Well done @sarals!

Well done,. @Heathpack! The wind. Make it work, because it isn't going anywhere.

Sara and Heathpack - you're a couple of smart ladies to race like that! The results will come.

Great job HP.

Well done for getting out there, ladies.
@Heathpack, the Sherman Pass road race sounds made for you?

Big kudos to both of you!

You are both strong smart women and I very much enjoyed reading the details of your experiences.

Honestly people's impression of my climbing abilities are very much over-inflated. The Sherman Pass Road Race is a very challenging race and there is very little chance I could hang. And I'm not being humble to say that, it's the truth.

I do a lot of climbing (not as much as I used to) and I guess I rack up some decent-sounding numbers as far as total elevation gain and duration of climbs, but that's all just Stravafied tallying, and Strava is mostly about quantity not quality.

I used to assume this volume made me a "good" climber. But for people who race, being a good climber is essentially being a fast climber. That I am not. I can sometimes drop casual cyclists my age on climbs, but that's not saying much, because after a certain point, non-racing cyclists tend to stop pushing themselves. And I can sometimes drop people way stronger than me on really long climbs or on rides with lots of shorter climbs. But that's just an endurance thing- when I'm trained up for it, I can ride without that much decrement in power for a really long time.

Anyone here that thinks I'm a "good" climber who be very much disabused of that notion pretty quickly should they ever have the opportunity to ride with me. :)

Who knows though? The TT stuff has introduced this love of the long hypoxic effort, so I'll bet from that perspective, I'm a better climber now, because I'll be willing to push much myself much more on the edge without fear of collapsing in a heap. And I'm 15ish pounds lighter. It will be nice to see what that has accomplished for me with the climbing.

Good analysis. You don't have to persuade me of the difference between riding hills and racing them, I can climb pretty much anything but racing them is another matter entirely. I've withdrawn from road races after surveying the course and realising it was far too hilly for me to be competitive.

However, dropping from around 205 lbs to 192 (wsh I was still there) made a massive impact on my climbing ability, I felt - but didn't look - like I was dancing on the pedals. And 15 lbs is a much bigger percentage of your bodyweight than 13 lbs was of mine. Add that to your increased power and you might surprise yourself.

Finally, time-trialling your way up can be highly effective. The explosive climbers are impressive, but on a long one you might reel them back in.

Interestingly, the thing that is really changing for me is not power, it's the ability to sustain higher power output for way longer periods of time. This is why I keep finding my friends way behind me on rides. Something happens that picks up the pace, we're all together for a bit. Then I keep doing what I'm doing and they fall back. Fifteen minutes go by and I look over my shoulder assuming they're all right behind me. Instead, I'm perplexed. Where did everyone go?

I think it's actually just a fitness thing, more than a power thing. Important for hills though, because you really want to be able to sustain that power output for the duration of the climb. Since we have such long climbs around here, the longer you can sustain it, the faster you will be up the hills.

As far as time trialing it up the hills, that has always been my style. We get to some long climb on a hill and the men just charge right up it. (Again, I'm talking about my casual cycling friends.). I just let them go, they will start to fade soon enough. My favorite thing to do is to sneak up on them up the hill and pass them just near the top so I have good momentum before we start the descent. It's awesome because they're frustrated with themselves that they got chicked and then try to catch me down the hill. But I've got a good head start on them, as they were inevitably slowing down as they got to the top. So game on. I get caught a lot but it's pretty fun.

:)

Heathie, that's it, exactly. When I'm on form, I can sit above threshold and hold a solid number for a sustained period. When I'm not, I can touch that number and then fall away from it.

You are a good climber. I have to believe that you could become a reasonably fast climber, too. I loved your analogy of "good" verses "fast". Truth, there. Most casual cyclists, even decent climbers, don't have a clue about a fast climber until they get dropped by one.

Everyone - thank you! The season is on. :)

CBR's Dash 4 Cash

Masters Men 45+

tl;dr Finished near the back of the fast pack (which was motivated by $10 lap leader primes on every lap). Nothing fell off my brand new build except the computer mount, which didn't quite fall off.)

