happybday29475

Very nice to meet you as well. Sorry it was brief - I was putting my race face on, had a million things in my head.



CO state tt champs. 40k TT. 7th/29

I thought there was an outside chance I would win today. I had done some math and with a well paced effort my time would be competitive.

My warm up was strong - the strongest I have felt. I always do some 90" intervals at FTP and today they felt chainless.

I went out at plan. For 20' all was good. The middle 20' I noticed that I was having some trouble on the increased wattage areas (slight uphills or into the wind). And at 40' in, with what should have been 15' to go, I completely exploded. Those 15' minutes felt like an eternity and took 20'. It was a struggle to make the pedals go around, and the predominant thought was something like, "please, please, please, can I get a flat tire right now? How about now? Now?"

I don't really know what happened. It could have been the heat; it could be the limited time in the aerobars; it could be the lack of longish intervals this entire year (I'm a crit guy!); it could be the tail end of a long season. It's probably all of the above. At the end I swore off TT's for the foreseeable future...I'm a crit guy!

LOL well one guy beat the rest of our field by 3.5'....I bet he's happy.

Heathpack 

But is it really about going harder? Your HR suggests that maybe going harder was not an option. Maybe parcelling it out differently. But *harder*? Today? Plus you failed to mention that the ave temp was 97 degrees for your ride.

In temps like that you're going to send blood all kinds of non-productive places (like to your skin) for cooling purposes, effectively decreasing your blood volume & increasing your heart rate. Once you get to your max HR, there's not much more your body can do. A hour in, with nothing to drink (I assume), you're going to be dehydrated and have an even lower blood volume. You might think you faded because of willpower or training, but it very likely was basic cardiovascular physiology.

I admittedly don't know much, but it seems to me that the nature of TTs is that there's almost always going to be something to improve upon, that's what makes such a simple thing so appealing.

Totally jealous of you Colorado people all knowing each other BTW.

Dalai

Would be interesting to try and race up Mt Evans! I liked the descent, though when I rode up Mt Evans it was the morning after the big floods in 2013 so they closed the road at Echo Lakes. Therefore I could take the whole road on the way down...

NCXS R3 and R4 this weekend. Local races so no travelling.

R3 - 2nd MMAS4 2nd Overall

Raced well - though need to work on my start before the next races. Had to work my way through the field on the first lap even though I was on the front row today as it was M4 + rather than racing with and lined up behind M1-3.

Worked up into clear third and gaining on the leaders when mid race my rear derailleur doesn't want to shift from my largest cog. Tried to give the derailleur a tap with my shoe whilst on the finishing straight only for the rear wheel to lock up and me to come to a skiding halt. Thinking I've just sent the derailleur through the rear wheel and race over it isn't and I can keep riding... Now with the 26 cog, big and small chainrings and a very badly out of gear derailleur I work at just holding my position, only to soon pass 2nd who was running after getting a front flat. Only thing I could find wrong was the lower jockey wheel was seized, so replaced the pulley wheel and retuned the gears that evening.

R4 4th MMAS4 - 6th Overall

Again a poor start making the first narrow section about 8-9 riders back - muscle my way through and am gaining on the leading three during the first couple of laps but just not able to latch on. They start to split up and so I am chasing 3rd. Got passed by a couple from other categories but not concerned as they won't impact the series points. All the time I'm doing the sums calculating the points of my closest contender for the series who was ahead in 2nd. Missed out catching 3rd by a bike length on the finish so reduced my series lead from 20 to 10 points but still good enough to retain the leaders jersey.

Next 2 rounds are in Canberra in 3 weeks. Will be focussing on working on my starts before then...

revchuck 

valygrl - Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you. Sounds like it was one of the latter.

Tom - As bad as you felt, you still beat 22 other guys. And I thought I was the only one who had wished for a flat tire...

LAJ - I agree with Heathpack that you were probably at your limit with average HR for an hour just short of your max. I wouldn't second-guess that run.

Dalai - Good racing! You didn't mention anything about mud, though.

sarals 

Off day, don't beat yourself up. You're a great rider, it happens!

You've been making the rounds with meeting BF'ers! pretty darned cool!!!

sarals 

LAJ, Tom - TT's. What can I say? Heathie had a great analysis. I paid attention to what she had to say, too! I can tell you from my experiences that heat just wilts me, I am not used to it, and I would bet that happened to you, Tom.

sarals 

Dalai - winter racing? I keep forgetting you're South of the Border! Great job!!!

sarals 

Don't we all? That's the nature of TT's, I think. As Ex told me, "TT's happen"....

