Training Log 12/21

Back on full training intensity and volume after a couple lighter weeks (last week's volume was lighter since I skipped Friday). Actual intensity is a full notch above November, but feels the same or easier effort wise, which is great. Also felt more comfortable at the end of long rides. In other news, I'm done with work in 2008, returning 1/5... my only vacation in 2008. 

Next week I'll be in Austin, TX to spend the holidays with my sister, brother-in-law, and father. Will be an easy training week, doing some indoor spinning (at Kevin Livingstone's Pedal Hard, downstairs from Lance's Mellow Johnny's shop) and hopefully some on-the-road bike time (will be renting a bike Friday-Sunday). Weather's looking good in forecasts. 

The following week off will be a big training week. I'd thought of doing the San Bruno hill climb on New Year's, but after discussing with my coach, I'll be training full bore instead (16hrs scheduled).

Tuesday (1h 16, 21mi)

Plan:

Endurance ride - 1h 30m Zone 1

Speed - 8 x 20s Zone 5 (seated)

Notes: 

Extremely cold (40F) and quite wet. 5 of us total at Polo Fields at pretty steady pace. For no good reason, I attacked with 1.5 laps to go for a hard solo effort. Hands were frozen after changing halfway to drier but lighter gloves, and cut z1 riding short by 15m.

Did 8x repeats with Jay. Did first 5 in 39x12. Then used big ring (53x16 or so). Took a good jump to get that going seated and spun it out to 120rpm.

Wednesday (1h 32m, 28.5mi)

Plan:

Tempo Endurance - 6 x 6m Zone 3

240w

Endurance ride - 1h Zone 1-2

Notes:

@ Polo Fields. Very cold, high-30s, which somewhat constricted breathing but I was otherwise pretty warm under all the layers. Most comfortable ride for a while, given the weather and my general recovery. Right glute / IT band felt tight but concentrated on smooth round pedaling, which seemed to get all the right muscles engaged. At end of last rep, right glute felt well worked out, which seems to happen when I work hard in the drops. 

Felt like a meaningful workout. Kept pace up during recovery, spending most of the ride in Z2+, with reps in Z3. Lengthened the reps a bit, since I did today at the Polo Field and travel time to/from was at a minimum.

Friday (1h 38, 25mi)

Plan: 

Leg speed - 8 x 30s Zone 3

max rpm

Endurance ride - 1h 30m Zone 1

Notes: 

First comfortable, relatively warm/dry day for a while, around 50F. Took the non-interval part of ride relatively easy (low Z1), with relatively high cadence. Went out to Lake Merced, around 3x. Felt quite sick to my stomach and stayed home rest of the day.

Finally installed cadence monitor on bike. Having a real cadence number to look at made this workout more interesting. For intervals, was able to spin up from 120 to 135rpm smoothly. Took some concentration not to bounce over 135. Sometimes could hold it smooth at 140, but pretty mixed results. I got 2 reps to 150+. Was playing with gearing and pwr vs. rpm on various reps.

Bonus: Did 2x out-of-the-saddle leg speed sprints in 53x15 and 16. Felt pretty smooth hitting 120rpm on 1st and 130rpm on 2nd. ~10 sec each, starting the sprints from 110 and 115 rpm.

Saturday (3h 45m, 53mi)

Plan: 

Climbing - 3 x 10m Zone 3

~250w

Climbing - 45m Zone 2/3

Endurance ride - 2h 30m Zone < = 1

Notes: 

Conzelman repeats then Mt Tam to Pantoll (stop at Bootjack). Averages on repeats: 252W/144bpm, 263W/147bpm, 250W/143bpm. Good cruising speed. 

Took Tam on the easy side compared to Thanksgiving week, cruising in mid-Z2 for the climbing sections, recovery in easy Z1 on flatter parts. I was concerned that if I was too aggressive, I might aggravate the IT band again. It felt a bit tight, almost achy.

Did an extra bit of warmup through the Presidio before the bridge and repeats. Plenty of time in Z1 and some just below Z1.

Sunday (4:15, 67mi)
Plan:
Endurance ride: 4h Zone 1

Notes:

Paradise loop then Lake Merced 2x.

Started dry but turned quite wet, as expected. Met the Mouse group ride at bridge to chat, but pre-announced plan to split off. Hung with group to Camino Alto hill, then waited for a while with group after hill for Nick to try to fix his flat, but he wasn't having any luck and blew the tube on try #1. It was cold and DP suggested I keep going.

Overall steady Z1 HR, but did spend a good bit of time in low-to-mid Z2 power. In the second quarter of the ride, I was trying to get my core temp up.

Kept it brisk in the last couple hours. Headed around Lake Merced twice to wrap up and did a couple 30m stretches averaging ~190W. It dried out, I warmed up, and felt great in this section and to the end. Spent a lot of this time in the drops and was surprisingly comfortable. Guess the stretching and the long rides are helping the back and neck. Tacked on a bit extra and felt like I could have kept going, especially with the easy week ahead.

Training Log 12/14

Nothing as interesting as the Mt. Ham hill climb, but the last couple weeks have had their challenges. First off, I've been dealing with some soreness in the right IT band. It started the day after the hill climb, when I was scheduled to take a day off the bike but since I was on vacation, I tuned up the TT bike and took it out for its first ride on the road. Not smart for a major training week, given the aero position naturally a bit stressful and I don't have it dialed in. It was getting better the week after, then I did my Friday workout on the trainer (was home sick) with the TT bike, which triggered it again.

So last week was an easy week. This week was back to the programmed training intensity but it was a stress week at work and I skipped my Friday workout. So glad I had a good ride up Mt. Ham yesterday, plus some time on the track (for Gio's track clinic at Hellyer). Today I got a good base ride in, but was half frozen in the rain. 

I write a fair bit of individual ride detail when I upload my files to my TrainingPeaks.com profile. It's mainly for my coach's benefit (Peter at Whole Athlete), but here's a sampling:

Tuesday

Endurance 1h 30m Zone 1 Polo fields 

Speed work 8 x 15s Zone 5 seated max accelerations

Very cold, but wore lots of layers, including leg + knee warmers. Stayed in paceline for longer than most weeks for thorough warmup. Had added bonus of making the pacelining a bit more consistent (since there were few attacks until last 10 m), which was good for the couple newbie Mice who were out. Put in a couple attacks in the last 3 laps to get things lively, then did the leadout. Rolled around with Jay, then Jamie, both of whom were also doing seated accerations from the WA plan. Felt better on the whole, but not 100%.

Wednesday

Tempo Endurance 5 x 6m Zone 3 steady effort ~235w 

Endurance 1h Zone 1-2 do not exceed mid-z2 HR 

As described. All at Polo Fields. Cold morning, so took 30m to warm up before first rep. Felt better after first one.

Saturday

Climbing 1h 45m Zone 2/3 Mt Ham in the a.m.- do first two sections ~240w, then last long section middle of z3 HR (do not exceed 157bpm) and let's see what kind of power it produces. 

Cold day, but I dressed well. Had extra vest layers I zipped up as I climbed the hill, then put on extra dry layers at the top. Much more comfortable decent than Thanksgiving. I was running late because I stopped at the stop to get them to add the 17t training sprocket I'd bought a while back. So had easier 49x17 gearing at the track clinic. Very late by the time I got to Mt Ham. Wanted to do as much as I could. Cut out half of section 3, which saved me 20m I needed to make the track clinic productive. Mt Ham was fun to climb. Took time to warmup and eased into 240w pwr target. Felt good when I got really going and was feeling great in the Zone 3 HR section at the top. Felt like I was getting a lot of power for 154-157bpm (266W avg for 3rd section, 20m). 

Track clinic was around 35m of on-the-bike time (8m in zone 4 HR). Due the rain last night and thread of rain later today, they changed the schedule and compressed the afternoon materials into the late morning, so I missed most. What I did get was a bunch of standing start practice (4x). On the first one, I nearly lost my balance transitioning from low-rpm to mid-rpm. Got much better at it from the practice (and had aero bars on so it was representative of 4k pursuit). We also did a 4k team pursuit from standing start. Tomorrow is canceled for rain and the event will get a new date in January.