The most notable thing about this race is that I did something that I've never done in my 40+ years of bicycle racing. In fact, I may have done something that exceeds what Racer Ex has done in his illustrious career. I forgot my bike.

I've forgotten shoes (more than once), helmet, cycling glasses, and even a jersey (talk about looking like a nerd in that race) but I've never forgotten my bike. I got to the venue at 6:30a for the 7:35a Master Men 55+/60+ start. I got out of the car and opened the hatchback door and... There were two sets of wheels but no bike. The bike was sitting on the maintenance stand in my garage. Doh!

Fortunately, the venue is only about 20 minutes from my house. If this had be almost any other time, I would have gone home, gotten the bike, and rushed back and rushed to get ready. However, compounding my, shall we say, stupidity, I finished building my new race bike last night and I hadn't ridden it yet. Trying not to compound things further I decided to skip the 55+ race and do the 45+ race instead which allowed me plenty of time to warm up on the new bike. First thing I noticed about my "team" bike (2016 Fuji SL 1.1) is that it handles very similarly to my 2012 Cannondale SuperSix Hi-Mod.

After a good warm up, 80+ semi-old guys lined up on a sunny and hot(!) February morning. The pace was hot from the gun and even though I started out in the first half of the field, the rush to get near the front had me almost at the back by the third lap. Since I was on a brand new bike in my first mass start race of the year and unsure about my race fitness, I only made moderate attempts to move up and none of those efforts got me very far. In fact, I was tail gunning for several laps. Rode hard and straight across the line for 63rd place. :o

The 1 hour and 2 minute race ended up being 29 laps with an average speed of 27.1 MPH. Five of the 29 laps were over 28 MPH and the only lap under 26 MPH was the first lap (25.4 MPH).

Some stats for what they're worth:

IF = 0.95
TSS = 93.9
VI = 1.14

Decent numbers but not good enough to boost my confidence for Valley of the Sun.

Glad to see @Heathpack and @sarals got to race too. Nice work both of you!

Heathpack, fortunately it wasn't windy near the coast where I was racing. If you haven't raced on the district TT course at Lake Los Angeles, it's worth going out there to check out before you race on it. Of course Racer Ex has done a bunch of races on it and I can certainly provide some of my views and experiences on it if you'd like. Also, you might think about putting together a a team for the TTT. It's a lot of fun practicing for a TTT and unless you're having a bad day TTTs are a ton of fun. If you're having a bad day they're a ton of pain.

sarals, I've done a several races that used some of the roads that you were on yesterday. 30 pounds ago I liked some of those climbs. These days, probably not. ;)

@Heathpack Warrior killer status.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...ra-promo01.jpg

@sarals Way to hang tough.
@Cleave All those racers must be BF guys since they all knew that they had to be at the front. It is too bad that is mathematically impossible. Thankfully, our heads are attached. How does the new bike handle...did you like it?

Haha, two funny things driving home from yesterday's race.

First: Mr. H comments to me, "Wow the wind is really crazy, its blowing me all over the road." Duh, tell me about it. ;)
Second: I say to him (because I basically gave up racing when I was out there racing a race), "I really need to get a little more fierce about this stuff." To which he replies, "Yeah, I know. This is why you're never gonna get better." :D

I think I found a new signature quote... :)

http://www.craighuffman.com/img/s3/v...98819384-2.jpg

How hard was "The Bump"? This hard. Thanks to my friend Craig Huffman!

Nice pic. Craig is such a great supporter of racing with his photography.

FWIW and not to be critical but helpful, I have found that attacking / climbing hills while standing, even the steeper ones, is better in the drops. I have pretty much stopped climbing on the hoods standing unless it is to stretch my back and legs. I have found I generate more power with less fatigue (upper and lower body) climbing in the drops when standing. And many times I prefer climbing in the drops seated. This may be due to better utilization of the glutes that are a larger muscle than the quads and of course there is an aero advantage - incremental gains. YMMV

@Hermes, yes, Craig is a prince! He's about as strong a supporter of the sport as they come.

