working the 20k Time Trial. I'll be at the start house with my bullhorn calling riders to the line. Come on down and say hello, first rider is off at 7AM.

Welcome back to San Diego! I'll be at Fiesta Island tomorrow morning working the 20k Time Trial. I'll be at the start house with my bullhorn calling riders to the line. Come on down and say hello, first rider is off at 7AM.

We considered doing the TT but did not want to box up TT bikes and bring them along. However, the fiesta island TTs are on our list.

Congrats, RacerEx and the stoker.

Congrats Racer Ex! It seems like 1/3 of the people with whom I spoke after the race had a flat. I really don't know what was going on with all of the thorns on the road. I have half a mind to race the TTT on my non-aero carbon clinchers and put a spare tube and CO2 cartridge in my (custom) skinsuit pocket. I was looking for you but I never saw a tandem pair in a UCC kit. BTW, I don't think I can even dream of doing a 48 on that course. My best TTT time is a 52:15.

Hermes, sounds like a nice way to start a cycling vacation.

chasm54, nice to read about your improvements, especially since I feel like I've hit a plateau the last month.

Since I didn't do much today I guess I'm going to do my usual menu of three crits tomorrow.

Hope you ladies and gents don't mind a little Mtb reporting in this thread. After reading the last ten or so pages, I'm really impressed with not only the civility and genuine support, but also the level of talent (we know who they are) that contributes here.

I'm a roadie/crosser that started Mtb racing this year. Only two road races so far this year due to a leg issue( 2nd and 3rd/45+B ). The more aggressive the position, the more it flares up. By training/racing the Mtb, I can ride hard w/o jacking my leg up as much because of the more upright position on my 29er. Did my first race in April, and did well with a 3rd in Cat2 50-54. It was mostly a wide open course that favored fitness over technical skills. Then there was today's race............

Coyote Classic
Cat2 50+
7.9 miles up (2100') then 7.2 down.

(When I pre-rode the course on Wednesday, I told my teammate " **** this. I race for fun and the competition, and I can't see me having fun or being competitive." After cooling down, wiping the blood off, and feeling like a chump for threatening to leave my teamie hanging, I signed up.)

Race Day.
This course has it all. Double track, and single track. Run ups, and run downs. Steep downhill switch backs, and steep uphill switch backs. Water crossings with steep entry-V turn-steep exits, and a long friggen grinder climb with steep power sections. A couple small rock gardens. And a long double track, hair on fire decent. Perfect course for someone who knows how to ride a Mtb............. I don't.......very well......yet. Oh yea, did I say it was bumpy? It was. Think cow hooves in the now dried mud bumpy. Anyway, enough of the whining.

Got a decent start and passed a few before the single track climbing began. After that it was follow, see a small opening, pass, repeat. After about mile 2, it started to get technical, and racers were getting really bunched-up and bottle necked at the tough sections. I could see my teammate about 50 yards ahead with the leaders, but was stuck behind 8-10 people. I figured, as long as they don't gap us more than 30" or so, I'd catch and hopefully pass then on the double track grinder-climb section. After getting around most of the gaggle, the the guy in front of me bobbled a tricky little uphill transition between two rocks, and I tried to go around. I almost made it, then damn near fell over and had to put both feet down. By the time I clipped back in and merged back in the chase-train, I'd lost 8-10 spots. It was the first lesson-learned for the day... don't follow the slow guy in front of you too close when coming into the tricky stuff.

By the time I made it to the double track climb, I'd made several positions back up, but things were starting to string out, and the lead group was at least a minute up the climb. Oh well, this is were I was planning on making up some serious time on the field. Lots of targets strung out going up the road to pick off and put behind me before a long single tract climb made passing improbable. Went to get some water in the tank and learned my second lesson of the day. Until I learn some better bike handling skills, it's next to impossible to climb a rutted, bumpy, and moderately steep hill while trying to grab and use a water bottle.

I got what water I could, settled down to make up some time and within 10' I was gassed. I don't know if it was lack of hydration, two many small matches burned passing on the single track, or just general middle-aged malaise, but I could feel my legs start to go OTB. My only option was to slow down and hope that they would last for another 2-3 miles of climbing, most of it on tricky(for me) single tract. This was the last time I saw the lead group. I made it thru the single tract climb by running the bike the last 150 meters to a flat ridge were I drank most of the bottle. The run seemed to free up the legs little, so I hopped on the bike and was able to hit the last short/steep power climbs with some smash, and then it was time for the downhill.