Sunday

Endurance 4h Zone 1 steady ride in the morning. stick to z1 except for limited z2 on hills 

Paradise loop w/o Camino Alto hill, then Polo Fields. Just missed the 2hr window when it wasn't raining and left just as it started again. I wore plenty, but I really need to get some upgraded clothing for serious rain. After an hour, I was wet pretty well through (except on core) and at the 2hr mark, my hands were pretty well frozen. Plan was to do a couple Paradise loops, to minimize decending and generally keep it safe and steady. Decided not to do a second Paradise Loop given the frozen hand situation. Stopped at Mike's Bikes and found some winter gloves on sale for $25, which if nothing else were dry and allowed me to finish the ride. Apart from the cold and wet, I felt pretty good. Got a good high Z1 rhythm going at the Polo Fields for the last 45m (avg 184W, 132bpm).

Mt. Hamilton Low-Key Hill Climb

Total time: 1:27:10 for 18.6mi.

The plan was to negative splits, but the 3 climbing sections don't show that:

1. 272W avg, 162bpm avg, 29m 32s, 6mi


2. 271W avg, 168bpm avg, 15m 16s, 3.2mi


3. 272W avg, 166bpm avg, 37m 14s, 6.6mi

I started near the front and had 50+ riders or so go past. The early pace was ballistic and I pretty much ignored everyone and went at my own speed, telling myself I'd catch half of them later. A couple friendly wheels were just up the road (Sean and Liam, Ben was further up, having followed Dave Rossow) when it flattened out 3.6 mi in, and I missed having a wheel to work with then.

I caught Liam just at the first downhill section, 6mi in. He basically pulled me down the hill and up some rollers. I got maybe one pull in. I felt super fresh and picked up the pace in the second section, but saw it was too fast and pulled it back a bit and apparently overcompensated.

Liam also pulled me along on the second downhill. We blew by Sean on part of this, but he joined us a little later, then pulled ahead. Liam lost contact with me shortly after. I felt OK throughout the third section, but certainly not as fresh. My legs weren't rearing to go harder but were willing. I was unsure of how much distance was left and held back until the last couple miles. Averaged 280W over the last 2 mi and 300 over the last 3 minutes.

After having stopped for 20-30 minutes, the ride back down the hill was extremely cold, even though I'd brought lots of layers. It only got comfortable after the first uphill. I should have done a bit of climbing before heading down, to get the core temp up.

As a race, it was a slight disappointment, since I was hoping to at least break 85m. (But again this is the off-season and I didn't really push it that hard.) It was better as a test of Z4 climbing endurance, and a good confidence builder at that, since I felt like I could have kept going at that pace for a good while longer. This event made me wish I already had the new Leopard bike that's going on order next week, since it'll be 5 pounds lighter than my old steel Waterford.

Results link

Data file:

(click for interactive file)

Power Top 10

Here's a graph I like a lot from WKO+, showing the top-10 power numbers for the season:

(click for readable version)

It updates whenever I add a workout, so I get some satisfaction on weeks like this when I see that I've posted a few top-10 numbers. Especially since the peaks aren't necessarily where you'd expect them to be (Tuesday's Polo Fields final lap sprint was the 60s peak, but the 5s and 10s numbers were a later sprint out at Lake Merced).

It's also a reminder to me that real-world riding includes a whole range of hard efforts. Sometimes a very intense 1 minute is decisive (usually at the end of a race), but often a hard 5 minute climb or 20 minute section is what creates the selection. It's rare that real-world efforts happen in exactly 1m, 5m, 20m increments, so I find that even exceptional non-time trial events rarely produce predictable PBs. If the effort doesn't match the length of the benchmark, it's not going to look as good as an intentional test effort at a given time.

I haven't done too many hard 60+ minute efforts. The Mt. Hamilton climb today is the obvious exception.

Ride The World Cup #3

Won the last points sprint

Big turnout at Hellyer today, no doubt helped by the worthwhile occasion (Shelley Olds fundraiser), beer/BBQ and Frankie Andreu's special guest appearance. Strong field in As and Bs (15 B riders).

Teammates: Liam and Jake in Bs. Nole in As. Ashley and Cathy in Cs. Ashley won the Cs scratch.

First Bs race was 40 lap points race with sprints every 5. When the first attack came on the second lap, the guy in front of me unclipped while standing and flipped over his bars. I dodged up track. He was unhurt and the race was restarted. I got 2nd in sprints #s 1, 4, and 7. 4th in sprint 2. 1st in the final sprint, for 4th overall. Race decider was an unmarked guy rolling off the front after sprint 2 and soloing for 20+ laps, catching the pack, which worked sporadically but basically gave it to him. Liam put in some good attacks to string things out with a lap or 2 to go. Nice to see him in Bs now.

1st: Judd Kincaid 2nd: Ray Gildea 3rd: John Cheetham 4th: me. Jake was around 6th.Photo of results here.

Lost the scratch race by a few inches

Second race was motorpaced scratch for 40 laps. Motor started pretty slow (22mph was what was called) and attack came around 4 laps in. I was first to follow and we had a break of 4 strong guys that grew to 6 (including Jake), working pretty evenly with 1/2 lap pulls. With 10 to go, Jon Arcellana attacked and I closed. We were 3 (Jon, me, and Ray), still working well. The motor had sped up over the course of the race, and we caught Liam (teammate) dropped from the pack and he led out from 2 to go. Jon led out the last lap, with me on his wheel. I moved to come around in turn 3 (150m) and was coming up well, but didn't quite pass.

Got 2nd, losing by around a foot. Initially was too close to call. Hoping Garrett or one of the other photographers got a shot of the finish.

Prelim Omnium result: 2nd, behind Ray Guildea (2nd and 3rd). At least that's my guess.


Tactically, I played both races pretty well except for my part in looking around as Judd easily rolled away in the first race. I followed wheels well and several times was headed into the sprint 2nd wheel, with a strong leadout. Given the tactical advantage, I should have had the 2nd race. I just didn't quite spin the pedals fast enough.

Break working together

All in all, I felt good on the bike, with no noticeable fade at the end of the second race (fewer surges meant I actually felt better than in the first). It was the first time trying out my new position on the track bike. When I got fitted by Dario at Whole Athlete the other week, he dropped the saddle a bit on both my road and track bike (I'd been really high), changed up my cleats, and dropped the track bike's bars a couple spacers. It felt both more aero and more comfortable/powerful. Win-win.

More photos on Flickr here.

2008 Season Snapshot

Here's my WKO Performance Management Chart for my 08, starting from when I got the power meter in late April.

Click for a larger, readable version.



This chart is based on the WKO application's "training stress score" (TSS), which is assigned based on actual power-based work. A score of 100 equals spending one hour at threshold (maximum steady-state pace). My long-distance rides are often 200 TSS (for 4hrs+), while 90-min intense rides (which include warm up/down time) usually come in around 100. Commuting both ways works out to 15 TSS, even with 50 minutes on the bike.

The chart shows three key trends:
- ATL (in red) - short-term workload
- CTL (in blue) - long-term workload (equated to "fitness")
- TSB (in yellow) - difference between short-term and long-term load (equated to "fatigue" or "form")


While true TSS can't be calculated without a power meter, I think I have a feel for the scoring and went ahead and estimated for my early-year training. Here's a view starting Feb 1:




A more standard way to look at this is in time and mileage:




This helps to remind me that my training really only started this February. I was riding "regularly" from mid-2007 on, but the commitment was even wimpier than what I posted for early February 08. I was lucky to do 2-3 hours a week back then, riding most but not all weekend days.

Ride The World Cup 10/18

Mouse crew 2 at Hellyer
Originally uploaded by renroublard

I finally made it back to the track yesterday, after having missed August and September events due to late season mishaps. The occasion for off-season racing was the Ride the World fundraiser for Shelley Olds' trip to the Manchester World Cup event. It was also a tune up event, and a bunch of As turned out to help her train, including local national-level pros Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell's GC leader) and Dan Holloway (Garmin's up-and-coming track and crit star). 

Cathy took a bunch of photos with my Canon 40D DSLR camera that I got recently for race photography. On Flickr here.

The main events were scratch and points races, with an unusual Madison team sprint event mixed in for the sprinters. I raced Bs. Felt good enough even after doing my first (light) weight training session the night before. But I raced the scratch race all wrong, as many people pointed out afterwards that it looked like I towed the pack around most of the race. I put in 4 or 5 attacks, but from too far up, so the strong guys had me marked. It wasn't until the second half of the race that I figured out which guys to mark. Almost got a breakaway formed with one guy with around 10 to go, but he didn't really want to work. Good news is that Jake (my teammate and Shelley's brother) got 3rd. A couple lessons from this, especially that scratch and points racing dynamics are quite different. I hadn't done a scratch race since June. 