LAJ

Thanks All!

When @Heathpacks speaks, I listen. Actually, I listen to all you fine folks, and I'm thankful you all are here.

I "think" I should have been able to, and that's just my nature. The longer stuff should have been my cup of tea, but as @Heathpack says, the temps just took their toll.

I'm certain you had a bad day, @valygrl, simply because you've been doing so well this year.
@rapwithtom, you knocked it out of the park, as far as I'm concerned. It really was that bad out there, and seemed to be never-ending.
@Dalai, nicely done! The Evans road is so frost-heaved, it's an almost dangerous descent now.

LAJ

Indeed.

shovelhd

Nice job, Dalai. You are racking up the points.

valygrl, there's plenty of racing left this year.

beatlebee 

I rode to the top Tuesday. The gates were closed to cars as there is some road work being done but CDOT didn't seem to mind that I was up there. It was cloudy the day I went (early morning) and very, very cold. The road otherwise was in fine condition, other that the 3 inch cracks across the road for the last few miles.

LAJ

Nice, and good to know. Thank you.

Cleave

@LAJ @rapwithtom and @valygrl all at the same race is very cool. 40 Km TTs are very hard (at least for me). I haven't done one in a over 2 years.
@Dalai, sounds like you're getting some great results in CX -- great enough for the series lead!

Cleave

More tardy race reports after another week of business travel just before heading to Minnesota.

Competed in 5 races over an 8-day period. Trying to make up for lost training time.

tl;dr Two PRs, two wins, one DNF.

GMR Challenge TT - Jun 13, 2015

I really need to examine past performances better before I set a target for a race. I did this race because my club promotes it. Otherwise, I would have raced some criteriums the next day which might have been better training for the National Senior Games. I thought my best time was 50 minutes and some change for this course so I was shooting for a sub 50 minute time. (Velo Diva, stop laughing. ) Also figured it would be a good FTP test - 9 miles and 2,400 feet of climbing.

The first 3 miles went as planned. My power was in the range I hoped to hold the entire race and my time looked good. During the next 3 miles I started falling apart. I made a "strategic" decision to throttle back up to the 6 mile point and then try to get back into my target power range. The mid-race strategy change sort of worked. I was disappointed when I crossed the line with a time of 50:34. Figured I missed my goal and PR. 5th out of 6 guys in the 55-59 age group. The guy who won was 14 minutes(!) ahead of me.

After getting home and looking at my training diary, my PR was actually 52:03 so I missed my goal but set a PR. If I had only managed to keep thing together in the middle 3 miles...

El Dorado Park Training Series - Jun 16, 2015

Went into this as more of a training ride than a race since I was doing the Pasadena Senior Games the next morning. Told my strongest teammate that I was going to make one strong effort to get off the front with about 15 minutes to go in the 1 hour race. Stuck to my plan but my attack didn't stick. Back of pack finish.

Pasadena Senior Games - Jun 17, 2015

With a couple of weeks of vacation ahead of me, I decide to do just one of the two days of this competition. There were less competitors than usual in the men's field. Possibly since it wasn't a qualifying year.

10 Km ITT Men 55-59

This TT is actually 11.2 Km as the organizers decided a few years ago to stop trying to start and finish the race in different locations to make it exactly 10 Km. Logistically, doing 4 full laps works much better for everyone IHMO.

Really tried to focus on holding constant power during the race and my lap splits were as consistent as I've ever done. Just wish that they were consistently faster. Regardless, I did set a PR but I was about 15 seconds slower than my target time. Ended up winning my age group and was 3rd fastest overall. The 60-64 winner (my racing "bestie") had the overall fastest time and was 6 seconds faster while the 65-69 winner was second overall and 1 second faster.

20 Km Road Race Men 55-59

This race is actually 22 Km but what's 2 Km between friends?

Everyone from 50-69 raced together and scored separately. Basically, only a few of us wanted to work. I attacked a couple of times and followed a couple of attacks but I should have done more. People chased hard but once they caught we ended up at a pretty leisurely pace. Decided to try a BIG attack just before 2-to-go but the announcer called out, "Four to go," when it was really 3. I was surprised to get 2-to-go on the next lap so I ended up attacking just before the bell. The slight uphill leg leading into the flattish finish had a noticeable headwind. I attacked going into that section. Got the bell with a decent gap but about a quarter of a lap later the pack was closing. I thought about sitting up but I decided to bury myself. About halfway around the lap, my buddy flew by with one of his age competitors on his wheel. He claims he slowed down a little so that I could get on. I couldn't get on.