This is the stuff that I have a love/hate relationship with. On the one hand, I've always loved going fast and pushing the envelope. Downhill skiing, competitive aerobatics, class 5 whitewater, road racing, whatever. The thing is, I hate the idea of piling-up on a Mtb at 35mph into rocks and such. Part of my trepidation stems from finally growing up and feeling mortal(happened when my daughter was born in 03), and mostly it is a lack of time on the bike, and finding where the margins dwell. Anyway, the competitive fangs finally came out and nobody passed me on the long, fast(35+) decent. That was my win for the day!

The last 1.5-2 miles was a fast, twisty, single track with a couple small hike-a-bike sections. I was starting to feel it by then, and had some of the best riding I've done on the 29er to date. I guess that counts as another small win. Crossed the line, cooled down, and waited for the results. My teammate wasn't sure where he had finished, as he had fallen in a creek during the technical single track climb, and lost the lead group. We both agreed that it was worth it to risk life and limb today and grabbed some burgers and beer(soda for me). Mtb races have a whole different vibe form RR's to say the least.

Teammate finished 3rd Whooooot, and well done Chris.
Surprisingly, I ended up 4th.

Anyhoo's, although this post was stupid-long, I figured I'd make-up for lost time in the Fifty+ Racing thread. I normally steer toward brevity, so any future posts should be more succinct, with less hand-wringing and excuses.

Bill

p.s. Come the Fall, A' Jet and I can thrill you folks with our cyclocross escapades. :thumb:

p.p.s Congrats. to the new racers in the 50+ that are already making their mark. Well done!

And Racer Ex, nice dog. She must be a hell of a stoker. :D

Welcome, nacler22. You sound pretty strong for an old guy with a bad leg.

RacerEx, why am I not surprised? 48:36? I'd only have been what? 9 km behind?

Thanks chasm54.

You have the old guy with a bad leg right. ;)

Shop ride (http://app.strava.com/activities/8466779) this morning, as the token mom. :) It was fun, we threw in a few sprints to keep it lively,:rolleyes: and I took the long way home, including the local's favorite big hill, which is 400' climb in just under 1 mi. My VAM on that climb today was 877. :eek: or :twitchy:? I'm not sure what that means except it freakin' hurt to manage that effort, and if wasn't for Strava I wouldn't have pushed so hard. :rolleyes:

Hermes, I'll see if I can remember back that far :rolleyes: and can get a few thoughts in order. Thanks for the challenges over lo, these many years. :lol:

VAM is a rate of climb in Meters/hour. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity_Ascended,_Metres_per_hour

Welcome Nacier22. Great result on getting 4th.

Thanx Hermes,

I enjoy reading your track exploits. They started building an outside track here in Boise before the bottom fell out of the economy. It's now is part of my favorite cyclocross course here. I really hope it comes to fruition soon. I'd think track racing would be a blast, although I'd probably suck at it.

Welcome, Nacler22. I know nothing about riding those knobby tired things...

Way to go, Ex!

I did a team group ride yesterday, and a combo of pace work and threshold intervals today.

Cleave, how did the crit's go?

Thanx AzTallRider,

Seems we have several things in common.

I'm also a Tall Drink of Water at 6'4".

I lived in Tempe and Chandler in the early/mid 90s.

I have a Madone with an H2 Headtube.

Judging from the scabs on my legs, I know next to nothing about knobby tire riding either. :rolleyes:

Welcome nacler22. I spent two hrs on the knobby tired bike yesterday. Lots of fun in the woods. I wish I would have saved a bit of time to look for morels. Looks to have been the perfect day.

I took my boyfriend out to the wilds of Fort Ord (the circuit, road race and Tuesday Ride roads) and drug him around the SOC Road race course. He was impressed, and, as usual, he outclimbed me....but I got him back and then some on the descents and flats! Fun, that cat and mouse stuff!

200 base miles last week. Getting there. Average speed still sucks, and climbing is still sub par. I push until I hurt and then push harder - something has to be changing for the better! Hermes' story on his training with the Russians has really stuck with me - STFU and HTFU... and, I am!

I entered the next CCCX Circuit race - June 3rd.

nacler 22, welcome!

RacerEx- you're baaaaaaaaaaack!!! I'm glad to hear that!!

Red - hug!!

Now, back to work for me...

Way to go, Sara...