The points race went much better. I changed my plan when they only put 20 laps on the board, instead of the 40 laps scheduled. Running out of time, I guess. Old plan was to be opportunistic to start, then commit in the middle. New plan was to go for the first sprint, since there were only 4. 

The first sprint worked out gloriously. I attacked from the back with around 3 laps to go and opened up a big gap immediately, as the pack hesitated. Paced myself to get the full points, then slowed to regroup on the next lap. The next strongest two guys attacked with 3 to go for #2. I hesitated a bit and they got a 30m gap before Jake and I got a good response going. The gap maxed at ~70m and they picked up the second sprint, while Jake and I worked team-pursuit-style to shut it down a lap or 2 after #2. That gave us time to regroup and for me to recover, then I attacked with a lap to go before #3 and got passed just at the line to get 2nd. This had three of us tied for first with 10 points each. I knew it was close but wasn't 100% where I stood. 

Then I messed up the tactics. With it so close, I should have played it more conservatively and used my sprint. Instead, I had it in my head to attack again, like I had all day (not sure why, I can sprint after all). I stayed at the back, feinted on the high side with 3 to go, saw them respond, then sat in until just under 2 to go. I let a gap open up off the back, accelerated into it and dropped down track. Had a good gap and didn't get caught until turn 4 (400m to go). I could have pulled off and probably gotten back on, but I figured I'd lead it out for Jake and kept it going. The guys sprinted at 250m to go. 

Result: Third overall. Fun race. It's interesting to race aggressively, rather than sitting in waiting for sprints like I tended to do in season. I'd put on a slightly bigger chainring (49t for 88in) so for the first time in a while I felt like I wasn't undergeared. 

Leopard bike demo report

I drove Liam and I down to Half Moon Bay this afternoon for the Leopard Cycles demo session. Met up with Scott, then Ammon and Ben arrived with Dan Connelly (WebCor) from the Low Key Hill Climb.

The Leopard guys were very friendly and informative. There was the owner, marketing guy, and mechanic there and they helped get us all on M1 demo bikes. Importantly, they really worked to get us fit decently on the demo bikes, measuring against existing bikes (or in my case, measurements I'd taken from my bike) and moving components to dial in the fit pretty well, for a representative test. They were very generious with their time, spending 2 hours with us until we ran out of questions and testing to do.

From my testing, the Leopard M1 rode great, with many of the ride characteristics I've enjoyed about my Scott CR-1: quick-handling geometry, stiff, and smooth. Leopard HQ is a few blocks from the popular Half Moon Bay marina restaurants, so the roads weren't too busy and Maverick's hill just around the corner was a great way to put the bikes to the test, both going up and coming down.

What excites me the most about the Leopards is how cool they look. The Joe's custom paint jobs are distinctive, especially the translucent paint over the carbon weave, and the Leopard tube shapes are interesting. The M1 is the most aggressive looking, with varying tube shapes and a rear wheel cut-out. The M1SL has rounder tubes, but still has some unique shaping to keep it from being as generic looking as my Scott. Both the M1 and M1SL have a nice rear-brake cable routing method, with the cable running in a recessed space under the top tube.

The M1 and M1SL bikes are light. With relatively heavy (~1700gr) wheels, a SRAM Red-equipped M1SL weighed in at under 15lbs, no pedals. Some of the other Mice were weighing other bikes, so might be able to say better what other configurations were coming in at.

Besides the road bikes, they had a slick TT rig and a pro-looking cross bike. Ben tried out both and could comment on those.

It was well worth the trip. I'm now definitely leaning towards getting at a Leopard road bike to replace my crashed-out Scott.

Frame Pic w/ translucent blue paint: 

Absenteeism, the Season's End, and 2009 bikes

I've really gotten a track record of skipping events I've signed up for. Last week, I skipped the Mt Tam hill climb because I had a bit of a cold and my lungs didn't feel so hot. I also skipped today's Calaveras Road 10-mile TT, again for a medical reason.

It's funny that I still got a time for Mt. Tam: 52:47. I don't know if someone else got my number (the event was sold out) or what. It's not the time I'd have expected to put up. I actually emailed the organizer asking for them to remove or correct it. 

All this comes after that string of missed races due to crashes. I was actually feeling quite good early this week, after a long Sunday ride and a fairly intense Tuesday morning Polo Fields group ride. It'd have been funny to come back on form right after the end of the season. No worries about that now, as I'm going to take this weekend really easy. 

An exciting part of winter prep is getting new equipment. I've been working on using the team deal with Beyond Fabrications to get a TT bike and 50mm carbon aero wheels with PowerTap rear hub. I was originally thinking of TT bike, race wheels, and road bike as separate purchases (retail price on the wheels and PT hub costs more than many bikes), but the Beyond deal was good enough that I can get both the TT bike and wheels without feeling like I'm splurging much (and given I'd been saving for 2009 upgrades). 

I'm expecting to go down at pick up the bike on Sunday. Here's a pic:

For the wheels, I'm getting the 50mm-deep rims (much less deep than the picture), so I can use them in road races as well as TTs. Unlike some teammates, I'm getting clincher rims, since I don't understand the practicality of tubulars in long local road races, where follow cars are few and far between. Waiting to get picked up is no fun compared to the alternative of changing a tube and riding to the finish. Tubulars make more sense on the track, where it's not hard to have a spare wheel on hand. 

I still haven't quite settled how I'll replace my Scott road bike (busted up by the car incident). The Scott crash replacement deal on the frame is still an OK way to go, but Ben's got me pretty jazzed about Leopard Cycles, with the likelihood of a few teammates going in and getting a custom Roaring Mouse paint job. 

I'd looked at Leopard earlier in the year, when I won a $350 off coupon as a prime, and what impressed me were the paint jobs, especially the sections with translucent paint over carbon fiber. Given that most high-end carbon bikes are manufactured in the same place in Taiwan, the difference between frames are in the design (tube shape, geometry), materials (choice of more or less expensive carbon weave) and paint job. Most bikes don't look all that interesting, usually because they have one base coat, plus a bunch of decals. I'm sure the Roaring Mouse scheme will be pretty interesting, even if it's a lot of yellow. I'd probably get Leopard's M1SL frame for the clean lines and light weight.

Clinic canceled

Doh! The Advanced Tactics and Skills clinic on Oct 11 & 12 is canceled. Apparently there were just a few signups, a huge drop from previous years when it had sold out. 

Too bad. I was really looking forward to learning something. And grabbing 5 easy upgrade points. :)

Morning Workouts

There's something extra satisfying about morning workouts. Getting up 90+ minutes early seems to say "I'm serious about my training" where evening rides say "I don't have anything better to do after work."

Since I'm usually heading out from home and back to home and I'm adding time at the start of the day (and having a somewhat flexible work start time on most days, like my end time is flexibly late...) I also get to do somewhat more involved workouts in the morning than I would in the evening, when I usually add training to the end of my bike commute home (using the commute as a warmup, dropping my bag off at home or a nearby bush..).

So it's telling that I hadn't done a morning workout since early August. I'm sure the last one was my last morning hill repeat session out to the headlands. Those morning headlands rides could be a doozy, with the motivation to spend as much time on the hill as possible and minimize time back and forth.

Well, today was the start of a new winter habit in favor of morning rides. I headed out for the first Mouse tempo session at the Polo Fields. With the evenings getting short (I rode in the dark way too much last week), the mornings just fit the daylight better... even before daylight savings ends.

I'll admit: The Roaring Mouse Polo Fields tempo rides were what convinced me not only to join the team, but also to start racing again. The pacelining and the last-lap sprint reminded me of all that I'd been missing riding in San Franciscio without a team and of all that I used to love riding with a club in high school and with the Cal Cycling team in college... all condensed into an easy 45-minute format.

Today did not disappoint. I showed up 15 minutes late, having hit snooze a couple times. But quickly slipped into the paceline with 4 other Mice: Ben, DP, Ryan, and Hank. The cruising pace was a moderate 22mph, so with fresh legs even pulling at the front felt a bit easy. Ryan and Hank were on cross single-speeds, so fairly undergeared and spun out at a mid-20s pace. Ben was on a fixie, but had track-like gearing, so was ready to hit it. And he did, putting in a good attack at one point. I hesitated, waiting to see if DP would close, then chased back on and put in a modest counter to pass, not sure if we were going for a sprint point or what. We regrouped and started counting down laps to the final sprint as we approached 7:15. Ben came by and said I should stick to one gear in the sprint, to make it fair. I decided I'd mainly just lead it out, and started a 3/4 lap pull, ramping from 24 to 28 and holding it there before Ben jumped.

