IBOHUNT

I may just revert back to being a decent C group rider. Still undecided. First race I'd want to do is in May

Nah, I'm TRYING to follow AZT's advice with respect cutting out those sugars. Haven't been in that recovery mode for 2 months.

SteveM

Avondale Crit #2
SM50+/60+ 11/12(19/20 combined) There was some serious HP in the race. I rode my race, stayed towards front. Pace was up/down with a few attacks. With 3 to go, one guy decided to rampit up and I fell just off back of pack for the rest of race. Considering how the race went and who was in it, I am happy with results. I feel my power and endurance are finally starting to improve.

Cat 4/5 40+(20/24) Pulled with 2 to go, not sure why as we were within 1/2 lap of group. Again, worked hard to sty towards front of pack. I could tell legs were tired from previous race. I had a teammate in race who I was pretty sure would win. He was spending a lot of time on the front, so I moved up on what turned out to be a prime lap and was able to give him a break. he ended up wining prime and said he got a good lead out from me. After that I dropped into group to recover a bit, then went back to front to give teammate a break again for a lap. that effort did me in and I could not stay with group. Teammate ended up winning race as well as all the primes. Again, I am happy with result, even getting pulled. I probably could have raced selfish to see where I would have finished in group sprint, but I'm sure the way my legs felt, I would not have been that great.

sarals 

Steve, nice results! Great team riding for sure - congrats to your teammate! Good job out there.

Racer Ex 

Good job Steve. I have a call into AZT to see how his race went.

nacler22

Well done Steve, and welcome to the club.

Also, big congrats. to your teammate.

Dalai

Nice report SteveM!

shovelhd

Way to hang SteveM.

revchuck 

+1!

Cleave

@SteveM, good to see that someone else is getting in a bunch of races. Nice job out there.

Cleave

Rosena Ranch Circuit Race
(This race was on Saturday, Feb 21st. Late report due to business travel.)

Masters 55+/60+
Because of my impending regular commute to Everett, WA, I decided to do this race. Figured this would be the end of a training block with the following week becoming a rest week.

Arrived at the venue to find that clouds had settled right on the race course. The roads were basically as wet as they would have been if it was raining. Half a mile away, the roads were dry! I like this course and have done OK here a few times. However, wet roads with U-turns at each end of the course worried me.

Race started at a reasonable pace and there were a few early attacks. I thought I was feeling reasonably good. After a bit I followed an attack but got reeled back in. Right after the winning break took off. Later, I attacked solo on the finishing climb but I really didn't go anywhere. A couple of laps later I followed another attack that ultimately didn't work and ultimately did me in. A lap later at the bottom U-turn, someone attacked up the short hill out of the corner and I couldn't stay on. Rode with another guy for the last few laps and when he started to sprint up the finish hill, I sprinted too. Beat him by a lot.

I will say that I was cornering pretty cautiously which I'm sure cost me some matches that I obviously didn't have to spare.

Men Cat. 3
I am pretty sure I was the oldest guy in the race by at least 15 years. Had a fair amount of time to recover and to try to stay warm. Did I mention it was cold for SoCal? The sun started coming out just before the start and the roads were dry. I was on the start line surrounded by kids. Waited for a long time on the start line, we started, rode a short distance up the hill, made the upper U-turn, and it felt like my rear tire is squishy. I was in the middle of the pack and I started bouncing on the saddle and it definitely felt soft. Raised my right hand, filtered back, and the moto ref yells, "It's going flat!"

The tire held enough air to get me around to the start. My car was very close to the circuit so I changed wheels (since my spares are clinchers) and started a few lonely laps. After I got lapped I spent a few laps at the back of the pack but on a particularly hard lap, I had to close some gaps and the third one did me in. Rode solo for a few more laps but decided I had enough when it looked like I was going to get lapped by the Masters 35+ field (for a second time).

Damn skinny kids!

shovelhd

Good stuff Cleave.

Racer Ex 

Good job Cleave! Like that course. Also flatted there.

IBOHUNT

Good stuff Cleave.

sarals 

Nice, Cleave!

revchuck 

Well, the year has started. The first race of the season was a 20km TT and a crit in Monroe, done the same day. This is an edited version of what I sent my coach:

"Murphy came along this weekend. My planned 12-1 departure time ended up being 4. No time for a course recon. Got to the motel about 8, in bed about 9. Awakened about 3:30 by the couple in the next room going at it with great enthusiasm. Got back to sleep about 4, alarm went off at five and I did NOT want to get out of bed.

Got to the venue, got my number and warmed up. Got in the start line, decided I had time to spin a bit more, came back to the line to hear the guy two spots behind me start...so I started with 2:30 already on the clock. Lesson learned.

The first few minutes went okay. Then the pavement got bad, then worse, and I had a hard time maintaining power, partly because I was busy looking for a slightly better path and partly because I was getting bounced off the seat. I ended up with a death grip on the extensions just to keep my position. I let off on the pedals too soon at the turnaround and wasn't able to up my power as planned. There's a gap in power towards the end of the ride; that's where I hit the 1 km marker and shifted up only to have my chain drop from the big ring to the small. Apparently I had nudged the left shift lever a bit or it had vibrated down due to the bumps, just had to bring the lever up again.

