AzTallRider

Our real season ended even earlier than yours, because of the summer heat. This one is kind of an odd duck. It's part of a "cycling festival" with the main event being the 72 mile Tour de Scottsdale this Sunday. That tour is actually the first ride of our fall charity event season. The big daddy of those is Tour de Tucson, in November, which draws something like 8,000 riders. They added a USAC crit to the Scottsdale festival last year, so we get that one crit there on the schedule all by itself, then nothing until January.

Many of us here treat the charity rides as full blown races, since we just don't have very many USAC road races. I guess they are just too hard to run. I know many people consider that Fredly, but hey, it's what we have. This one is considered a "Citizen's Race". It isn't sanctioned, but is computer timed, with awards for the top men and women, but no categorized awards.

Since I'm riding pretty strong right now, and this cold I'm fighting may keep me out of Sunday's ride, I'm considering doing a 92 mile ride in Douglas, Bisbee and Tombstone the following weekend. It would be another attempt at the elusive (for me so far) Platinum designation. That gets you bragging rights, and the front of the pack at the start, for several of the popular events here. I've missed it by only a few minutes the last two events. This is my last chance to get Platinum in my first season of trying. Would need to do the 92 miles in 4:15, which is within my capabilities if I get up the climbs okay, and they are mostly in the first 25 miles. If I push hard on the climbs, and there are a few others around to share the pulling on the flats, that should do it. So far, there are only 85 people registered for the 92 mile ride.

AzTallRider

We want to see a birth certificate. And not one of those fake ones like the President has!

Allegheny Jet

AzTR,

My brother in law and his wife are driving a car out for one of his friends who recently moved to Phoenix. He races with me and is a good strong rider. He is taking his road bike then shipping it back home after their vacation. He is interested in riding one of the "events" the weekend of Oct 14. He has also been looking for weekday rides and/or routes. Any race/event on the weekend of Oct 14 within an hour or two of Phoenix? He did get some information with directions from Sonoma to Flagstaff that is some one's route that is posted.

BTW, his Madone has the same color theme as your bike and our team kits are black, yellow and white. In the future when getting N+ 1 think naked carbon since it travels well with most anything.

AzTallRider

This is the only event I'm aware of that weekend, and it should be beautiful. Up in Sedona: https://www.sedonacentury.com/ There are metrics both Saturday and Sunday.

I hear you. It's what I get for buying something off the rack. And I don't think it's a coincidence that the LBS colors match the green trimmed Cervelo R5, which is what the owner, who is also the team captian, rides. He is Cat 1, M40+, and spent time racing in Europe in his younger days. Tomorrow night is the shop's grand opening, as the wind tunnel is finally up and running. Catered affair, and I convinced my wife to go, so long as that would be considered a contribution to my racing. In other words, she would rather drink wine than stand at the side of the road waiting to hand me a water bottle. Go figure.

I wonder how Hermes and Diva have done. No way to know, since USAC doesn't post daily results. The slackers! I'm used to volleyball tournaments, where there is realtime updating of results you can see on an iPhone app!

AzTallRider

Wups, I guess they do post results: https://www.usacycling.org/results/i...ermit=2011-182

AzTallRider

AJ, would he be interested in our Tuesday night training crit? There is also a Tuesday night LBS ride that is pretty popular. I'll also see what weekday daylight rides are happening.

Allegheny Jet

Thanks for the ride link @ Sonoma. I have already sent it to David. He may be interested in the weekday race or group rides. Any info you can provide would be great. We both plan to do a mtb race in W. PA on the 16th and he will leave Ohio that evening and taking few days to travel out to AZ. He said that they will be gone 2 weeks which will leave him plenty of training days.

AzTallRider

Turns out the "freaky fast" local guy that does the training crit's is the current M30-34 USA criterium champ. Buy hey, he only took 2nd in the road race championship, so he isn't THAT fast, LOL.

sarals 

Okay. I'll print, umm, bring one - and my Barbies! ;~)

sarals 

@Cleave - thanks! Tris are really fun, but I have to say the swim can be intimidating! That's why there are duathlons. Hey, congrats on the Mt. Baldy climb! Great result!!!!

AzT, thanks for the USAC link. I see Sarah Hammer (one of my heroes) was there - she's freaky fast, of course. I can't wait to read what Hermes says about the event.

Allegheny Jet

Took the weekend off from riding. On Friday AM my knee with the deep gash from a cyclo cross crash was swollen, warm and sore and I made an appointment with my Dr. There is an infection and an antibiotic was prescribed. After 2 days the knee is back to where it was the week before. No races this weekend and I'm on recovery week this week. Hopefully we caught the infection early and healing will complete.