Good effort, with a strong 60s power avg in the mid-400s. Nice complement to the tempo time (in the 230-300-watt range).

Everyone went their separate ways, and I headed down to Lake Merced, since it was still early. Got a good sprint in from the bottom of the downhill on the East side, which is one of my favorite places to get up to lead-out speeds before sprinting on the flat. Hit 36mph with 1100w sustained for 10 seconds. I have to say that my best power numbers have mostly been in training, rather than races, at least for the sprints.

I'll have to get some lights before too long. Mateo's got me looking at DiNotte for the brightness and easy no-tools mounting. Pricey, though.

Ride Data: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/tny.aspx?a=sw&key=HHistskDS7cXbJ7BATQPzQ6Jzvgg%2Bvm%2F

Crashed again (Henleyville RR)

Hit the ground with 3mi to go at Henleyville RR. I was right behind Mateo, lying around 10 back. There was a good surge after a corner stringing us out two across, the surge subsided a bit, then the crash hit. Mateo got his wheel crossed and went down, I hit his bike and more or less flipped.

Hit the back of my head, elbow and wrist. No head injury due to helmet but neck is sore. Deep road rash on right elbow. Sprained right wrist. Also: Miscellaneous scrapes and bruises but no leg injuries that I've noticed, which is great.

This was my first race-related crash this season.

Crash stats for the last 4 weeks (500 mi ridden, 80-150/week):

- Hit the ground 3 times (1 caused by car, 1 caused by bikes, 1 caused by slippery railroad tracks)

- 2 serious wrist sprains (left then right), 1 minor sprain (right)

- 1 bruised right knee

- 5 major patches of road rash: shoulder, hip, elbow, hands, knee

- 2 trips to Kaiser, getting 2 sets of Xrays and matching left and right wrist braces

- 2 cracked Bell Sweep R helmets

- fastest crash speed: 26mph during Henleyville

Crash stats for previous 12 months (8000 mi ridden, 150-250/week typical in season):

- Hit the ground 0 times

- 6 - 7 close calls in races involving direct body contact

- 3 - 4 near misses with cars making surprising / unsignaled moves

Track Fights 9/17 - 4th place

Got 4th place by picking up three 2nds and a 3rd. Alden Tanaka would have had points for 2nd place (bumping me to 5th) except that he went a lap down after missing a corner to avoid a guy.

This was the first time since the August crash that I felt like I had decent form. My tactics were typical for my points racing: follow most any wheel moving forward to stay with the lead or middle group as surges break the pack up but don't sprint without a good chance to get points. And move up to or off the front if it gets really slow. Basically, stay at 90% / LT as much as possible, then do a select few max efforts when it counts.

One of the 2nds was me thinking I could come around a Fusion guy at the last minute and I ran out room. Or I didn't jump hard enough or sustain it, given that my 5-10s power numbers weren't all that (900w vs. peak of 1182w).

Near the end, I made a good solo attempt when the pack slowed / swarmed before turn 3. I was moving up from near the back and just kept it rolling, then ramped it up. Averaged 630W for 30 sec, but Steve Paleaz (Cat 1, who won 7 of the sprints) caught me near the finish.

Good field and encouraging result. It really got me psyched up for Henleyville.

Data: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/UI/FlexWorkoutFileViewer.aspx?wid=26143772&wday=9/17/2008&fileId=1976976&num=2

Two Bridges Circuit Race (9/14, Folsom CA)

Quick update from what I'd posted on Twitter:

Fun course in Folsom. Longish laps (nearly 2mi) with some rollers and some technical corners. Got in a break with 3 to go. But we didn't work well enough together and only stayed clear for a half lap. Wasted plenty of energy in various moves, including a late move to get in position on the final run-in. Lots of fun and hope the race comes around again next year.

Crazy traffic though. Closing part of the main bridge for us really messed up some people's Sunday drive. It took me an extra 25 minutes to get into town, which didn't leave much time for a warm-up.

No data. Forgot my Power Tap bike computer.

SF Twilight Crit

This crit was lots of fun. The 3/4 pack was strong and relatively well behaved in the corners. The fast corner (turn 2, after slight downhill on Fillmore) was a blast. The Union St. location was great for drawing a crowd and non-bike friends could come out to watch.

Got a decent start (from the second row), which made it possible to hang on during the furious first 15 minutes. The start of the race was hard and we shed dozens off the back of the 100-man field, including some teammates that started near the back. Then it let up a bit, which meant both that I could move up (mainly after turn 2), but also that there was a lot of swarm, particularly in the two straight sections.

I was near the front a fair amount in the middle of the race. Drilled it out of turn 2 on a prime lap to be second wheel heading into turn 4, but didn't keep the pedal down 110%. Mixed it up a bit more, but missed out at the end. As the pace surged with three to go, I was on the rivet, then got gapped when a guy cut me off in turn 3 and I touched the brakes. I just tempoed it around for the final laps. This was my first real race after 2 falls and wasn't on form. But did feel much better than the Wednesday Track Fights session a couple days before.

It's too bad that there was a terrible crash on the start/finish stretch. I nearly got caught in it, rubbing shoulders and elbows with guys on my right who were right behind it. I managed to steer into a slight opening on the left, but was still 6 feet of more or less open road on my left. The guys that got the worst of it were a bit further back, where the pack was already flush with the barricades on the left side.

Race data:
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/tny.aspx?a=sw&key=HHistskDS7crbS5NP26joi47NbpmqNRR

Photos:

• http://hcphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/5974191_EDekc/1/372846976_SAmJx/Original
• http://www.veronikalenzi.com/sftwilight091308large-3.php?imagename=IMG_9585sftwilight091308.jpg

No Giro for me

Felt physically OK on the team ride on Saturday, but was obviously still recovering from the car incident and didn't have much confidence in the race-readiness of my old backup bike.

In the hour before the Giro di San Francisco, I went along the Embarcadero to warm up. On the way back, my front tire caught and slipped on the partially-paved over railroad tracks that run along the middle of the bike path next to the Aquatic Park. Went down on my right side, spraining the right wrist and getting road rash on my right hip.

No race for me. If I'd been 100% before the race, the minor injuries wouldn't have gotten in the way. But all the mishaps added up to me not being ready to do more than go through the motions. One of the best things about being an amateur is that it's all for fun, right? No pressure to race regardless of the conditions.

Wrapping up 2008 & Winding up for 2009

At work, now's the time when we're tightening up the plans for the rest of 2008 (key season for video game retail releases and consumer advertising revenue) and setting roadmaps and budgets for 2009.

My bike season is on the same trajectory. It's time to finish executing for this year, but I'm also actively planning for 2009.

After a moderately successful 10 weeks from late June through early August (4 top 10s, one podium), things have been pretty uneven the last few weeks. That's bike racing. I have to readjust my '08 goals (met one goal already: 3 top 10s), but do think there's enough time to take advantage of decent form and nice weather to eek out some additional upgrade points.

My September plans:

• No pressure for this coming weekend (optional: Benicia crit). First priority is to get my bike fixed and my injuries healed.
  
• Looking forward to the 3/4 SF Twilight race on 9/13 (for fun and experience) and the Folsom circuit race on 9/14 (though I don't know much about the course)
• September target is the Chico weekend: flat 56mi road race on 9/20 and downtown crit on 9/21
• Mt. Tam hillclimb is another target, if only to set a time I can use as a benchmark for future years.

Outline of what the 2009 race season might look like:

• Do occasional time trials and timed hillclimb events in offseason
  
• Start road racing in mid-February
• Get on the velodrome by March (for the training sessions, assuming Tues / Wed races start later)
• Pursue a steady diet of road races, with some crits mixed in. Hit the track a few times a month.
  
• Upgrade to 3s in first half of season (by June)
• Race no more than 3 weekends per month (not the 8-weekends-in-a-row I did in June/July)
  
• Take a real one-week break after Pescadero in mid/late June. (Not the mostly-still-racing break I took this year.) Then ease back into the second half of the year.
  