From time to time I do climb in the drops. On the really steep stuff, never. I find I can't open my chest enough for good breathing. That sort of takes away any advantage being in the drops for muscle engagement might afford, at least for me. I can't get O2 to my legs, or not enough! Or, that's what it feels like. Oh, I rarely spend much time OTS. That's a quick ticket to boom for me....

Nope. 2005 I drove to a local RR, opened the camper shell and found an empty space.

Took me a minute before I realized that it was unlikely someone could have stolen the bike while I was driving 70 MPH.

Darn! ;) :D

If you want to find your fierce, try a mass start race. Actual head to head competition. That's where I can give everything and more. Tt's, it's too easy to give it away / five up in your head. In a race, you have to fight for the wheel, to stay in contact or to drop the competition. Feels totally different. To me, anyway, but maybe that's why my tts are so weak.

Nice racing, @Cleave. I actually don't have the bike on my list of things to bring to a race. Haha, I'll have to add that to it.

If you think there is any chance the Lake Los Angeles course would not be well scouted before game day, I'm afraid you do not know me very well. I have ridden the Santiago Cyn TT course 8 times and only one of those was a race and this course is a 90 minute drive from my house. For the Mulholland Challenge, I pre-rode most of the 125 mile course three or four times. I scouted Heartbreak Hundred by just pre-riding the entire 100 miles/10000 ft the week before the event. Lol, you think I'd have a little better success with this stuff. I'm a slightly meticulous <obsessive?> about the planning.

I did mention to Nemesis that I'd of course go pre-ride Lake Los Angeles and she said there was no need, the course is a simple rectangle, piece of cake. I was being polite to let that go and not argue with her.

100% yes I would like and information/insight you have on the course.

Love the TTT idea. Unfortunately I know very few people that know how to ride TTs or are even a teensy bit interested in them. @Racer Ex suggested that I do know one person- Nemesis! Ha, that is kind of an awesome idea. The problem being that she likes to win. And combining forces with me would not exactly be her smartest move if she wants to win. But from my perspective it would be cool.

@Heathpack. I really like your pre-riding of the course for race preparation. It dramatically improves execution which may result in an incremental gain. For example, some believe that one can ride their road bike or fixed gear on the road and show up at the track and execute. Well, that may be true for them but they give up a competitive advantage to those who actually practice at the track.

As far as doing better due to planning, unfortunately, as you know since you read "Faster", racing is about the ability to smash the pedals. He/she who smashes the pedals the hardest for the measured distance usually wins. Where that can break down is that each year, we must find incremental gains just to keep up assuming the same level of pedal smashing. This is how the old school guys lose sight of why it is important to cover every detail. As time marches on even the great pedal smashers are going to be over taken by incremental gains due to technology, execution and planning unless they keep pace.

And you are doing both so keep it up.

As far as teaming in TTT with stronger riders, I think it can work but it is very tricky. The goal in a TTT or team pursuit is to have the stronger rider take longer pulls and the less strong rider take shorter pulls plus the line up i.e. order is critical. What can happen in practice is the stronger rider fails to execute and rides too hard blowing up the less strong riders. I have several first hand experiences with this. The other aspect is that when one is going harder due to a stronger rider, the team must have excellent execution. Each racer is exactly where they are supposed to be and if there is even a slight acceleration, racers can be blow up. Then the team has to regroup and it loses time.

In reality, it is impossible to have all the team members with the same ability. So racers who are great partners for team events are also A. reliable, B. can execute according to a plan and C are willing and able to practice.

So do not be concerned with the mismatch either that you are too strong or she is too strong because that can be managed with practice. Of course, if the fitness levels are way off then it will not work.

Here is a team pursuit finals from 2015 elite nationals track. I know all the racers in the winning team and they are not equal in racing ability and or age. One is a sprinter and another a great pursuit specialist. Yet, they look like they are perfectly matched. They practice a lot together and have honed this team. Amazing execution.

Adding to my previous post....I am confident some will say I rode ABC TTT and won with no practice and never met the guys before in my life blah blah blah. To that I say Amen and Hallelujah. Praise the lord.