San Luis Rey Road Race Report, Master's 35-44 State/SCNCA champs
Place: 6th / 14 in the 40-44 AG, 11th / 30 or so overall. Holy crap that was hard. Course is 4x ~14 mi loops with the S/F at the top of a climb. Out and back so you have 2 opps per lap to see the situation on the road.

Lap 1 was ballistic. Esp. the climb. I was going 400-450w up all the steep ramps. I crested the top still attached, field split in half.

Lap 2 I became dislodged on the climb with cramps. Field split all TF over the road, no concerted group anymore. I considered quitting... but glad I didn't. I knew half the race was behind me. A couple guys crested just a little ahead of me (~20s) and I knew I could TT my way back onto them. Lubin and Fern, good guys that I know personally. They were nice enough to let me skip a couple pulls once I caught them.

Climb on lap 3 - Lubin goes caput. Just me and Fern. I told him that I would cramp again if he climbed too hard. Which he didn't, and I think that was in both of our interests. Since I'm able to pull harder/faster on the flat.

Going into the final climb (lap 4). I know Fern is going to drop me and I'm hoping that I can ride Z2 to the finish since I'm freaking spent. Fortunately I was able to. Someone was gaining ground on me too, and was only ~10-15s off my wheel at the line. But I held it for a hard fought 6th.

Takeaways: I need to work on my conditioning more, specifically heat. Not that it was even that hot. I get so accustomed to riding very early so I should have done even just a few mid afternoon rides inland to acclimate. I think I had too much coffee too beforehand. End result is HR too high at mid to low zones - this doesn't help. I also found myself rationing water since I tried to survive with two bottles. Lessons for next time.