• Do 2 or 3 stage races. Madera plus one or more events out of the area.
  

October will be a mixed month, with some time off and a good amount of cross-training to kick off 2009 preparation. Today I was setting up my 2009 Annual Training Plan on Training Peaks, and it helped confirm what I'd had rolling around in my head: I have to kick off the easy, learning phase of my winter weight-training program by mid-October. I really ought to start planning out an early October vacation.

Those first weeks will be about learning form and getting a good routine in place. I did a weight program in the winter of 1995 with Cal Cycling and liked how we were coached to ease into it over a few weeks. That and the focus on form and high-reps (over high weight) seemed to help stave off injuries for those who participated. First step is get a gym membership. I'm planning to go to the Presidio Y, but need to get over there and check it out. I'll need a trainer for pointers on form, particularly on the higher-risk elements that are core to cycling programs: squats and dead lifts. Ideally, I'll be doing three weight sessions a week through November (Monday, Thurs, Sat), but we'll have to see if I can get into the routine.

I'm also looking to getting out on the occasional team ride (though maybe not until November). It seems like we've all missed having regular rides while we've been focused on racing, so the group rides these last couple weekends have been refreshing--but also unpredictably paced, giving me reasons to push the pace too hard (up to me, but I follow carrots), then slowing way down to allow regrouping. So I'll probably stick to doing no more than one weekend team ride, likely Saturday. I'm planning to put in regular endurance rides (3-5 hrs) on Sunday starting in November, weather permitting.

Mishaps and Injuries

The end of my 2008 season is near. The Mt. Tam Hillclimb on 9/27 will likely be my last mass-start race in 2008.

I'd been planning to keep giving it 100% and race most weekends through August and September, but the last few weeks have been filled with mishaps and injuries. First I had some soreness left over from cramping at Winters. Then I got hit by a car on 8/21 and had to skip San Ardo. Today I fell while warming up for the Giro di SF and skipped it. Today's fall was a shock to the body more than anything. The soreness in the right wrist probably won't be anything like the sprain I had in the left wrist from the car incident. I'm hoping to be training normally on Wednesday.

My bikes' have been through just as much. The Scott CR-1 didn't look too bad, but the shop recommendation was to avoid racing a carbon frame after a serious crash. Good news: Got repair money (full quote from shop) from the driver's insurance. Bad news: Can't get ahold of a Scott replacement frame until November. I might get a different frame, but haven't decided on what to get.

My alternate bike, a 1994 Waterford w/ Campy Chorus, has been more or less mothballed since I last needed it when my Scott got overhauled in the Spring. It really wasn't race ready today for the Giro, skipping a bit in some gear combinations and some wobbles in the wheels that got me to open up the brakes a fair bit, especially the rear. Chris at RMC let borrow a BH G4 demo bike this weekend (it was on my list of frame replacement options) but I wasn't going to race a borrowed bike in a crit. Well, the fall threw it a bit more out of whack, particularly the front wheel. Bike worries were probably the most unshakable reason I skipped the race today. I thought it was a good idea to let my body heal, but could have convinced myself to race if the bike had been OK.

First step: fix the Waterford. I'd already had an appointment scheduled at the shop for tomorrow morning (no time was open last week). They'll move over the Ultegra 10 triple components from the Scott, so I'll have a new drivetrain and will be able to use my regular Shimano Powertap wheelset, which is also being fixed (front wheel needs a rebuilt after car crash, rear needs a good true). A modern drivetrain and good wheelset will fix most of my issues with the Waterford and take the pressure off getting a new carbon frame right away. I'll also be able to get power data again, which I've been missing.

Next: Decide on a new frame and order new components. For the components, I'm looking at a mix of SRAM Red and Force (all Red, except for ceramic BB and Powerdome cassette, which seem pointlessly expensive relative to Force). From the early online reports, I was enthusiastic about the 2009 Dura-Ace but it's ridiculously expensive (2x Red for crank and 50% more for shifters). Apart from the frame and drivetrain, I'll salvage parts from the Scott. Only the bar, frame, and front wheel was rendered unusable. Other stuff was scuffed, but can be used.

I'm also on the lookout for end-of-season deals on 2007/2008 complete bikes, given how the retail cost of a frame and components seems to pretty much equal the retail cost of a complete bike from a given manufacturer. For example, I paid $2800 for my CR-1 Pro in 2005 (and in 2008, it was still selling for around that), but the retail frame cost is $2000. Bare frames hit a different consumer segment than complete bikes with mid-range components, I guess.

In any case, the various mishaps aren't all that serious and prior to August, I'd been pretty lucky, so there's no complaining.

Winters RR - 8/16

9/1 note: Had most of this written the other week after results were posted. Caught up on it today as a part of a lazy crash-recovery afternoon. Also set up a bike blog:
http://velocirambling.blogspot.com/



Winters RR - 8/16

Winters was quite the disappointment. Felt good and had high hopes for the podium, but cramped on the final descent.

In a nutshell:
- Didn't get my number until 5 minutes before the start. First race I waitlisted for and there was plenty of room, but VeloPromo didn't release the waitlist until the last minute.

- Only Mouse in the 4s race, so I sucked wheel midpack as much as I could for the first couple hours. Enjoyed the super-slow, very chatty first half of lap 1.

- Didn't take a bottle on lap 1 through the feedzone. Probably could have used the plain water, since I never down the sports drink that quickly early on, especially when it's cool.

- Didn't think the climb was a big deal on lap 1, though I was watching surges and trying near the front. Started marking guys who were setting tempo on the hills.

- Felt great on the climb on lap 2, sitting around 5th at the top with a leading group of 12 or so. Good power 3 minute power hill, like Stage Road @ Pescadero or Legion of Honor on the N side... good profile for me. Thought the group might keep the pace up and make the selection stick, but guys sat up right after the hard-right corner at the bottom and a couple attacks didn't really animate things.

- Had a scary moment on the slight downhill after we all regrouped and guys were moving from the back to the front. Guy came along fast and silent on my right when there was only a couple feet of room from the cliff. I shifted over slightly, moving over with the pack and suddenly we're rubbing elbows and leaning on each other for 10-20s until we get our balance and disengage.

- Thought the slowness of the flats on laps 2 and 3 was silly. Did nothing on lap 2. Played around too much on lap 3, following and countering attacks and setting tempo at the front. Dumb waste of energy.

- Only took one bottle in the feed on lap 2. Big mistake! Was thirsty on lap 3, though I had a bit of sports drink left. Missed neutral feed and called out to Katy and Nole. Very grateful for the bottle, but no time to drink until after the climb.

- Felt decent in the rollers to the feedzone on lap 3, but knew I was tiring and hoped others were too. Worked to get good position on rollers after the feedzone, but didn't have the power when the going got steep. Drifted back a bit, but ran out of room quickly. Only 6-7 stayed together on the climb, with 4-5 gapped by small amounts. I hit the top around 12th.

- Near the top, I was conscious of pushing over the crest and being efficient in getting back up to speed. Barreled down the descent and took some risks going on the inside of the U-turn around the Women's groups we were running into. Tucked and was really pushing downhill when it straightened out heading into the hard-right.

- With a chase group in view just ahead, I cramped in my calves and behind the left knee. I tried to push on through, seeing that the safety of a group was just ahead by a few seconds, but had to ease up.

- Sat up, caught a chase group (best finisher: 12th) and sat in for a while. Felt better, took a pull, cramped some more. Sat up, caught another chase group, sat in, felt better, took a pull, cramped. Sat up.

- I was tooling along real slow thinking that everyone must have passed me by this point. Recreational rider (no number) came along and passed me. But when I caught the next chase group, I'd had enough. I just wanted to get home, so no working for me, just wheelsucking. It was only 3 mi or so anyway.

- Then the finish came along. I knew it well after studying it closely on the first two laps. Surprisingly, I found myself alert and primed to sprint. Watched for a move. Followed a super-weak attack at 1km. Waited. Passed 200m. Jumped at around 150m and spun it up. Looked under my arm at 50m and saw a huge gap. Best moment in the race, if only for the endorphins.

- Basically rode straight back to the start, looking for water. No such luck. Found a convenience store and bought a gallon. Great stuff.


Result: 20th (of ~42 starters).

Data: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/tny.aspx?a=sw&key=HHistskDS7cF%2FDN6%2BLym2lx6RPecNtJ2

Tuesday Track Points Racing 8/12

Teammates: Mateo in Bs. Liam and Cathy in Cs. 

