shrinkboy

and, entered my first race in about that long: https://www.teambicyclesinc.org/TBiClassic.htm

will be in the Cat 4/5's. oh, lord. pray for me

does this mean i have to start posting in the Road forum? i'll be on the Kona Kapu, the only 'modern' (brifter) bike i own...

Ex Pres 

Congrats to you. Just don't even consider racing masters, as that's where all the ex-cat 1s and 2s hang out.

shrinkboy

so i understand. i was kind of confused about how to go in-- i know i'll be a cat 5, but i have these memories of the cat 4, cat 3/4 melees of the 80s, and was hoping for a more ...uh...civilized form of racing. i contacted the race director and splained to him my confusion, and he rec'd the 4/5's, saying as you did that the 40+/50+ categories are frequented by 2's and above.

i plan to simply complete this one upright, nothing, nothing less. will go from there. thanks for your support

treebound 

Have fun, and stay out of the crash zones. The 4/5's will be a wild mix in the early season of newbies with big dreams, citizen racers looking for bench racer stories, and older folks just looking for excitement and motivation.

Are you thinking of getting your five mass starts in so you can upgrade out of the raw beginner class? I'd suggest seeing how it goes, get a few races in, then enter one of the age group classes. "Usually" the more seasoned racers won't be out for blood as long as you stay out of their way and are willing to take a pull if you manage to hang with them, usually.

I entered one of the mid-week SuperWeek races up here a few years ago. I think I had maybe a total of 30 miles on my legs by that point that year. Can you say ouch? I held my own during the practice laps, and sort of hung with the pack of 4/5's for the first lap and a half of the actual race. After that I was spent and got out of the way. It was fun while it lasted, and if I ever enter another one I'll try to get more than 20 miles on my legs before entering.

Edit: I should add that I was in my 50's when I entered and had just put new tires on my race bike. And I picked a mid-week morning race to ensure there would be less of a crowd watching. And, yeah, I might do it again when I turn 60. You ain't dead as long as you can still dream and try.

shrinkboy

i've been doing around 200 miles a week for the last 6 months, and train mainly with a much younger group, but i know this one will be a challenge. yes, there ARE hills in texas. and i haven't been sitting on my ass for the last 20 odd years, having been involved with intense swimming competition during that time, until total burnout with swimming occurred last year. so i'm in shape, have lost quite a few lb's with cycling, and i'm going in with it being just fine to finish...period. i also did some track riding last fall in the Frisco velodrome, and i find that very appealing. problem there is i live 30+ miles from the 'drome

bobbycorno

Amen to that. I don't mind getting smoked by the young bucks, but when somebody 10 years older than me kicks my butt... (That's one of the reasons I quit racing - 4's were too dangerous and the old farts were WAAAAAY too fast.)

SP
Bend, OR

shrinkboy

my racing age this year will be six....zero.....

rothenfield1

I love reading posts like this. I would like to encourage you to keep us updated. It's inspiring and I think we need more of it. Race-on!

rootboy 

You're a better man than I am Gunga Din. Stay upright !

shrinkboy

treebound-- i'm thinking of this: enter and complete the race, go from there. in my previous racing life in the 80s, i was in a hurry to cat. up, to win a race, to push the pace, to break away...in a hurry period. this time around, i know i can't do that, don't need to do that. just enter and ride and whatever happens, happens. in this one, i don't care if i roll across dead last. my hard riding, age 40 training buddy tells me that from what he's seen, i'm plenty fit to ride well in this race, so we'll see. will definitely update.

rothenfield and rootboy-- thanx for the encouragement, and like i said, will update....

JunkYardBike

That just gave me a thought. Bring a nail to the race and if you burn out early, puncture a tire. Damn mechanical!

Good luck, shrinkboy!

shrinkboy

as threatened, i'm reporting back on my race-- i'll start by saying my goal for the race was to finish, which i did. the promoters had so many cat 5's want to enter that they closed the 4/5 field at 75 and opened what they called 5b, immediately filled with 50 riders, which obviously was all 5's. fine with me. to those outside the state, texas is a real hotbed of cycling, and this race in the wide open rolling terrain of the heart of texas was a real doozy.

advertised as 55 miles, it was actually just shy of 52 on Cyclemeter. i didn't see more than two or three other guys who would be in my age group in the field, most of whom appeared to be 20s and 30s. the race opened with a neutral 1rst mile to the edge of the tiny town of Copperas Cove, near the Killeen military base. then it opened up from there, and immediately the pace picked up to FAST. i found myself drifting, drifting to the back of the pack, eventually discovering myself dangerously dangling at the very end. i had to visit with myself about how i hadn't come down to get dropped in the first ten miles, so i made an effort and dove back up into the middle of the pack. this was tough going, as there'd been little if any warmup before the race, and i found myself in disconcerting levels of oxygen debt almost right away. but i knew from previous decades that if you don't work to stay in the group at the beginning, you WILL be dumped out the back. so work i did.

