Sweet PR Heathpack! I bet your friend checked the race results and was impressed - and probably afraid to ride with you now. If she warned you before hand, it's on her radar.

Well done Las, well done.

Had that happen to me by the guy that ran the team I am on since I suck at Crits. It was the same outcome as asking me if I would like a jar of Apple Pie and a slice of cake.... Why yes, thank you very much!

It's a great feeling to accomplish what one sets out to do. Keep heading in that direction.


Perhaps put in

Racer Ex Klan ;)

Hmm. Were I a coach who inspired such devotion among my clients, I might start a team - especially a women's team, given that women have a harder time breaking into the sport...
@Heathpack, good job.

Heathie, I was right in the middle of posting a response to your race report last night when we were dispatched for a call. I had to sleep on it!

Woman, I am proud of you. Ex knew you'd be good at this, and so did I. You've shown steady progress all the way through, and in a discipline that is mentally tough and physically demanding. Not many people have the gifts to truly excel ay TT's. Oh, if an athlete put's their mind to it, they can improve, but you have to have a certain something to be a really good TT'er. YOU have that. You have no idea how happy I am for you, and how happy I am that you enjoy the discipline! Finally - CONGRATULATIONS!!

Hi, guess it was just me and a couple of the women who raced this past weekend. Nice racing valygrl and Heathpack. At least the women had fun and some good results. :o

Finally got to meet Heathpack and her bike mechanic (spouse) at the Piru 20 Km TT. Very nice people.

As far as the racing, it was not so nice. Got a late start because I somehow managed to sleep through my alarm. Even though I was the next-to-last person to start, I only managed about 10 minutes of warm up. I figured the tailwind on the outbound leg would help with the lack of warm up. I set a PR on the outbound, tailwind leg. ;) I caught my 30 second guy (a Junior) and the guy behind me caught me. Going out, I made it through the telephone pole replacement zone without having to stop, but I did get off of the aerobars in case I had to stop or take evasive action since the road narrowed to one lane total. Coming back, I and a bunch of other people had to stop while they tried to position the pole with their crane blocking the road. Per my Garmin, which is set for auto pause, I was stopped for 1:15.

Despite having some folks to "race" on the way back, my return leg was my slowest ever on that course. My corrected time was about a minute slower than November. :eek: I ended 4th. I think there were 5 of us in the 55+ field but I'm not sure since I didn't look at the final results sheet.

The mediocre news is that even though my effort was down a little (heart rate), my NP was up 27 watts. Also my weight was down 3.5 lbs.

Only 9-1/2 weeks until the Valley of the Sun Stage Race.

You've had a great first season Heathpack. It's going to be fun to watch your progress next year.

Won't it, though?

Cleave, way to go! Sitting for a minute or so couldn't have done much good for your rhythm. The NP of +27 watts points to that. Great ride, my friend!

VOS is that close, already?

Very appreciative of the appreciation. I really do work hard at it, and I'm lucky in that I get to do something I enjoy with people who enjoy what they are doing. Mostly ;)

The team thing I will leave to others; it's a lot of work, a lot of cat herding, and the epitome of letting no good deed go unpunished. Been down that road in other pursuits.

Winding down the year Heathpack's success and growth has been very nice way to close out 2015.

Cleave, depending on western weather you might have company at VOS, especially if NorCal goes swampy. Be a good excuse to visit AZT, and spend more time on the TT bike.

I am worried about how El Nino will affect the weather in Phoenix. Normally I wouldn't think about rain in Phoenix but the November NASCAR race in Phoenix was almost rained out -- 6 hours delay and then shortened when it started to rain again. the idea of driving to Phoenix to do a 3-day stage race in the rain is not appealing. Unfortunately, you have to pre-register at least one week before the race, two weeks if you don't want to pay a $20 late registration fee.

Jan 2016 Piru 20k TT, Women's 3/4, 1st of 4
 

Not a great race for me, off my PR by around 40 seconds. This is the first TT I've ever done where I haven't PRed it. I guess I had to break that streak sometime.

It rained over night and the course was wet. I went out to Piru early and drove the course and I almost bailed. Most of the course was fine, just wet roads and spotty mud patches. But the mud flow section looked slick, it was maybe 1/8-1/4 mile of mostly mud surface, although today there were little patches of road surface peeking through. I got out of the car and walked around on the stuff and thought the traction was surprisingly good. Then I got on the bike and rode around for a bit and decided it was doable and I'd go ahead and race after all. (Rookie mistake: I did not ride at speed at all, of course the traction would be way worse at speed.) I had trouble deciding if my goal was to go for it or just ride it for the experience of not crashing in the mud.