Not the best way to start the night: I forgot my bike shoes in my car when we switched to carpooling down in Cathy's. I borrowed some old-style caged pedals and rode with my street shoes. The position was off and I couldn't apply power all the way around, but at least I was riding rather than watching. 

Good sized crowd. More than 20 Bs for the first race. I quickly figured out that I wasn't comfortable revving it way up for the sprints or even for the surges. I was basically a non-factor until I went with Tim Bisson in a break after sprint 3. We were off the front for 5 laps working well together and had a 30-50m gap before the bell, but that's not that much when the pack sprints in the final 200m. We got caught in the final 50m. Tim had surged and held on for 2nd or 3rd, while I narrowly lost out for 5th. 

Second race was twice as long. There weren't many As, so Larry told us before our first race that we might want to save something because he was going to put us in an 84 lap combined race (14 sprints) . The As raced twice in a row, which may have dulled the edge slightly. The race was fast for the full 40 minutes (but slower than our first Bs race on average: 26.5mph vs. 27.5mph). 

Since I figured I could hang with the tempo but not the sprints, my plan was to mark the As and hang on to strong wheels, staying with the leaders but not surging more than I had to unless I thought I had a chance at better than 5th in a sprint. I picked up a third early on by going with a move at the bell and was on the lookout throughout the race for other early moves where gaps and other factors conspired to give me a chance. Had a couple near misses. Learned a fair bit watching how the As grabbed wheels and made their attacks. 

The race splintered pretty quickly (from 26 starters). Plenty of guys pulled out, but other who'd got dropped stayed in, making it hard to tell who was lapped. It seemed to me that maybe only 10 or so were even on laps, and another handful was down a lap. After sitting in a lot early on, I started working here and there during attacks in the 3-to-go and 2-to-go laps for the last 5-6 sprints, trying to help get gaps to stick. I made a solo move with 500m on one prime, since time seemed to be running out. I got a good gap but was caught in the last 50m. Was happy to grab back on with the leaders after that effort and sit in for the rest. 

Great training and a good learning experience. 


Data: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/tny.aspx?a=sw&key=HHistskDS7enQ0tvMu46Q5T2hkAdjqKo

Carrera de San Rafael and Esparto TT

Carrera de San Rafael (downtown criterium 8/9, 4:20pm)


Course: 0.55mi 4-corner loop that was slightly different than last year (shifted one block west). The start/finish stretch was a long incline of varying gradient (probably 1-3%), with the incline continuing past turn 1 onto the short  and cresting shortly after turn 2. So nearly 2/3s of the course was uphill. In 40 minutes, we did 30 laps. 25 mph average. 80 starters

Full data: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/tny.aspx?a=sw&key=HHistskDS7d3woNEakogS30St5ARUiYu

Teammates: Jake and Jeff. 


Fast race on a fun, safe course. The women raced ahead of us said it was hard and tough to find time to recover. That sounded like a good thing, since I've been doing better in the crits that get strung out. Got an OK start from the second row to get into the first third of the 80-strong field. The pace was blistering from the second lap through the first 15 minutes or so. As strung out as we were, I couldn't really see the front, but it sounds like there were a couple breaks off the front, keeping the pack motivated. 

For that first 15 minutes, I really couldn't believe how hard we were going and was wondering if I was having a bad day, since I wasn't moving up at all. Even though I was feeling fresh, I certainly wasn't having a good day, in large part since I'd eaten a bit too much (big bowl of granola) after my easy noon ride. I chalk it up to not being used to racing in the afternoon. As hard as it was, I could feel the pack splintering behind me and was attentive to get around riders getting gapped. I figured the pace couldn't stay that high for long. 

But it did stay fast. In the middle of the race, whenever the pack started slowing down a bit at the top of the main incline, guys would move up around the outside, lifting the pace. Halfway through, I got in a good rhythm of moving up here and found better lines so I stopped touching my brakes into turns 3 and 4. With no brakes, those turns were fun. And heading out of turn 4 with max speed, the start of the climb was a lot easier. For a few laps, I got in the top 10, but mostly I was around 20 back. I felt like I was trading a little position for recovery on the backstretch, where it was also possible to move up, but a bit more work given the high speeds. When I did move up here, it was mostly to go around the outside of guys who were hitting the brakes. The outside line wasn't faster, but it felt safer. (But best was the line when I was in 10th wheel and we were single file.)

With 6 to go, the field had really thinned out. I had pretty good position and was starting to think of the finale. Jake came up with around 4 to go and we exchanged words. Then the next time around, I got caught in a big rut near the gutter on the outside entering turn 3, trying to pass a guy. Wobbled a bit and lost a few places and a lot of speed. Shortly after that, on the next climb, a guy three bikes up let a gap open and it got pretty big by the time I noticed. Jake and I went around and he worked to try to bridge us up, but it was the last 2 laps and the pace surged up. He did a great job just keeping us even. I didn't have enough to come around. Still we had some fun sprinting out the end. It was tougher than I expected to make up places on the hill and I didn't quite come around the guy between Jake and I, losing that personal battle by less than a half a wheel. 

After the line, I was wasted and had that maxed-out-and-ready-to-puke feeling. I haven't felt that wasted after a race since Cat's Hill. The power data showed this as about as hard as Napa (where I was at and off the front, not just trying to hold on), but not as hard as Cat's Hill (where I was off the back). But the heart rate monitor was off the chart, showing me spending 38 minutes in zone 5, 23m in VO2max range (5bpm above LT). I don't quite believe that (and wasn't breathing that hard except in a few places), so my LT rate may have moved up a couple beats, as I haven't had a reliable field test for a little while. 

Talking to the leaders after the race (Joakim from Kovarus who got 2nd, Sam Wilson, Maurice), most agreed it was real hard. Glad it wasn't just me. Scott Penzarella won again (he bagged Timpani last Sunday). 


Result: 27th. Jake got 25th. (of 80)




Esparto Individual Time Trial (8/10; 30min north of Davis, 8:51 start time)


Course: 18.4 mile dog leg. The start was into the wind (and no start ramp) for a couple miles, then a 90-degree right turn with a cross wind, over an overpass, gently curving right to get a slight cross-tailwind, then sharp rollers into the 180-turnaround and back into the cross-headwind. We hit the finish before turning back towards the start, so never got a full tailwind.

Results: http://www.flickr.com/photos/swoo/2751403434/sizes/l/in/set-72157606653839110/

Full data: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/tny.aspx?a=sw&key=HHistskDS7eJmeaKCN%2FJK5pnnDSx70a5


I've been looking forward to this individual time trial quite a bit. Not only is a ITT a nice change of pace, but it's a good fitness test, comparable from year-to-year and across categories. A flat time trial is certainly different from a hillclimb like I did at Mt. Diablo, using different muscles and really rewarding a good aero position and equipment. Since the regional stage races all seem to have flat to rolling ITTs as a deciding factor, I figure now's a good time to start learning the aero position and the pacing strategies I'd need to do well. If I learned one thing today, it's that time trialing really is it's own discipline and there's a lot to learn. 

No Mice were up for going out to Esparto (not that I could blame them, since I had to skip out of the San Rafael party early to get some sleep), I drove out with Tim Fehon (Aussie Cat 4, unattached). The general event start was scheduled for 8am, but Cat 4s started after 8:40, so we got there a bit early, which was OK. Plenty of time for a warm up to work out the kinks from the previous day. The legs were feeling a bit stiff, but not tired, a tribute to getting an afterrace massage from Paul at San Rafael and having taken the week easy, except for Tuesday track racing. 

I got a nasty start, crunching and skipping my gear (either a 53x21 or 53x19, can't remember) and hitting my right knee on the bar before getting going. Then I sprinted up to speed pretty quick and eased back off into what I thought my sustainable power range would be. I'd planned to do negative splits, doing 270-280W early on and finishing 290-300W. I was expecting to turn in lower power numbers than Mt. Diablo, as it's somehow easier to put out big power on the hills.

