shovelhd

Don't go too hard on the first one.

Cleave

Raced the world-famous El Dorado Park (Eldo) Race Series on Tuesday night. Missed the first two races of the year due to work and personal stuff.

It was windy and I never felt a good tailwind anywhere on the course (and I had plenty of time to feel a tailwind). The field was splitting up after two laps and our sprinter was behind me. I pulled hard to close a gap enough for our sprinter to get into the lead group with our breakaway guy and then blew up. Recovered a bit and then went into Merckx TT mode. Rode as close to my FTP as I could and stayed low and in the drops. Kept waiting for the field to catch me. They never did but our breakaway guy was in a break and they caught me with less than 2-to-go in a 1 hour race. (Does that make any sense?)

Finished a lap down to the break and my NP almost equaled my FTP after an hour on the bike. I guess my FTP is about right which is pretty bad. I think the only weekend races I'll be doing between now and the end of May will be TTs. Definitely not in criterium or road race shape. Back to Seattle next week.

Heathpack 

Piru on Sat, by any chance?

Cleave

Probably not.

LAJ

Thanks Cleave!

Your crit sounded like work. Nice job sticking it out.

Heathpack 

Interesting ride for me today, definitely a good learning experience. I decided to ride this 40K without displaying power data (like I did for the March 40K on this course). This race is really just prep for the State TT, so I figured I'd have nothing to lose if I were to ride this by feel and create some kind of epic fail.

It was a beautiful morning, sunny with temps in the 60s and no wind. Arrived at the venue on time but promoter was late. Turns out he woke up voiceless this am, which made the starts a little interesting. Wasn't sure when to start warming up, finally just guessed based on when I had registered what my start time would be and got on the trainer based on that. Got it pretty right, and had a good warm up.

When the promoter showed up, Mr. H went and got my number and glued it on me while I was on the trainer. I'd been looking in dismay at a flood of dicey-looking cyclists flooding onto the course for quite some time now- turns out there was some kind of charity ride going on. A couple of hundred wobbly people pedaling slowly along were not going to mix too well with a dozen oxygen-deprived time trialists going as fast as they could. Promoter decided to delay the start a few minutes, but not enough that I felt myself cool down. Lol, one charity guy saw us lining up at the start and didn't realize that we were a separate event. I'm sure he was thinking, "wonder what the heck's going on" as he dutifully joined the end of our start line up until someone explained that we were doing a different thing.

I got a good start and the charity people were really no problem, most of them were well up our course by the time we got going. I felt great going out, super strong. I start passing charity riders in the last third of our outbound leg, but nothing squirrely happens. As I'm coming up to the turn, I see the cone is missing, its way off on the side of the road (maybe it was hit by a truck?). Not a problem though because I know exactly where the turn is, I pass a few more charity people, slow down for my turn, look over my shoulder and @#!##@! there are two cars creeping along at 15 mph passing the same charity riders. I wind up going past the turn waiting for them to go by me, I lost 10 seconds there.

Then I turn around and WTF? Headwind! Ok so I think "that must be why I felt so strong going out, how did I not notice that at the start?? maybe it was the delays?". But no biggie, I can just put out a decent effort on this return leg (which will now be a slight uphill into a headwind) and then "rest" in the tailwind/downhill on the second outbound leg, then go strong again in the final return leg. So maybe I didn't conserve enough in the beginning, but this is nothing I can't cope with. Return is a little tough but it goes just fine. I'm a little more willing to push it a bit up the little rises when I can't see the power data and I take tiny rests on the back side of those rises. I know my power is not even but it seems to be going ok.

I make it back to the start and am a little slow in the second turn, but not bad. They had cones in the road which forced a bit of a tight turn. I take my rest heading out on the second outbound leg and it feels pretty easy. All the charity riders are gone and the final turn goes well. The last leg is a little tough but I am able to ramp up my power in the final 10 minutes, I had more left in the tank but I'm pretty tired. Rode it harder than the March Piru 40K and it felt tougher.

Then I get to the finish and am riding my cool down and again my assessment is: no wind! WTF?! I am still pretty confused by that, the course for sure felt windy to me.

Looking at my data, its pretty interesting:
Outbound 1 NP 107%, time 13:46, HR (LTHR ~164) 161, cadence 88
Return 1 NP 98%, time 20:06, HR 160, cadence 91
Outbound 2 NP 89%, time 14:44, HR 155, cadence 89
Return 2 NP 98%, time 19:39, HR 160, cadence 91

Overall my time was 1:08:57, which is a PR by 1:30 but only on 2 watts greater NP. I definitely was uneven in power, so am a bit amazed at the big improvement in time. I rode both return legs pretty much exactly the same, which is what I was trying to do. My intentional "rest" on outbound leg 2 killed my time, though. I went way too low on power for that. And I'm not even sure that there even really was any wind! Maybe I was just feeling tired from going out so strong on the first leg? A bit perplexed. We will see what coach makes of it when he gets the data.

However, overall I am happy with several aspects of this:
1. Went out pretty hard and survived that just fine
2. Better time on similar power, probably reflecting the fact that I'm getting more and more comfortable and secure on this TT bike
3. I was able to think through changing conditions on the course and come up with a rational (albeit not-perfectly-executed) plan on the fly
4. When I try to ride two legs identically (as in return 1 and return 2), I'm able to do that

I'm really enjoying this 40K distance. I feel like it will turn out to be more my thing than that 20K's, you just have more time to get a groove going. I'm also digging riding these things without the power displayed, I find I'm just a little more willing to try doing things a differently vs chasing a specific power number (even though I pretty much like chasing a specific power number). I have a SoCal TT series 20K next weekend and it will be an interesting experience after doing these 40Ks. That seems like nothing to me now, a 20K, it will be over in the blink of an eye.

