Cleave

tl;dr I went faster and had more power than in January but slower and less than in December. Wasn't DFL in 55+.

Training for the Valley of the Sun Stage Race has been going as planned and I've felt great at a couple of Roger's Session interval sessions on Thursday nights. Not sure why I'm seeing weekly peaks on Thursday but I'll take the good legs whenever I can get them.

I'll lay out my excuse for my less-than-hoped-for performance right away. It was cold -- at least for me. I never got warm during the warm up and while I wasn't freezing during the race, I definitely felt the cold. After finishing, I was freezing again.

As for the race, I pre-registered on the early side so there were plenty of fast folks starting behind me. A bunch of people passed me during the race. So many that I thought my time was going to be a lot worse than it was. I was faster than in January by about 30 seconds but still slower than in December by about 1-1/2 minutes. My power was also up from January by about 20 watts.

The silver lining to all of this is that last month and this month, for the TT series points, I have been classified in 60+, even though the event entry categories are 55+ and 65+. The race organizer re-shuffles the results to align with the series categories when he submits the results to the series organizer. Despite less-than-stellar times, I was 1st 60+ in January and 2nd 60+ in February. Woo-hoo, I got points!

Epilogue: Since Sunday I have been fighting something. Nothing severe, but I don't want to go to the Valley of the Sun Stage Race next week with a cold as I did 2 years ago. Will get back on the bike this afternoon.

Heathpack 

Kudos, @Cleave.


Good luck at VOS!

sarals 

Right? I was given a Jakroo skinsuit by the distributor, and there I many things I like about it, especially the way you put it on. But, it's a men's, it's tight and loose in the wrong places, and the color scheme on it makes me look more like a stuffed sausage than other skin suits do - which is darned near all of them.

I protest! Or I should, but this suit was free. I'll just say "not fair".

sarals 

@Cleave - it's February, and you're speeding up! You sure were motoring along at VSC when you were towing BJ and I around!

Kudos, my friend!

revchuck 

@Cleave - sounds like things are moving forward nicely.

Hermes

Women are not small men.

shovelhd

You're just figuring this out?

Hermes

That was a slogan for Jakroo's women's cycling clothing. That was a couple of years ago and their strategy may have changed.

It is very difficult for women to find cycling clothes that fit as well as other equipment since generally they have to pick from men's stuff and their best choice is small or extra small which in general is not small enough in the right places or too small in others.

Hence they get a bad fit for skin/speed suits.

And here is another reference to women are not small men https://cyclingtips.com/2015/08/wome...not-small-men/

This is an article by Dr Stacey Sims. She used to work at the human performance lab at Stanford and was on my racing team when I started racing. This article is about the nutritional needs of women for recovery.

Every time you see a discussion of women's racing by men and what women need and want...remember that women are not small men.

Heathpack 

Interesting article.

I think the gist of training is the same for women & men but there are small, significant differences.

What is funny to me is when I attempt to discuss this with men. Sometimes the attitude is "yeah, yeah. You're the exception but the way things apply to *me,* well that's the reality". It blows my mind sometimes, people really tend to believe the box they're in is the entirety of reality, with the knowledge of course that there are some occasional exceptions. Except when you're the exception, your experience doesn't feel like an exception. It feels like a variation, one that's equally valid as the experience the men are having.

Hermes

We are definitely amazing and stunning but complicated creatures. I am happy when I get the female anatomy right.

sarals 

Oopsie! I'm not touching that!

On the training front, I'm slowly clawing my way back to training form. If I'm lucky, and nothing else goes haywire, I should be able to climb back onto the training wagon in a week or so. If you up there who keeps throwing all of these physical challenges at me is listening, well - it ain't gonna work. I'll come back as many times as I have to. Put that in your shoe and smoke it....

smith_Jr

thanks

Racer Ex 

Heathpack 

Oy. Conditions were bad, intermittent rain and a wet muddy/sandy course, my time was slow. But I did not crash and therefore can still have my eye surgery tomorrow. Good enough.



I was three minutes slower than what would be a good time for me, and two-ish min behind Nemesis (I haven't seen official results yet, just know my time and what she said was approx her time). At some point, the conditions on the course were so slick that I just stopped racing. Wanted to finish and collect my points for the series and make it home intact.