My splits show that it didn't go to plan:

1/3 split; 6mi: 
15m 22
290W norm power
161bpm
23.4 mph avg

2/3 split; 6mi:
15m 28
273W norm power
163bpm
23.3 mph avg

3/3 split; 6.4mi:
17m 03 (16:00 for 6mi)
261W norm power
164bpm
22.7 mph avg

I got passed by the starters one behind me, plus another guy who probably started further back. The first (Jared Prince, who won Cat 4s) around 5mi in, the second just before the turnaround (at 10.5mi). I passed two guys, but took little consolation, since they were really slow and one of them didn't even have clip-on bars. I used both guys passing me as carrots for a while, but Jared Prince was really hauling, requiring me to do 310-320W or so to keep up. I didn't do that long for fear of blowing up. The second guy didn't come by that much faster. It seemed like I was gaining ground on him up the rollers, then losing it on the downhills. 

In general, I think I lost a lot of speed on the downhill sections by not getting up to speed quickly enough and not continuing to push as much power. I found it harder to keep applying power on the downhill, even when I was consciously trying. A lot of the problem was that the legs weren't there in the second half. Since I was on my road bike and clip-on bars (with the stem dropped a bit), the position wasn't the extreme aero tuck that I saw on the fast guys, but it was still different enough to use the muscles a bit differently than usual. I felt I was being pretty conservative even early on, and it never felt that hard, but I was definitely getting tired by mile 12. My right hip got pretty tight, not quite threatening to cramp. Need more training. 

After the ride, I was surprised to see the slow 3rd split since at the time I thought I was going pretty hard. At least I did pick the pace up for the last mile, averaging 25mph and 280W. 

Tim put a solid ride in, beating me by 43 seconds for 5th. He had a real aero tuck on his TT-specific bike. He's done a few ITTs in his time, including one a couple weeks ago at the Cascade stage race. 

The group consensus after was that the wind was a factor, keeping times down a bit from last year. A good TT bike (for better position) and wheels (for real aero savings) could save minutes in that wind.


Results: 8th (good for a few BAR points). Learned something about ITT efforts. Convinced myself to do a few more ITTs before shopping for a cool-looking (and pricey) TT bike of my own. 

Tuesday Night Points Racing 8/5

Lots of Mice at the track last night: Mateo, Jake, Jeff, Frederico, Ashley, and Cathy. It was a good-sized turnout in general, with a large Bs field (21 starters for first race and 19 for the second), somewhat smaller Cs field, and a fairly small As field. 

Bs format: 36 laps, sprints every six (for both races).


This was my third Tuesday out and I wanted to take the racing more seriously and put together some of the lessons from previous weeks. Namely, I didn't want to do max efforts for the first two sprints (that gassed me last time out) and I wanted to do a better job of marking the real threats. For the latter, I looked at the sign-in sheet to see if there were any names I recognized from recently winning on Tuesdays. Mostly not. 

We had 5 Mice in the Bs, so actually circled up and did a bit of planning. Tim Felon and Scott Davis were out as well and we included Tim in the general plan, which was to attack into or after the second sprint, with the goal of getting a break going with Jake and/or me. Tim and Mateo were going to make the pace hard to set that up. 

The pace was really slow to start, but Tim got to the front and ramped it up with about two laps to go, to make it safe. We had a train of Mice at the front and just pulled through. With 150m, I was sitting fourth without jumping and consciously decided not to make the effort and a few came by. In the end, I probably could have used that point. A Metromint guy (don't recall name but cat 3 on road) attacked a ways out for the second sprint and held it. I went at 200m and got second. 

After #2, the hammer was down and moves were happening, but out of the 21 starters, there were enough strong guys that everything got caught back within a half lap. I was out of position for sprint 3 (think I got 6th). Somewhere in here, one of the Webcor guys (who ended up going 1-2) pulled for a lap or two pulling back a guy off the front--I was impressed and digging a bit just trying to hold his wheel. Sprint 4 was my biggest effort of the night. I was sitting third wheel at the bell, on a Webcor wheel. Tim was pulling us around. I jumped just before the 200m, but didn't come around Webcor guy fast enough to shut the door and he started going as well, pushing me high. We were side by side to the finish and he took it by half a bike. 

A lap or so of recovery and regrouping, then a big attack. I saw Mateo there and told him now's the time to shut it down. I got on his wheel and Mateo drilled it. Really drilled it. A bit too hard for me and he started pulling away after 50m. Here's where I should have shouted "steady" (Larry said after that teamwork is about constant feedback), but instead I kept my pace, he kept hammering without me for a half lap, and we wore ourselves out for no good reason. It would have been a great setup for a counter otherwise. I wasn't feeling so hot at this point, and just tried to reintegrate. Didn't have it and missed the bunch. Sat up and rolled off the track rather than using energy for a chase. 

Results: I got 6 points for 5th. 4th got 7 points, so a fourth place in the first sprint might have been worth the effort. Jake pulled a strong 3rd, behind the two Webcor guys. Good night for him... His attacks were really explosive.


The Webcors did the As race, so that definitely changed things a bit for our second race. The pre-race chat was that breaks weren't going to stick with the big strong field, so we'd be smarter about going for individual sprints and marking threats, like the Metromint guy. This race was generally a bit more steady, but there was a attack into sprint 1 that got the pace pretty high and it was sustained for a while. There were moments when I felt like I was spinning out just holding a wheel, but I wasn't doing much work, just following wheels. I took some wind to maintain position when the paceline got really long and I didn't want to go back more than 6 wheels or so after coming off the front. That ended up being worth it, if I recall, as it positioned me to catch a move coming up high. I picked up a 4th in sprint 2, then 2nd in sprint 3. 

Then a great opportunity landed in my lap. I was sitting 4th or 5th wheel heading into 2 to go before sprint 4 and when the guy on the front drifted up track, the other guys followed, then started to fan out. Tim was making a move high on the track and shouted at them. In the confusion, I dove down the track and drilled it to get a big gap. Held it for a lap and a half to win 5 points. Grabbed onto the nearest chase group, since the pack splintered a bit, and recovered, sitting out the next sprint. A guy was attacked with 2 to go for the final sprint and had a big gap. Scott Davis (often races 4s on the road w/ Tim and us) went shortly after. I was marking Metromint and let him chase a bit, then waited for the bell to attack and was making up a lot of ground on Scott. Was sure I was going to catch him, but Scott kicked at the end to hold it by a few lengths. So 3rd in the final. 

Results: 11 points for 1st. 


The second As race was super small, just 6. After a few laps Larry called out to those in the warming circle to jump in. Metromint and I got back on the track. I sat in for a bit and mixed in two sprints, for 3rd and 4th (no biggie, since in this race seemed like only two guys would really work for any given sprint, going for the big points). But my calf cramped up in the middle of the second effort, so rolled off the track. 

Then cupcakes and celebration for Cathy's birthday and we were off. 



In case it's interesting, here's a link to my speed/HR data shared on TrainingPeaks: 
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/tny.aspx?a=sw&key=HHistskDS7dKjxz76gEyjeixYjz2xZPG

I haven't bothered to install the Garmin cadence or speed sensor on my track bike, so the speed numbers are pretty jaggy. Need to get some zip ties. 

Fort Ord Road Race (District Championships)

Course: Six laps around a 10-mile loop (in 2h 58m, 20.7mph avg) in Fort Ord, just north of Monterey. One notable climb (250ft gain in 0.56mi, average time to climb ~3m 15s). Plenty of rollers, some of them with short steep sections. Two turnaround points meant it was possible to see riders off the front and back and gauge time gaps. Finish is somewhat uphill for the last 100m, but with a flat lead-in.

Teammates: Ryan, Isaias, and Jake.

Results: http://www.flickr.com/photos/swoo/2726035111/in/set-72157606506018838/



I took it very easy this week to recover from a 5 hour ride up to Pt. Reyes Station last Sunday and to start the August road race season fresh. Very easy: two one-hour moderate (zone 1 & 2) rides and three days of easy commuting (30min each way). Crazy week at work left me pretty tired anyhow. I had no idea how the legs would feel Saturday morning, but felt pretty good spinning around in warmup.

It was a small field: 28 starters. No one could believe how small it was afterwards, since Cat 4 races almost always field a large group. But I didn't realize how small it was until I was drifting back at the end of the first lap and saw there was no one behind me. At first I thought we'd already dropped a bunch of guys, but not that many that soon. Small pack means there's not much room to drift back, but also made for easier descents, which would have been scary with 60+ riders.