Oh and PS I wound up winning it because I was the only woman out there today.

valygrl

Nice, heathpack! Maybe the wind changed - there was wind the first lap, and it died down the second. If you really want to know, you might be able to find a weather station in the area and check.
https://www.wunderground.com/wunderm...05.209&zoom=13

TTing is so mental. It will be interesting to see if you think the 20k one really seems like nothing. It seems like the goal in TTing is to compress the maximum total suffering into the exact amount of time you need to complete the course.

valygrl

First crit of the season for me.

Louisville Crit SW3, 4th/16. Really happy with how I raced this, it was quite hard, but I was able to be in good position the entire race. 3rd in the sprint, with one gal (pro triathlete, I heard) way off the front, and the rest of the pack a good 2 seconds back.

I chatted with LAJ for a couple of minutes before my race. Glad to see him back out there.

Heathpack 

@valygrl, having thought about this after the fact, of course what happened was that the wind changed while I was out there. Obvious now, considering that my power was the same on both return legs but the second one was 30ish seconds faster. Not so obvious when you're in the middle of a TT effort.

Somehow I feel better during a 40k TT than I do during a 20k. It feels like something kicks in and I get better at processing metabolic waste.

Congrats on doing well in your crit.

LAJ

Nicely done, @Heathpack! Heavens. Feel better at 40K? With that attitude, I can't wait for the States. So few folks consider that even remotely fun, and you're looking forward to it.

LAJ

Awesome result in your crit, @valygrl!

It was great chatting with you, as well. The time warp thing is real, and in my case, the more time I allow, the less time I have.

valygrl

I'm kinda scared to ride with her.

LAJ

50+4 9/33

A couple sleepless nights, but it was very good getting back out there. Mrs. LAJ says life is too short to not play bikes with my pals, so there we are.

My goal was to shadow a few people, and hang near the front as well as I could. I was always close enough to see the breaks go, and that was likely my downfall. I sort of raced like it was my first race out, and in a way, it sort of was. One of the fellows I was keeping an eye on decided to make a break for it, and he and I gave it a whirl, but they all know not to let him get away. I had tried a few laps earlier, and they gave me a bit more space, but there was still none of that. There was one team that was out in force, and they were certainly muddling it up at the front.

I spent too much time in the wind, and as fun as it was, it just wasn't very productive. Exhilaration is a funny thing, but as said, happy doesn't get on the steps. I'll pick and choose my races carefully, but I have to say, the 5 lap to go notification came all too soon.

It was good seeing valygrl, rapwithtom, and many of the other folks I hadn't seen in a bit.

LAJ

Indeed

Heathpack 

Nice, @LAJ. Good to be back at it with the crits.

I am in no way fearsome up hills, y'all have zippo to be concerned about. Plus the altitude & my general tendency to ride too much when I'm on vacation. I'm expecting to be tired & somewhat pathetic. Whatever. It will still be fun.

valygrl

Nice work LAJ. 9th is a great result for your first race back, I'm sure you will get more comfortable inside the pack with a few more races, and then you will be on the podium. I was warming up near the ModMarket guys, they were pretty shattered after their race, they worked hard.

I didn't see RWT's name in the results, but thought I saw a podium shot with him - did he race?

shovelhd

Nice racing all of you. VG are you a Cat1 yet? HP what was your NP/AP ratio?

Heathpack 

1.02, whereas I would normally be a 1.0 or 1.01 for a TT.

valygrl

heh, no, 3. quite possibly 3 for life.

LAJ

Thank you @Heathpack! It was a blast.

Thank you, @valygrl. They were out in force in that race, and we certainly had to work to disrupt their shenanigans. rwt was present cheering us on, which was most excellent. He said he wasn't quite ready, which is totally understood.

Racer Ex 

FWIW wind out at Heathpack's TT course is highly variable and gusty. Doesn't take much to change the equation.

Did a circuit race this weekend. We had 5 riders in the field so our plan was to attack, and keep our sprinter fresh. The other strong team had four riders so the race went from the gun and never let up. Very dynamic. I was asked to shadow the strongest guy in the field, he's ridden off in a couple of races recently but I am a pretty good match if we come to the finish together.

Lots of punch/counter punch, we're doing a good job of being in the mix and quickly cutting down the breaks where we aren't. Nice having a team again, last year was mostly me and me. I'm out in breaks a half dozen times, riding aggressive but keeping some legs in reserve.

Last lap, sure enough, strong guy and I end up out together. We're warily working together, he attacks once, I counter. Fun stuff. 2k from the finish we get caught. I keep at the front though I'm huffing a bit. Jump on a guy taking a flyer, knowing that the field will react and chase if I go with him. Caught again, I drop back, bring our sprinter up and slot him in 4th wheel. At this point I'm cooked.

Teammates made a few tactical errors on the remaining run in, we end up 4th in the sprint.

Did a couple hours after the race, and 2.5 Sunday. Getting miles, getting fitness.

sarals 

Wrong. I've seen her at the base of the climb and then a long time later at the top. Never on the climb itself.

sarals 

@valygrl - awesome result!! Good heavens, you can ride a crit.
@Heathpack - another awesome result!! An hour at a TT pace, tough to do. And then to do it consistently and well. You're the real deal, women!

Congrats to you both!!

sarals 

I feel the need to race. The problem is there is nothing I can enter that jives with my schedule. There is a lull in the racing schedule this month, too, because of Sea Otter. I'm not racing there! There is a Beat the Clock TT at the end of the month, I'm planning on doing that. What I'd like to do is a crit with some other old ladies. If there was one to do, I'd do it!

valygrl

https://www.coloradocycling.org/calendar