I think the current points totals for the series are: Nemesis 30 points, me 26 points. With two races to go. It's 5 points for a win, 4 pts for second, 3 pts for third. Doable but tough.

valygrl

Nice work, not crashing the day before surgery is a win.

sarals 

Always a plus!

Congrats, Heathie!!!

Hermes

@Heathpack Way to keep upright.

revchuck 

You got that right!

echappist

this. good luck with the surgery

Racer Ex 

Well, that wasn't pretty.

Did a road race this weekend. 4 laps of a mostly flat with some kicker rollers course, 14 miles a lap. Low expectations, you've all been privy to the massive hours I've been logging on the bike.

Had a full field of 60 riders. This race tends to bring out the hitters so I knew it would be fast and nasty. Surfed the first lap which was quite fast. Start of the second lap I got popped along with around 10 other guys on one of the steep rollers; rookie mistake in getting caught behind someone who died.

Teammate, me, and another guy chased for 6 miles. Took a big pull and got us close, my teammate hit the gas and I wasn't able to grab his wheel. For another couple miles we watched him dangle 3 seconds off the back while we worked together to try to close things. Teammate got on.

We finally got on a mile from the start of lap three. Unfortunately this was right before the other big steep ramp. Got out my biggest shovel. Dug hard and deep. Then heard Little Walter signing the blues:



Rode another lap and called it. Download details to come. A ratha inauspicious start to the season.

Racer Ex 

Forgot to add:

As I was finishing up my third lap I was getting a bit warm, so I stopped and pulled off my skull cap. 2 minutes later a bee flew into my helmet and stung me on the head.

It's all about timing.

Heathpack 

@Racer Ex, you just have ski legs right now, that's all.

revchuck 

Yup, all that downhill elevation will gitcha.

Hermes

See. If you would have had hair, the bee probably would have passed on the sting.

sarals 

Red Kite #2 Criterium, Cat 3/4/5 Field, Mentored the Cat 4/5's

Other than the Early Bird training crit I did, and where I attended the mentor training, this was the first race I've mentored this season, and only the second race I've attended. It was so good to see one of my masters racer teammates in the field. I should have guessed she'd be there, I know she likes this race, as do I. It's one of those "good, hard crits", and yes, it's a flat industrial park race, but hey. They can be fun!

I am truly thrilled to be able to be an NCNCA mentor this season. I was going to mentor a few races earlier this year, but illness kept me home for those. There's nothing like a race to test and then work fitness, and mentoring one is just that much harder!

This was a hard race for me to mentor. I was very cognizant of the rule to not affect the race, so I stayed off the back, much further than I should have. I'm a "creature of the draft", and I like to bury myself in the field to save energy, and if I'm on the back, I work to stay on a wheel for protection from the wind. I felt I couldn't and therefore didn't do either today, and that made things tough for me! Also, because this was an early season race, there was quite a lot of energy in the field, and they managed a moderate to spirited pace through out much of the race. Also, unusual for a Women's 3/4/5 field this early in the season, there were several attacks. For many laps the field was strung out single file, indicating a solid pace. These factors all combined, and I ended up having to stop on four occasions to recover, but I put that to good use by picking vantage points from which I could see well into the course. I was able to observe pack behavior and cornering technique from those positions, in other words, do my job!

For a field with several new Cat 5's and good sized contingent of Cat 4's, this was a well ridden race. The skills were there, and they were trustworthy. That was good to see! The real telling point was in how the Botts Dots were handled. Spooky riders will generally freak out around them and make sketchy moves to avoid them, which upsets the whole field. There was NONE of that behavior, and that was great.

I dropped off prior to the sprint, so I wasn't able to observe it. Truth be known, I'd have loved to try for position and contest it!

All in all, this was a race of high, hard efforts for me, punctuated by several sprints as I got back up to speed to slot back in after pausing. I'm not on race form, yes I know, it's March, but if I'd been able to stay in the pack I'd have been okay. The real teller was how high my HR got, it didn't. It stayed in the mid 150's the whole time, even though it felt to me like it was much higher. There were probably a couple of factors in play, not just fitness, but fatigue. Coach has told me that I have a "small bucket to pour from", and I'm sure that bucket must have been pretty low after the week of hard training that I had.

And finally - it's March!