Sara's sandbagging the climbs ;)

Tandem TT report here (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/517950-The-Race-Report-Thread%21?p=14222105&viewfull=1#post14222105).

Track workout yesterday. Went OK. Happy with the direction things are going.

Pretty drained today.

Hi Allegheny Jet,

Nothing better than sauteed morels.

Except, maybe a perfect day in the woods.

Thanx sarals,

You seem to have a spark about you that's contagious.

Oops, looks like I've come down with something.

Time to go take my medicine. 2x10s should work.

Thanks, fellas!

AzT and AJ - I owe you guys hugs!!

RacerEx, you too!

:)

The scooter and broken spoke story are priceless. I think those types of mishaps provide a spike of adrenalin that helps make up for lost time. Well done managing those situations on the fly.

Hi Bill, welcome and I wish that I could finish a race and be surprised that I was 4th. :D Usually I'm praying that I wasn't DFL. :p

AzTR, the crits went pretty well from a training perspective. I was off the front in the 55+ race 3 times. None of them looked like staying away and they didn't but I was glad to be able to go hard three times and still comfortably get back into a relatively small field. I was less active in the 50+ race. I help chase some breaks. The best part was having one of the best 50+ guys in SoCal (besides Racer Ex) thank me for helping with the chase. He was sans teammates which was kind of unusual. I was just happy to hang on for the 45+ race. I was tailgunning the last half of that race. Overall I managed about 53 miles of criterium racing.

Racer Ex, as I was reading your story and read about the "kapowtingphhhsst!" I thought you were going to say you flatted but fixed it and still managed a 48:36. I was definitely bummed about my situation. I felt like I had some legs (for me at least) and the weather couldn't have been better for that locale.

Sara and Red Rider are going to give me a training complex. Lately my vertical feet associated with training have been just about nil. :(

I think we should start a game called, "Where's Hermes and Velo Diva?" ;)

Hello Cleave,

I'm impressed with your ability to mix it up with the talent pool that SoCal affords for 53 miles of crits and be a factor in 2/3 of them.

We are in Newport Beach and will be at the track tomorrow at the 4PM session. On Sunday, we did the ride from La Jolla to Carlsbad via the coast. It was a great day with typical wind that freshened as the day went on. I took some video using my Contour camera mounted on the handlebar. I have a lot of cool beach video but the one this group wants to see it the race up Torrey Pines hill 6% grade at mile 40. I exported the segment from Golden Cheetah and created an overlay with metrics using Bike Telemetry. I took the video segment and merged the two together in iMovie. The timing of the start is very close. MEA led all the way on the climb with the wind at our back. According to Strava, my VAM was 1050. I suffered immensely. MEA did a great job negative splitting the climb. She does not have power but gets my power and converts it.

http://youtu.be/tdhoamkne1w

I just picked up a Contour, mainly for safety reasons. I'm not sure I'll get into making fancy race vids with telemetry but who knows.

I think we should start a game called, "Where's Hermes and Velo Diva?" ;)

So true.:D

Great effort Cleve! Three crits in one day? Ouch!!!

Hi Allegheny Jet,

Nothing better than sauteed morels.

Except, maybe a perfect day in the woods.

Since moving to Ohio from W PA I have not yet been able to find morels on a consistant basis. You have to be in the right location and at the right time. Back in the day I would just go to the usual places and make a quick check knowing that evenutally they would be there. My brother just purchased 3 lbs on Ebay and had them shipped to my parents for a Mother's Day treat.

We are in Newport Beach and will be at the track tomorrow at the 4PM session. On Sunday, we did the ride from La Jolla to Carlsbad via the coast. It was a great day with typical wind that freshened as the day went on. I took some video using my Contour camera mounted on the handlebar. I have a lot of cool beach video but the one this group wants to see it the race up Torrey Pines hill 6% grade at mile 40. I exported the segment from Golden Cheetah and created an overlay with metrics using Bike Telemetry. I took the video segment and merged the two together in iMovie. The timing of the start is very close. MEA led all the way on the climb with the wind at our back. According to Strava, my VAM was 1050. I suffered immensely. MEA did a great job negative splitting the climb. She does not have power but gets my power and converts it.

http://youtu.be/tdhoamkne1w

Thanks Hermes... makes me really want to get out to the coast for some riding in the ocean breezes.

Way to go, Cleave...