Each time up the main climb we seemed to lose a couple guys. Like I've seen in most road races this year, there was a pretty big surge at the bottom of the hill. Isaias put the hammer down and set the tempo the first couple laps. Seeing a steady 400-500W on the power meter, I didn't figure we'd maintain that pace and just held on. Sure enough, the group mellowed out in a more gradual section in the middle, about a minute up the hill. The last third of the climb tended to be somewhat above threshold pace until the top, where everyone wanted to surge over a short steep section. The climb was fast for the first lap, and was faster for the second. Then we mellowed out a bit on lap 3 and 4.

I consciously tried to conserve energy wherever I could. My goal for the day was to stay with the pack over the hills and do what I could to support Ryan and Isaias at the end of the race (of course I was also hoping it'd stay together for a sprint). By lap 3, I'd dialed in some drifting techniques for the steep rollers, trying to start at the front and carry momentum in, then sliding back a bit when the pack surged (for example, doing 400W instead of 500W during 10s surges). It may have helped over time to have skipped two or three big surges per lap, then grabbing position back later where it was easier. (Also, this isn't too different than how I've ridden crits, trying to smooth the surges out through corners or not going with non-threatening moves.) As it was, there was no doubt I was starting to feel the fatigue come in lap 4, 90 minutes in. Jake and I were chatting near the feedzone that time around, both admitting that the race was taking a toll. I remarked that everyone was probably feeling the same way. It was useful to remind myself that later in the race.

The fifth lap was decisive, but it started out oddly. After being warned by the moto referee on lap 4 that some chasers were coming up from the pro/1/2 field that started 15 minutes ahead of us, we were neutralized the 5th time through the rollers into the 180-turnaround. The moto ref paced us single-file up the right side of some steep pitches. The artificially slow pacing created a yo-yo and Tim Fehon went off the road at one point to miss hitting a wheel, cyclocrossing through some weeds and brambles before getting back in. All this made it by far our slowest average pace (20.5mph avg vs. 22 for the others, 23 for lap 6). At one point here, I did finally hit the front and did tempo for a bit, probably the first time I was in the wind.

There was an extra bit of jostling for position on the downhill before the climb. When we turned left into the climb, it went ballistic almost immediately. I was mid-pack at the corner and knew I had some ground to make up. I closed a gap to get a wheel or two back from Isaias, then saw Ryan attack. Six guys followed him. Ryan's group went up the climb significantly faster than the second group of about 8, probably getting 10 or 15 seconds by the top (not hard to believe, since my time for the hill was 6 seconds slower than lap 2). And we shed a few here, including Jake (who then rolled it back to the car, since he'd wanted to save his legs for the Timpani crit). I was getting close to the redline near the top, but stuck with the group.

The chase was on. But why chase with Ryan up in the breakaway group? I shouted at Isaias to get off the front, since Ryan was away, then we chatted and agreed to do some subtle blocking. As the group pacelined in the mild rollers into the finish, I let some gaps open up a couple times, forcing guys behind to work a bit to close. Tim and another guy rightly called me on it.

But shortly before passing through the finish line, we saw Ryan up ahead detached from the break (he said later that he cramped up). No good. Just like that Isaias and I switched from not working in the paceline to driving the pace. The chase was working well enough for a while, but here and there guys would attack solo rather than work with the group (specifically: Pacific Bank guy). Pretty ridiculous, given the gap and the rolling terrain. But then again, I had a hard time figuring out the gap and the group wasn't talking enough to share information and stay organized and motivated. After chasing hard for the better part of 10 minutes, we hit the open out and back section to the 180-degree turnaround. We could see a few groups coming the other way. Two were from the pro/1/2 and one was our guys. But it happened fast enough that I wasn't real clear where they were or what the gap was. We kept hammering, but basically the chase was over. But in the meantime, the pace seemed to thin out our group a bit.

Things got majorly confusing when hit the climb. The moto pulled up and told us to stay right, then the front of main pro/1/2 field started to pass us on the left. It wasn't clear to me whether we were being neutralized like before, but I should have realized we weren't because the moto didn't stay in front to set the pace. At this point one guy ("the peddler" jersey) started to pull away on the climb. I was right behind him and in my head I used the "stay right" excuse to stick with a slower pace, so long as no 4s passed me. My tired legs were happy to comply. I was surprised for a while that no 4s were passing, and started watching the pro/1/2 field closely to see if any of our guys were sneaking in there. But I did have company: Isaias, a Davis jersey, attack-the-chase Pacific Bank guy, and an older guy in Cal Giant kit.

Heading towards the finish, it took us a little while to regroup and I pulled us right up to a three-man pro/1/2 splinter group to be sure they weren't 4s. It dawned on me that our little group was in contention and only a couple miles from the finish. I was happy to keep up a hard tempo pace for fear of any 4s catch back up with us, and we didn't play cat and mouse. Then 1 kilometer sign popped up, and Isaias attacked shortly after (~700m). I was right behind him and followed his wheel (like an idiot, I didn't force someone else to chase). After a good surge, he eased up and pulled off. Here I was on the front, barely doing easy tempo. It was flat but the pavement was rough, with a few huge potholes. I saw the 200m cone up ahead, but couldn't see the judges' tent at the finish yet. I thought I could get a jump on anyone who would wait to see the finish and attacked at 350m. I moved to the left side, to cut the corner and found a smooth bit of pavement (also dodged around yet another pro/1/2 straggler...). I could feel that I had a gap, sat down and tried to spin it out. When I hit the incline, I didn't have much left. I heard the Davis guy coming around in the last 50m and couldn't do much about it. But still stood up and gave what I had left. Pacific Bank guy rolled in a bit behind me, then Isaias.

I started asking how I did, since I wasn't sure how many stayed away. Bergen said top 10. Rolled back to the judges and was told 9th. Made my day.


Result: 9th. Isaias got 11th.

It's my first top 10 in a USCF road race. One of my goals for the year was to top 10 in a hilly road race. I think this qualifies. No upgrade points since the pack was small, but that's fine.







Timpani Crit (9:15am today in Santa Clara)

Course: 4 corner 1-mile course. Flat and fairly wide. Headwind on the backstretch.

Teammates: Jake and Jeff. (no Seth since he upgraded to 3s...)


Wasn't sure what my legs would be like after the Fort Ord road race. Felt better than I expected during warmup, but with less snap than normal.

Missed the start! Was doing last minute errands and it was a ways from the parking lot to the start line. I was about 200m from the start when the whistle blew. Fortunately, they were coming towards me, so I looped around and jumped on after motioning to the official to check if it was OK. Pretty big field (maybe ~70, but not sure), but there were immediately gaps at the back, so I threaded up through the juniors and random unattached riders.

I hung out midpack for most of the race. Moved up a couple times, but the wide course meant it was hard to keep position. The front guys would sit up after working for a lap, then the guys in the back would move around the outside (left), creating sort of a big back to front rotation. The time passed quickly, and I was a bit surprised to see the lap cards show 2 to go. Since all the attacks were on the outside side, it took some effort to see across 6-8 guys to spot the lap cards.

It was super low effort to sit in on this course, so I told myself I had plenty of gas in the tank to use. I saw Jeff in front of me with 1.5 laps left and shouted that we needed to move up. Jake was in front of us, but on the inside. I moved on the outside between turn 2 and the start/finish line, but didn't find a good wheel, so was out in the wind. I was hanging out there a few wheels back with the pack 4 across, with the Third Pillar, Squadra, and Webcor teams driving the pace on the right.

I hit turn 1 around 8th or 10th wheel, happy with the relative position, but still having to work to get a wheel. I got swarmed a bit on the back-stretch, where we were 4-across again. Then bang, the crash happened. Shouting, then handlebars hit my right thigh pretty hard and bounced off. Then sounds of carnage. I rode it out but was momentarily rattled and lost some position.

Out of turn 3, the guy in front of me put in a good jump and I didn't go with it. Mistake. Hit turn 4 in 25th or so. Lots of traffic to sprint around and a 10m gap to the leaders. Half-sprinted, just enough to pass a couple guys.


Result: 22nd and happy to have avoided the crash.

Jeff wasn't as lucky. He was just a little behind me, so the crash happened right in front of him. He got out pretty lightly, with just a bit of road rash and some holes in his team kit. I heard Maurice Monge (SJBC) was in the crash and got cut up. Not sure how badly.

Apparently the crash happened when a guy got a flat and raised his hand, then the guy to his right swerved and hit him hard when he only had one hand hanging on. Immediate pile-up. We didn't see anything on the post-race lap, since they waved us off. So it took a bit of hanging out near reg to get news of what happened and who was involved.