AzTallRider

Did the 70 mile Tour de Scottsdale this morning. I chased the big guns (was won for 2nd straight year by that freaky fast guy) but blew up at right about 1:45 (only 40 miles in). I dragged my sorry butt to the finish, but not before I was passed by a guy with only one leg. Oh, and only one arm. He is a remarkable rider - saw him on a hard century last year when I was working SAG, and he was mid-pack after about 6K of climbing.

But, anyway, I've been trying to isolate the major factors, and think the biggest one was a virus I've been fighting off this past week. I never succumbed fully, but it definitely drained me. I wasn't sure I'd do the ride until I got to the weekend. I also did a piss-poor job of day before nutrition, went to the grand opening party of the LBS (cool demo of the cycling specific wind tunnel), and got less than 6 hours sleep. I think those factors had more to do with it than race tactics, because of the numbers for the first 1:45:

Watts: 231avg...267NP...1,037max...1.16VI
HR: 118min...163avg...180max
Only 1,500' of climbing to that point

Those power numbers should NOT have blown me up after 40 miles. I had noticed my HR being higher than I expected at times; either was generally elevated or wasn't settling back down as quickly as normal. I still need to isolate the major efforts to see how many matches I had burned, and add up the calories to see how short I was. I still had gel at the end, but it was hard to take enough gel and water without my stomache objecting, which is rare for me.

It was fun to see the winners get new bikes (cruisier for the woman; fixie for the man), with the announcer repeating how "It wasn't a race."

AzTallRider

Good timing - getting rid of the infection during a recovery week.

AzTallRider

Okay, I looked at peak numbers and such, and maybe the early effort also contributed. These were all new maximums:

12" - 815
20" - 724
6' - 331
10' - 314
60' - 249
90' - 235

I'm not posting any numbers for the last 1:25!

Allegheny Jet

Nice 6' effort in mid ride.

AzTallRider

That's the one that stood out for me as well. Now if I could just figure out how to know what the biggest factors influencing my performances are (both the good ones and he bad ones), I'd be a happy camper.

sarals 

AzT, silly question. What are those numbers - the meaning?

AzTallRider

Well, mostly, they mean I sucked.

I'm guessing a which one you are asking about, but:

The max efforts are average power output, in watts, for the time periods indicated. A " means seconds and a ' means minutes. So, at some point during the 'race that was not a race', I hit those averages for those lengths of time. TrainingPeaks used to call those "Mean Max", but now they just call them "Peaks". They are personal bests for those periods of time.

for the stats I provided for the first 1:45, the confusing ones are probably:

"NP", is Nominal Power, which uses an algorithm to weigh harder and weaker efforts differently. It's a weighted average as opposed to a straight arithmetic mean.

"VI" is the Variability Index. It measure how up and down the power was. The higher the number, the greater the variability. A 1.0 would mean you maintained the same power all the time.

Did I miss anything?

AzTallRider

Sara - I finally uploaded a ride (today's) to Strava. It used the power numbers from my computer, instead of estimating power, so it doesn't provide any info on how accurate your numbers are.

teachme

What is the minimum criteria one should meet to move into the realm of racing? Like, what type of fitness and endurance is required?

AzTallRider

I'll do what I normally do, and jump right in with an answer, then let the experienced racers correct me. I think the priorities are:

1. Group riding skills - be comfortable riding in close quarters at speed. You get those doing group rides.
2. Mental attitude - you need to be ready to put it out there mentally, knowing there is a long (and often steep) learning curve.
3. Fitness - Very few people start racing and stay with the pack right away. So my approach was to figure out what fitness was required for racing by actually racing. Most areas have a wide range of racing categories. Start at the bottom and work your way up.

I realize though, that I'm a "jump in with both feet" kind of guy, and that not everyone is.

teachme

Thanks AZTallRider. My curiosity has led me to seek out a race; and I found the Texas Time Trials that will be held next September. I think that would be a perfect venue for me to find the humiliating ass kicking I'm looking for.

AzTallRider

I've learned that humiliating ass kickings are pretty easy to find!!

teachme

LOL! I find myself racing against my own times along the daily rides I go on, so I might as well look into the more competitive side of cycling. Do you know of a good website that lists races?

AzTallRider

If you intend to race USAC, then all licensed races are listed on the USAC site, by geographic region. Here is all of 2011 for Texas. As most events are annual, it gives you an idea for next year: https://www.usacycling.org/events/?st...1&rrfilter=all

For non USAC, I search club/team websites, and just generally use Google.