When I got to check-in, I looked at the start list: No Nemesis. I talked to some of her teammates and she was one of the organizers of their team's annual party, which is today. I looked at the other names in women's cat 3/4. One I recognized and knew I'd just have to ride decently to beat her. Two other names I did not recognize but eventually I saw them both. One was a very skinny triathlete, for some reason she did not worry me. The other looked possibly kind of bad-ass- younger than me, nice deep aero wheels, nice bike, aero helmet, race kit. But no disc, no skinsuit. So I knew she wasn't primarily a time trialist but she looked potentially fast. She started a few people ahead of me, though, and I wasn't that impressed by the start itself. I wasn't sure what to make of her.

My start was fine and I was riding ok, a little below my power target, I was still unsure how to I was going to ride this. Then around 3 miles in, we got to the mud flats. The road at that point is a slight down hill, around 1-3%, and curvy. I was thinking the traction was ok and I was going to just ride through in aero but when I got there I realized I was going too fast. Wasn't sure what to do, because it was too late to brake. I sat up on the horns to slow myself down and I'm not exactly sure what happened next, but my rear wheel kicked sharply out towards the outside of the curve. Maybe I braked? Because that's what I'd normally be doing if I came out of aero, I could have done that automatically even though I didn't mean to. Maybe it was just shifting my weight, or maybe that was going to happen anyway. It was a very quick thing, maybe 2 seconds, somehow I corrected and kept going but it was a close call and I was going decently fast at the time, 30ish mph. Whew.

After that, it was hard to keep the power steady. I was watching the road pretty closely plus the other people racing out there in case someone went down (one person did). When I would focus, I could make my targets. When I was distracted, I would ease off. I kept trying to talk myself back into the game with thoughts like "Nemesis is not here, do you want to win or not?" Lol, at some point I just decided to ride at threshold and leave it at that. But I did manage to not fall apart entirely, I just defaulted to what I knew I could do automatically. So that was a little bit of progress.

The results are unofficial because there was a problem with the scoring computer and there's a chance people's times will turn out to be wrong (I know mine's right) and the finish order could change. But I stayed after and looked at all the times and I think the closest one behind me was 40ish sec back and that's a plausible time for her. So pretty sure I won it, despite not riding it brilliantly.

Best part is Nemesis gets 0 points in the series today. Going in to today, I had 13 points to her 20. Now I have 18 points to her 20. Closing the gap. :)

Saw @Cleave briefly after the race, great to see you as always!

The Grasshopper after the preliminary cleaning. Not much clearance between the tire and the frame under normal conditions. Today was caked with mud.

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/x...3C6085C73E.jpg

Congrats on the W, heathpack! Glad you kept it upright, those wobbles are scary. I always get an adrenline rush in my quads, if you know what i mean.

Thanks @valygrl, it was a yikes moment for sure.

Results are now official. I won by 58 seconds. The known entity came in 2nd. Mystery racer chick 3rd. Skinny triathlete came in 4th but I was talking to her after the race, she was funny. Missed the cone at the turn and rode way off course, finished in 48 minutes!!! But she rode way further than the rest of us. She turned me on to a monthly TT series in Bakersfield, which is only a 90ish min drive for me. :)

Congratulations. You don't get to control who shows up. A win is a win.

Congrats, Heathpack! :)

So you're gonna be racing on the streets of Bakersfield, eh?

Nice Heathpack.

Wet courses are always slower. Increased rolling resistance, especially if there's also dirt and mud. Likely the kick out was a bit of brake applied just fine under normal conditions, but a little bit of dampness changes that traction a fair bit. Or you may have just hit a slick spot. Way to keep it upright.

Nice win!

Congratulations HP!

Sounds like tough conditions and you grabbed those extra points to close the gap.

Without Nemesis there, I wasn't sure what a good time was. So I looked up some historical times for the experienced people and it looks like everyone was pretty much off their best times by 1 min to 1:30. So I am a little happier about the time now, I was off my PB by only 48 seconds. Two watts lower than December.

After the race results went up, other people were posting about almost going down in the mudflats. Glad I did it, how often do you get a chance to race a TT bike in the mud? ;)

Chatting with @Cleave afterward, he told me what he did to handle the mud and I realized how I really could use some actual training in bike handling. Because he had an idea in his head going in how to ride it, whereas I got there and had no idea what to do.

Congratulations on the Win!

As if you don't have enough to do on your training schedule the Old School embrace of annual Cyclo Cross was designed to not only extend the racing season and add a new fitness regimen but to improve bike handing. The most calm, confident and capable bike handlers that I knew all came from 'cross backgrounds.

Mild grass course 'cross on a road bike without obstacles/dismount/run/re-mount in wet weather might just be the specific low traction training you are looking for.

-Bandera

I'm not sure I specifically need low traction training as much as a better understanding of what I should be doing on the bike in all kinds of scenarios. I've had very little actual training in skills, handling etc. I know lots of people learn best through experience. But I actually learn best by being taught.