MEA led all the way on the climb with the wind at our back. According to Strava, my VAM was 1050. I suffered immensely. MEA did a great job negative splitting the climb. She does not have power but gets my power and converts it.

http://youtu.be/tdhoamkne1w

Really? Just HTFU next time and quit making excuses.:lol:

I am looking over all the video I shot on the coast ride. Very little of it is compelling to watch due to parked cars with the better vistas blocked. There is some and I will put together another video. Also, the camera is at too low of an angle to capture the beach very well. Overlaying the metrics is too hard. I would have to find and match the time stamps between the Garmin data and the video. It was easier to do with the climb since I knew exactly were it was and I started and stopped the video and created a lap at the same time.

I guess the best way to do it is start and end the video and ride together. Make the overlay and integrate it with the video in iMove and then edit the segments I want. I did not want to record the entire ride so I did it in segments.

Allowing her to sync her Garmin with my power meter seemed like a good idea at the time....Never let a climber have the wind at her back.

What was it that gave you the gearing that is shown in the overlay? I know the Shimano Flight Deck does that, but hadn't heard of anything else. Was it derived by algorithm?

Bike Telemetry has a default dashboard that has gearing as a calculated metric. You input the chain rings, rear cassette and wheel circumference and it calculates the gearing much like Flight Deck calculates cadence.

Since moving to Ohio from W PA I have not yet been able to find morels on a consistant basis. You have to be in the right location and at the right time. Back in the day I would just go to the usual places and make a quick check knowing that evenutally they would be there. My brother just purchased 3 lbs on Ebay and had them shipped to my parents for a Mother's Day treat.

I'm not much of a fungus hunter myself, but here in Idaho, the morels grow best in recently burned areas iirc.

Just checked prices: wow, your bro done good by mom. :thumb:

I go in for a TT fitting tomorrow: objective is to get fit parameters to choose the right frame and components. Last I knew, the fitting rig was in the wind tunnel. So, unless they moved it out in the last few days... :thumb:

Our fitter/shop is doing a lot in the area of dynamic fitting technology, and the fitter gves talks at various cycling get togethers. The latest gizmo they've begun using is a pad, covered with sensors, that goes over the saddle. Pressure is measured at each of the sensor points as you pedal. The data is used for adjustment and saddle selection, then maintained for use when selecting new saddles. Pretty trick.

That sounds very interesting, AZT.

I guess a practice crit is the right place to mess up and do something stupid, like pulling the pack up to your (two) teammates' break, huh? I thought I had the gap, but I guess I should have looked back sooner...:cry:

Plus, I was planning to practice a specific attack, but the big bridge effort blew me up and I couldn't get back up front. I finally was able to engage the few brain cells I still own for the last 4 laps, and got an education in efficient energy usage by following our 50+ points leader around. Wow... he's good. But even then, I found myself feathering my brakes to maintain my position, and I'm pretty darned sure he wasn't.

So much to learn!

Hermes, I take it you had the camera mounted on the steering head below the handlebar, or on top of it? It's a very steady view, I like it!

Nice video! I can't collect telemetry (unless there is way to do with my Garmin) and overlay it on my videos.

MEA doesn't have power? Come now!

Cleave - great result, I bow to you!!

I'm working on a faster way to warm up. This is the third time I've tried this particular "method", and the results so far seem to be consistent. I ride at a moderate pace for 15 to 20 minutes, and then I ramp it up for five to ten minutes - enough to almost bonk, really loading myself up with lactic acid. Then I back way down for ten minutes or so and ramp back up again. My heart and lungs respond well to that, and the "suffer quotient" goes down dramatically. I can make sustained efforts without my legs loading up. Apparently!

The bottom half of the Barloy climb went pretty well today. I didn't try to kill it, I just tried to concentrate on keeping my cadence up (around 80 RPM), and I tried hard to be smoother when off the saddle. The top half of the climb, the 10 to 12 % region, went NOT so well, cadence dropped to around 50 RPM and the speed went down to 5 MPH. Pretty awful. However, I do see small, but tangible gains. HTFU and STFU...indeed!

Our fitter/shop is doing a lot in the area of dynamic fitting technology, and the fitter gives talks at various cycling get togethers. The latest gizmo they've begun using is a pad, covered with sensors, that goes over the saddle. Pressure is measured at each of the sensor points as you pedal. The data is used for adjustment and saddle selection, then maintained for use when selecting new saddles. Pretty trick.

Wow. Could I EVER use something like that, AzT!