Speaking with some of the other 55+ guys, heard at least one of them say they had the same issue with maintaining power over the rough pavement. Another said it was the worst pavement for a TT he'd done, and he'd done a lot of them. And to add to the matter, when I got home I found the front tire on the TT bike was flat. Of course it's a tubular. I'll look at it today and see what the cause was. (Turned out it was rock shard that I had hit just right. That Effeto Mariposa Espresso stuff fixed it.)

I warmed up for the crit and felt okay. This was my first "big boy" crit, M40+/M55+ combined. I think there was one other guy my age or so, the rest were 40+, total of seven. It had been raining a good bit, but had stopped, so the road was wet. At the start, the younger guys floored it - I supposedly got up to 26.5 mph and my guess is that they were over 30, and that was going into a wet first turn. The other 55+ guy and I settled in together for the first four laps or so, then he pulled away, and I ended up solo for the rest of the crit. I ended up practicing cornering in the wet, which actually wasn't as slippery as I'd feared. I got lapped by the younger guys about 1/2 - 2/3 of the way through. My legs just weren't responding. When I looked at the speed and the average power, it seems like it was more power than it should've taken."

The official results didn't get posted on line until yesterday, and I saw that the younger guys in the crit were 2s and 3s doing their second crit of the day. I have 12 years on the oldest of them, 21 on the youngest. That knowledge took some of the edge off the drubbing I got. It was also my first race in the wet, and I was surprised that a clean wet road didn't give up that much in traction...either that or I'm cornering too slowly. As for the TT, I got creamed by the four other 55+ guys - the guy in fourth place was almost four minutes faster than my time with the 2:30 screw-up taken out. (That fourth place guy was also the only other 55+ racer in the crit.) I obviously have a lot to learn there.

So, the first race is done. Two more this month!

ETA: I would've had better results racing as a Cat 4.

IBOHUNT

Lots of lessons learned and to quote @Cleave... Damn skinny kids!

I think the big question is - Did you enjoy yourself?

Good luck in the other two

p.s. Hats off to the couple next door. 3:30 am? I'm dead at that time of the day. It would take one of those Ex supermodel deals for me to be up then

shovelhd

Good job revchuck. Don't discount the mental piece. I bet if you repeated that TT without the late start drama you would do better.

nacler22

I always take some wax earplugs when I travel. Knocks down on obnoxious sounds, amorous and otherwise, and I haven't missed a wake-up call yet.

The cream rises to the top and, stays there.................. and stays, and stays, and stays.................... With your attitude, and commitment to training, you'll get there, but you already know that.

Some lessons learned, kept it on two wheels, and hopefully some fun, I'd call it a success. Well done!!!

Racer Ex 

Hey Chuck,

FWIW I'm good friends of a couple of the hammers in your age group (including the winner who I understand pounded some of the "yutes", 2nd place I used to coach) in the TT. National level guys.

When you get presented with bad pavement, or wind, or whatever, if you embrace it it's to your advantage. Always know there are people who hate whatever it is.

Part of the learning curve. Reading your training reports mark this down as a training race. You stacked a lot of work on coming into this and it's not surprising (especially after doing a 20k) that your legs would be flat.

The other part of this is doing multiple events, you have to be super aware of recovery. Good cool down while refueling and re-hydrating, then get the heck off the legs and put them up. Throw a cold towel over them. Recovery tights. Take a nap.

It makes a big difference.

revchuck 

Thanks for the kind and encouraging words, all!

I went over the results sheet again and noticed that a bunch of folks raced either the TT or the crit, but not both. Only one other guy in the Master's crit - the other 55+ guy - had done the TT. And the guy who took the M55+ TT win (Clif Cassidy) whupped all but three of all racers in the TT. I wanna be like him when I grow up!

Racer Ex 

I thought Tim won the 55. Did he do the 1/2?

I coached Clif for three years through the end of last season. Double gold at the senior games, several state championships. We're in the same age group for a year. Should be fun. Tim's been nipping at my heels since 2009.

Both are truly good folks and good friends.

revchuck 

Tim Perry had the fastest overall time for the TT, raced as a Cat 3 rather than M55+. Clif raced as a Cat 4 in M55+. TTs don't count towards upgrades? These guys didn't seem like sandbaggers.

shovelhd

Points for mass start races only. There are mass start timed events.

revchuck 

Okay, got it.

Cleave

First, @revchuck, there are so many things to learn when racing and the learning never ends. I've never missed a TT start (knock on wood) but I missed my first race start just a couple of years ago. That was a new lesson-learned after a bunch of years of racing. The key is that it sounds like you had fun since you are looking forward to the next two.

Second, your region sure sounds weird. A 55+ Cat 3 Master raced as a Cat 3 AND had the fastest overall TT of the day?!?!?! If he's winning TTs overall I'm surprised that he's not winning or at least placing well in mass start events.