Twice in the past few weeks, I've had stuff that happened at high speed that could have easily caused me to crash. Hit by a big crosswind descending on the TT bike and now this mud thing. Both were so quick that there was no time to think. That's when knowing how to react so well that you don't have to think about it can save your hide. Maybe my instinctive reactions were right in both situations or maybe I was just lucky both times. It would be a plus to have both luck AND skills, I think.

Agree, sometimes you can make your own luck.
Take a page from the very successful Motorcycle Safety Foundation basic rider's course and work on specific skill drills in a low speed controlled environment where the inevitable crash costs less than at full chat.

An open flat grassy park, a teammate to trade off with and some Dixie cups are good for skill drills ala MSF:

Look where you want the bike to go
Firm relaxed grip
Front brake/ weight shift
Rear brake/weight shift
Weave between the cones L/R
Surprise avoidance

Sorry if this sounds like some old guy droning on and on and on about how we did it back when but there was method to getting new riders to be calm, confident bike handlers in all disciplines of the sport.

-Bandera

Lol. Teammates? Does not compute. I have no teammates.

I have done the riding-through-cones skills type stuff actually. I went once to a one-day women's cycling clinic, we did that stuff. Also some of that with previous coach, plus some descending with him. I will also latch on to someone on a group ride who looks skillful to me and follow that person like a duck. I made one of my best cycling friends by doing that, he could not shake me so I guess he decided we might as well be friends. Then he went all duathlete on me and the running messed up our rides. ;)

@Heathpack. I'm smiling. Smiling!! My, you're good at this!!! I'm proud of you, very proud! Congratulations!!

Early Bird Training Criterium #2 , W Cat 3/4

I had my GoPro camera on the bike for this race, so I reserve the right to say "I didn't remember it that way" after I post the video, because I know I'll get it wrong. The cold fact is I lasted only two laps, and dropped out. I got back in for one more lap, and couldn't do that, either. It was easily the worst showing I've had in any race in two years.

Coach wanted power "to see where we are", so I rode my Look 566. It's heavier than my Venge, and has a compact crankset, but the differences between it and my Venge aren't huge.

The Early Birds are a five race January training series, and are a tradition. Prior to the races, which are supposed to be mentored and controlled, there are one hour long skills clinics. The clinic prior to #2 was on pacelining. During the clinic, the large group I was in did a fair amount of riding around the full course at close to race speed. I felt fine after the clinic, and I was anticipating the race.

There were no other master's women in the field I was in. I was to race with the "who has ten or more races?" bunch. I looked around to see who was there, found a young Cat 4 team mate, and rolled over next to her, lining up on the third row. I tried to discuss some strategy with her, but she was preoccupied, so I decided I'd be on my own. Looking around the field, I saw one other rider I knew, everyone else was new to me and very young.

We rolled off at the whistle, and immediately three San Jose Bike Club young ones went off the front. I jumped on the wheel of a Tibco rider and we gave chase. The field was completely strung out by the first corner. I stayed on the wheel of the Tibco rider through the first and second corners and into the back straight, where there was a significant headwind. That's when the rest of the pack started catching us. Soon enough we were swarmed. I was expecting the high pace to slacken with the arrival of the field, but it didn't. The next thing I knew, I was back among the mentors and really starting to feel stressed. That was when I noticed I was in THE SMALL RING and spinning like crazy. Dope. I shifted up, heard a "I wondered when you were going to do that, Sara" from a mentor, briefly scolded myself, and then went on.

I stayed in through most of the second lap, feeling worse and worse - oddly worse, my chest started feeling like it was going to explode. I was not having lactic issues with the legs, I was running out of cardio, which is damned unusual for me.

After the third corner, I sat up. I was feeling way too bad to continue.

I stopped and sat at the start/finish as the field went by for two or three laps, listening to the RD and a couple of the mentors imploring me to "get back in!". I finally relented and did. I was in the pack, and made it to the third corner, where a rider in front of me bumped a mentor in the corner and dove right across my front wheel to the outside. That was enough. This was a training race, and it had become a serious sufferfest for me, and the skills quotient around me was a mounting concern. I pulled the plug and went home.

I'm still trying to decide what happened. I can normally sit in a crit, even with young guns, for at least half the race or more before I start to have age related vs. kids issues. Not yesterday. Yes, the pace was really high, 26 MPH for the first lap, and not much less for the second. I've lost eleven pounds, that may play, I went harder on the openers ride the day before than I should have, that did play, and I'm on a course of methylprednisolone for a serious skin issue I came down with two weeks ago. I'm sure that was a big player.

Whatever the reason, I want redemption. This was an auspicious start to the 2016 season.

Video to follow.

Ughhhh, sounds brutal. Chin up, don't read too much into it. i'm looking forward to the video.