substructure

A lot of personal matters actually. I guess it was an association type thing. Kind of hard to explain without getting too deep into it.
I'll leave it at that.

Hopefully I can clear my mind and move forward through the winter and into spring. Maybe by then I'll want to. Right now, I don't. Really don't.

rkwaki

Cool enough my friend just didn't want to pry.
Sometimes getting away from it altogether can help you get re-focussed - sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder. Keep your chin up - after all it is only a hobby

substructure

My chin ain't down, really. I'm good. But thank you.

ridethecliche

Just enjoy the bike and things will fall into place. If they don't, then your base will be 1 year long and you'll be itching to race come 2012.

substructure

That's what I was thinking RTC. If I need a year off, no big deal really. Where's that going to put me? I've only been racing a few years really. And I think I force-fed myself somewhat. And that clearly didn't help matters.

Homebrew01

Some of us have taken many years off for one reason or another. If the desire returns, you can always come back to it.

Ygduf

I'd like to have fun this year. I started racing last year, enjoyed it, and just want that to continue. As long as the experience is positive I do not "care" about my results.

That said I'd like to win in one of my final 5s races and be competitive in the 4s.

El Diablo Rojo

I'm half way to my C2 upgrade...If I picked the right races I could probably get my points by June...but even if I did I wouldn't upgrade. No point to it, I've always felt that if you are cat 2 it's because you want to be a cat 1...therefore you must train like one, which for most is massive commitment of time. If were to add to my training time any more my wife would kill me for the insurance money.

botto 

cat 1s aren't what they used to be.

johnybutts

why not?

rkwaki

When I first became a 1 (not in the US) I was told there were 65 active 1's in the country, there just weren't very many to be found. It wasn't based on system used today. Some may know that I am a Canuck and some of the guys I raced with included:

Michael Berry - Rode for Sky last year
Eric Wohlberg - won the Tour of the Gila
Dave Spears - multiple time Olympian
Tim Lefebvre

This is only the short list of guys off the top of my head, there were many others. I'm not saying that Cat 1's aren't what they used to be - it just seems different and I am not sure why - there seems to be a lot more ego in the sport now - guys tend to quickly judge you by your equipment (or lack of) and what you look like (I, for example, do not look like your typical cyclist). On a recent ride heading into a sharp, steep, long climb the group was still together and someone warned my not to go out too hard that it was a tough climb so I paced myself - when I passed a good majority of the riders on the way up I was waiting for it to get 'tough' and all of a sudden we reached the top. Later a guy came up to talk to me and said he could not believe the pace that I climb (he is about 6' and 155 pounds) because I am built like a sprinter. I find that there is a lot of this in the sport now, years ago it wasn't like that - your ability was not judged by your deep dish wheels and SRM powermeter - you left you judgements to be made on the road.
When I warm up I have my music playing, my hoodrat clothes on and I am enjoying myself - I am not staring guys down trying to figure them out which seems to be common.
Just my thoughts.

FormerRower

Haven't been on this forum in a long time but reading this thread provides me with motivation...

Here are my goals for 2011-

1. Maintain a racing weight of 66kg
2. Push 30 min test power to ~380/390w
3. Keep FTP around 5.5 w/kg (around 5.2 w/kg right now)
4. Enter and win bigger p/1/2 races and earn cat 1 upgrade
5. Enter NRC races and get results.

In the meantime I will be cross training and on the mountain bike until January.

rkwaki

Where abouts you live?

mike868y

I don't judge anyone. i just assume everyone is faster than me, which they almost always are

FormerRower

Rkwaki - I currently live in CT but will be in TN (Chattanooga) by June of next year. I did all of my racing in the south this past summer.

rkwaki

Nice - I'm gonna find you and use you as a leadout man for me at the NRC races - deal???

FormerRower

You got it . Are you in the north or south? I'm sure I will be getting chewed up in those races as I figure out how to race at that level.

botto 

more or less this.

johnybutts

Im honestly curious, did it not simply scale with more people entering the sport? What changed as far as upgrade requirements or whatever that caused the growth of the active cat1 field?

What were cat1 races like back then if there were only 10-20 in any given area

El Diablo Rojo

Nothing or no one ever is.

botto 

i was never a cat 1. don't have the talent (by the definition of the past or the present).

from my understanding, a cat 1 was national team caliber, and/or on the verge of becoming a pro. that's it.

substructure

Sean Connery?

ridethecliche

So basically, today's 1's=yesteryears 2's?

JohnKScott

My goals for 2011 are modest.

1. Be able to finish with the pack at Cat 5 Sumner County RR in early May. I know this doesn't sound like a lot. But for me it is huge.
2.Top 10 finish in at least one Nashville Cyclist criterium later in the summer. Best placing this year was 18. I think this should be doable with some work.
3. Upgrade to Cat 4 by end of season if I feel like I've learned enough.

What will it take?

1. Just got a powertap and was able to get out for one good FTP test ride. Sitting at 225w at about 72 kg. I'm going to shoot for an FTP bump to 250w by later next summer (or earlier if possible). I'm OK with my weight right now but if I can drop a kg or two easily during base that would help too (especially on the last hill on the RR I am targeting).

2. My racing skills are bad. I need to get much more comfortable sticking my nose in a little tighter and keeping it out of the wind. I'm way to good at dangling off the back and then getting dropped.

3. As well as my FTP being poor I also suspect my anaerobic conditioning is poor. Shorter hard efforts kill me. I will need to work on my 2-8 minute power and repeatability of those efforts. I'm not entirely sure if this is just a symptom of low FTP (meaning I'm above my FTP way too often just to keep up) or my anaerobic capacity in and of itself. Or both (likely). I'm going to concentrate on FTP first and foremost but can hopefully learn more about the rest of my profile as I heal up my knee and start testing and training with the powertap. Actual testing may change some of my thoughts later.

4. I'm not even going to worry about training my "sprint" too much this season. I need to get myself to the pointy end of the pack at the finish line first.

patentcad

>>So basically, today's 1's=yesteryears 2's?<<

I think it's more like there are more Cat 1's today, with wider range of riding talent in that group.

There are Cat 1's who are essentially Cat 2's with a good sprint, then there are Cat 1's who can ride and TT on what I consider to be a (domestic) pro level, in fact some of them are demonstrably faster (by virtue of their TT times for example) than many domestic pro riders. So that does encompass a rather broad range of ability. With the much larger membership in today's USA Cycling vs. the USCF in the mid 1990's, there would be a larger number of Cat 1 riders today.