FasterNearGirls

Wooohoooooooooooooo!
That's it. Pretty much just wanted to share and brag! Pumped!

Last year I was a 5, and when I was up for my 3 upgrade after a month in 4, it was scary and a big leap. I posted here and you guys told me to go for it, and not wait!
I'm glad I did! I raced well all season, got consistent good results, won the state crit, learned a lot of tactics racing with my awesome teammates, traveled, and now am a 2!

Oh, I also had 6 crashes. But almost all not racing (went down twice on a crit but those weren't so bad). The other crashes were just riding. A couple solo, and a couple real bad ones on group rides. One broke my Hi Mod Evo (dude ate it in front of me). And the other was this Tuesday, sprinting all out at the end of a fast paceline ride with a stretched chain something snapped and I had an "I believe I can fly" moment. Just need to work on the landing. I was doing about 37, did a couple front flips and dislocated my shoulder. But I'm totally fine and already rode yesterday.

So yeah all good news!

Thanks for reading.

Creatre

Grats!

You should stop crashing though, because crashing sucks.

mattm

awesome, enjoy!

when's the next race?

lsberrios1 

Congrats! I hope I can do as well as you Just... need....to stop.... smoking : cough cough:

Keep going, you'll be pro in no time.

Ygduf

what was your volume and training like?

and 6 crashes. jesus.

FasterNearGirls

Thank you!!!
I know, crashing sucks. What a year.

Next race would have been tomorrow but it got postponed for the 31st! There's actually not a whole lot going on in my area for the rest of this season. I think that with Cross getting stronger and stronger, the Road season is fading faster.

Ha, you're joking about the smoking but I smoked a pack of day of Marlboro reds until March 31st 2010. Then I switched drugs (cycling).

My training was: all winter doing trainer and rollers intervals. Some high intensity blocks. Low volume. Then racing into shape in spring and maintaining all season with high intensity / low volume rides. 8hr/week or so only in average I'd say. Occasional longer ones with some longer rides, 70, 100, 130 miles, but mostly 40 to 50 mile high intensity rides and a lot of races. Gym work, stretching the legs and foam rollers, core / upper body 3x/week. So only riding 4 or 5 days instead of 5 or 6. More recovery off the bike for the higher intensity despite the lower volume. Hope this makes sense.

Racer Ex 

Like pilots, there are old racers and bold racers. There are few old bold racers. 6 times in a year is way too many not to work on some things.

Congrats on the upgrade.

MDcatV

congrats. there are a few races left in striking distance from philly. were you at millersburg last weekend? what team?

fwiw, i think the jump from 3->2 is way more substantial than those from 5->4->3. sounds like you have a good engine but need to work on some skills that involve not crashing

thechemist

Congrats!! Were their more girls as you upgraded,seems like that helps you too? 40,50 miles are low volume huh..than again 130miles is pretty long

FasterNearGirls

Thanks guys! haha yeah girls make you faster!
Yes I'm bold and can handle my bike very well, especially navigating within a tight pack.
Believe it or not, the 6 crashes were not due to recklessness or need to work on anything as you're implying.
Crash 1 - on the 130 mile solo ride to the beach (windy day, lot of cross and tailwind, I avged 20.2 for the ride, so yeah it was windy.), 40mph gust pushed me over while feeding and I swerved and ate it.
Crash 2, fast Saturday race-paced ride riding in a group off the front, I was 3rd wheel, we were doing 29 when the guy in front of me hit a massive sinkhole (one of those asphalt colored ones, not his fault), he got a rear flat instantly and went down immediately in front of me. I hit his bike and went tumbling. Lot of road rash and the broken seatstay on the EVO. I had to catch a flight to Europe 2 hrs later.
Crash 3, exploring in Tuscany I hit a 15km gravel section that stopped being fun as my bottle kept flying, when stopping to retrieve the bottle one time I sank on deeper gravel and just tumbled over, no big deal, this doesn't really count.
Crashes 4 and 5, Kennet square criterium, lap 1, 7th corner, wheel in front overcooks it, hits the outside curb, bike ricochets under mine (I could have avoided being behind that rider you could say, but I know him and he normally doesn't do that). I got back on, free lap, 5 laps later, raining, riders started sliding out on corner 8 in front of me, so I slid too out of sympathy.
Crash 6, this Tuesday, end of ~30mph paceline ride coming in for the sprint I downshifted twice and torqued my bike hard when something snapped, felt like chain, I instantly went flying. My rear tube had a 6"gash on it but it could have been from the tumble. Still not clear if it was the tire or the chain, but either way, equipment failure.

