Originally Posted by
briandelmo
Had my second crit race yesterday. I finished this time but I lost the pack about 20 minutes in. I did notice during my warm up my heart rate was higher than usual starting off(150). During the entire race I felt like I was red lining at 180. Is this a need for more interval training or just a lack of a good aerobic base?
If you get dropped you should have zero left. Finishing a crit isn't an accomplishment by itself, finishing in the field is.
I did a series of posts, mainly for my teammates, but for everyone in the B race at the local Tues night worlds. This is how pretty much all new racers should approach a race, the sticky thread at the top of the forum notwithstanding. For all intents and purposes every race for a new racer is a training race. Only when things start getting familiar etc can a race become something more than that.
Sprinter della Casa: Racing - Approaching A Training Race
Sprinter della Casa: Tactics - Get Lapped Less Than 4 Times
"If you're getting shelled from the race, THERE IS NO REST OF THE RACE! Your race is done, over, finished. You're no longer racing, and in fact, if I'm shelled on a Tuesday race, I'll sometimes do some laps but I get on the sidewalk or in the parking spaces when the field rolls by me, because my race ended when I got shelled.
So don't focus on saving yourself for the rest of the race that isn't a race. Go all in while you're in the race. I'd actually say that if you can keep pedaling after you get shelled then you didn't try hard enough before you got shelled."
Sprinter della Casa: Tactics - Out of Position Regarding Wind
Sprinter della Casa: Tactics - Cornering
Sprinter della Casa: Tactics - Struggling With Peak Speeds
The race after the series of posts, which unfortunately got cut short due to rain:
Sprinter della Casa: Racing - CCAP Tuesday Night Race, May 27, 2014