Regardless, I kept going. Heading into the next long straight, another friend in the 60-64 age group went by and once again I couldn't get on his wheel. Someone else caught me and we worked together for a couple of rotations before getting to the last 200 meters. I went past him but suddenly two more guys passed me. Managed to hold off everyone else and amazingly, everyone who passed me was older. Another win, kind of by default.

Was happy that I kept going on the last lap and happy that I didn't just totally die and come in last (which has happened more than once in my life). However, I really wanted first overall. Oh well.

Cyclo-Vets Summer Classic Criterium - Jun 21, 2015

This race was on a new-to-SoCal course. It was much harder than described on the flier but I liked it. Started on a false flat to turn 1. Turn 1 to turn 2 was all downhill and fast into turn 2. After negotiating turn 2, the road went uphill. About 12% for a short distance then slightly less steep leading to the start finish. The course is kind of kidney bean shaped which is why there are only two real turns. Also, this was the District "Super Masters" Criterium Championships. San Diego Cyclo-Vets made up these Super Masters championships a few years ago -- 55+ for the women and 65+ for the men so none of my races were championship races.

Masters Men 55+/60+

Definitely not a big field as there were some races with big prize lists in the Lompoc area on Friday-Sunday. However, enough fast guys showed up to make it interesting. The course made it interesting too. I can't go fast up long climbs as I used to when I was younger but I can still get up "sprinter" hills pretty well. Someone attacked from the gun and we kind of chased from the gun. The pack ended up reeling in all attacks, including one by me. I was doing a much better job than usual staying near the front and after a bit I tried drifting back but there wasn't anyplace to drift. There was only 10 of us left.There were a few attacks near the end and one really hard one at the bell by one of Racer Ex's former teammates. We caught back up to him before turn 2 but then another one of Ex's former teammates launched on the steep part of the hill. I tried to chase but ran out of gas and ended up last of everyone in the lead group. Forgot to look at the results sheet before I left but there were at least three 60+ guys in the lead group.

Masters Men 50+

I hemmed and hawed about doing this race given the difficulty of the course and some of the talent that obviously showed up to cherry pick. A friend and former Ex teammate, Bob W, decided to do it and since he's 60+ I decided to race too.

Turns out my decision-making process was faulty.

These guys were a LOT faster. I got dropped going up the hill the third time(!) but interestingly enough, Bob was behind me. He caught me and we soon caught another guy. We went across the line after working together for a lap and the announcer calls out, "There goes group 2!"

Group 2?!?!

Anyway, the two leaders lapped us after 23 minutes of torture in a 40 minute race. We got pulled and lamented about how hard it was. At the end the largest group on the course had 5 riders in it.

Data showed an IF of 1.16 for this race. I had an IF of 1.15 for the 40 minute 55+/60+ race so I at least got in a much tougher workout than I would have by just riding around after my first race.

Three races on the calendar before tapering a bit for the National Senior Games.

shovelhd

Nice stuff Cleave considering everything. Good luck at NSG.

revchuck 

Sounds like some great racing, Cleave!

sarals 

It's hard work being a corner marshall! And a photographer. And a podium girl! I'm tired...

LAJ

Nice stuff Cleave!

Racer Ex 

Good luck Cleave!

The RR course looks soooo good for me...wish I was going (sort of). See training thread.

sarals 

Nice work, Cleave!!!

Wasn't that the 10K ITT you did at PSG, though?

I watched you launch that attack in the 20K RR. It was pretty awesome! You got a really good gap and were pulling away, and when the field went by it didn't look to me like anyone in it was going to try to pull you back. Not much reaction. The finish was exciting, too. From my vantage point, it seemed you were swarmed only feet from the line!

Good luck at the Nats!! Say hi to Heidi for me!

Cleave

Ugh! The training plan I've been following (outline courtesy of your favorite coach) has my brain in an oxygen-starved state. Fixed it.

Hermes

I am in Aguacalientes, Mexico with my wife. This afternoon she set a world record at the indoor 250 meter velodrome in the 2k pursuit, 65 to 69, of 2:41.369 bettering the old world record of 2:47.7 and the US national record of 2:52.7. I was calling split times for her and she had a totally amazing performance. This was a USAC/UCI sanctioned event with drug testing so it will be in the record books.

sarals 

That is freaking awesome! Monumental, Hermes. Give MEA a big hug for me!! Congratulations to you both!!

revchuck 

That is great, Hermes! Please pass my congrats to MEA!