So I'm not doing sketchy things. Bad year in terms of 6 crashes but still lucky for not breaking bones.

Yes, I was at Millersburg. TSV ( Tri State Velo / Amoroso's racing team). Got 3rd on the RR.

Thanks again.

MDcatV

^nice. i liked the climb they added to the RR this year, unfortunately, i got caught up behind a crash on it and couldnt find my way back to the field.

FasterNearGirls

Yeah the 2 punch climb was really nice. My teammate got the KOM on the 3 race. You must have been on the 123, I heard about that crash and the same exact thing that happened to you happened to other teammates of mine.

spectastic

dang, cat 5 to a 2 in a single season? great work.

now.. you averaged 20.2 for 130 miles, including stops? How big of a tailwind did you get?

aaronmcd

Damn, if I rode 130 miles to the beach here, I would prob have 10,000 ft elevation gain lol. Prob couldn't do it at more than 16 mph avg.

FasterNearGirls

5 to 3 last season, then raced in 3s this season and just got my 2. So 2 seasons.

Yeah, 20.2 avg, solo, flat, tailwind : https://connect.garmin.com/activity/317937084
Stopped to refill bottles (about 8) only, as I had plenty of food. Elapsed time is longer because I didn't stop and reset activity when I got there.
The wind was crazy, I think the forecast was for 27mph winds, but some gusts were definitely stronger. Although at times it was crosswind that felt like headwind, but mostly tailwind.

spectastic

I hope you drove back

but yea.. I started like 3 weeks ago. Finished 3 races so far. I'm hoping to win at least one cat 5 race before moving up to 4. The goal is to get to 3. I'm not even thinking about 2's at this point. But I figure if I keep riding over the years, it might happen eventually. Right now, I'm just focused on learning the tactics, and not crashing. The guys I ride with show a lot of support, which I appreciate. It just sucks that the closest race here is 80 miles away in Houston. And most of them are at least 300 miles away, in Dallas, LA or wherever.


your garmin says the weather was 48 degrees, with 11 mph wind from the north... and max heart rate 165?? man I usually find my heart rate at 174 or so when I'm putting in moderate effort on my short rides. I guess people are different

waterrockets 

Congrats! Enjoy it. It's a nice sticker to have on the license.

JohnKScott

Congrats! That's quite impressive. At least it is to me!

FasterNearGirls

Thanks. Yes, I spent the weekend and was driven back. Indeed, the forecast was actually for even colder, I wore knickers and a thermal long sleeve jersey on top of a normal jersey, and the wind was much stronger. Forecast was for 27mph NWW wind + gusts.

As for the HR max at 165, keep in mind that was a long endurance ride. You stay on lower sub threshold zones for those. When doing shorter rides, interval workouts, or races, then of course my max HR is higher as well. 196+ sprinting all out during peak season in the heat after racing for hours is normal. Or 174 to use your example on a moderate short ride as well. One deeper dig will change that max to 185, doesn't mean anything. The point is, for that whole long ride I never went really hard.

Good luck with racing, sounds like you're having fun! Focusing on not crashing is good, but so is accepting it as part of the sport. It happens.

FasterNearGirls

Thanks guys!
Yeah, love that sticker! He sent it to me with the jersey.