finally got my metabolism elevated enough to be comfortable, and was following the first big attack when the inevitable crash occurred- i did a double fish tail full lockup skid, rode into the ditch and came out the other side still upright, but now split off from the front end. there were some tough moments trying to regain pace and momentum with adrenaline from the near crash still in my veins. me and some other guys formed a group of four, then six, and we pounded the lonely miles and slowly started picking up stragglers, eventually becoming a group of 12-15 making steady progress on the race lead.

we never made contact with them, though. i felt i rode smart, strategic and calm. put my nose in the wind when it was time to, but never too long. weirdly found myself at the front of every climb, and i say this because i am 6'2" and 195, not exactly what comes to mind when you think 'climber'. when we got to 1km to go, i wanted to get my sprint on, but the legs would not agree, disappointingly going into full, major lockup cramping, and i had to actually stop pedaling to avoid a mishap. my buddy said i finished near the top end of my race group, but don't know where yet.

disappointed with the cramp, but overall happy with my riding, far exceeding the plan to simply finish. assessing the group, i didn't see anybody who looked green horn or inexperienced. at one point, i was in a group of young guys who were on race teams from University of Texas, A&M, LSU and Texas Tech. it seemed incongruous as hell to be riding with a racing age of 60 and look over at a guy that young.

overall, it was hard as hell, and all i could stand. there were several stretches where i felt quite exhausted and totally uncertain about finishing, and i had to just put that out of my mind- the average pace was 20mph, highest speed was 42mph, we averaged 23-27mph through much of the middle of the race, and it was also utterly thrilling

cb400bill

Awesome job. Congrats on not crashing, too.

nlerner

Well done! That's very inspiring.

Neal

Ex Pres 

I'm a few years behind you, but even at my age I definitely need a warm-up to keep up with the young bucks' fast starts.

Bring a trainer, and get on it for 15 minutes (or what fits you) prior to the start.

gaucho777 

Bravo!

Ciufalon

Shrinkboy, that is awesome to hear. Sounds like you had a great race, handled the mental aspects well and ended up with a terrific performance for your first time out after such a long hiatus! It's very cool that you are getting back into it. Since you are doing more for the fun of it this time, and for personal satisfaction, I am sure you will continue having a great time and hope you will continue to tell us about future events you participate in. Congratulations!

RFC

Shrinkboy, I'm seriously impressed. For those of you that don't know, Shrinkboy is not just a master swimmer, he is a seriously fast and competitive swimmer placing with the top in the sprint events at the Nationals.

prettyshady

I have wanted to race for a while but I have yet to do it yet. Now I have a french address, I should be able to get a medical and then a race license. I almost have my vitus carbon 3 ready for the job.

shrinkboy

RFC- thanks for the kind comment, but i should say i haven't taken a swimming stroke since the 1rst weekend of April, 2010. swimming burnout hit like a ton of bricks after 20 plus years, and i mounted up me bike and haven't looked back. converting a swimmer's body to a cyclist's has been a work in progress. when i quit swimming, i was 6'2", 223 pounds, with a lot of upper body from weight training and swimming. my best event was the 50 free, which is a sub 25 second no breath thrash for two lengths of a 25 yard pool. i am now down to 195, and plan to get to 190 or so soon. have taken the weight training down to maintenance levels, cut calories, and increased my cardio from about 6-8 hours a week in the pool to 15+ plus per week on the bike. that'll peel weight down pretty quick.

much appreciation for the comments and support from all you other guys too. BTW, my ride for this race was not C&V, but was an evolution of the tradition. i was on a 2010 lugged steel Kona Kapu, with the 32 spoke Mavic Open Pro training wheels on Ultegra hubs, with FSA cranks, Ultegra 10 cog drive train, 53X39 rings- bone stock, just like it rolled out the door last year. i can honestly say that more than once during the ride i thought to myself how hellish it would have been to be on a friction shifter bike. being able to shift while climbing, and adjust effort during fast flat paceline with a flick of the hand was totally appreciated.

vjp

Congratulations!!

I did the same thing last year, about 23 or 24 years for me also. I did not have any fitness base to work off of but I ended up finishing about 1/2 my races and hope to do better this year. I am thinking about using a C/V bike this season or maybe for select races, there is an Eddy Merckx TT category here....

vjp

shrinkboy

thanx, vjp!!