Mt Diablo Hillclimb 6/22

Course: 10k / 6.2mi up north side of Mt. Diablo to ranger station. 1740ft of elevation gain. First 1.5mi is rollers, then the real climb starts. 
Results: http://www.c4racing.org/www/hillclimb/diablo8.html#Elite%20cat.4
Mice in attendance: Paul Page Hanson + me

I wanted to get out and do the hillclimb as a test of my fitness and as practice for time trialing in general. Though I was thinking of doing the Dunlap TT a few weeks ago and did a team TT years ago, I've never done much time trial practice and have had a historically poor assessment of my ability to go truly hard in long solo efforts. So it's something for me to work on. Bonus: The power-based regime I'm following needs uses TTs as periodic tests to update the LT number for training zones. Been neglecting that, so putting this on the schedule made it unavoidable. 

Last Sunday, I came over and pre-rode the climb with Mateo. I did it twice and came in at around 35 minutes in the second time up doing moderately hard tempo. I was hoping that with race motivation and fresher legs (the day after a crit rather than the day after Pescadero), I could come in at 30 minutes or less. I'd read up a bit on TT pacing and planned to do negative splits, dividing the course into thirds and going progressively harder. 


I started with the first wave, just after 8am. A TT newbie, I was pleased to see they had a starting ramp and a holder/pusher, so it was easy to get a clean start. I sprinted out of the gate and got rolling at a pretty good clip on the rollers, not wanting to lose time from the get-go. But I did consciously ease off on some of the rollers so as not to overcook it too early. Once on the climb, I found a comfortable high-cadence pace for the steady parts of the climb (6-7%) and powered up steep sections (up to 15% they said, probably in corners). 

When a guy caught me 9 minutes into the race, I was impressed. He started some 2 minutes behind me and was really hauling, easily winning the 4s and earning 7th overall with 25:45. I also got caught right near the top by the guy who started 30 seconds behind him. I caught my minute man around two-thirds of the way up. 

I didn't really succeed in pushing the pace harder in the last third, power-wise. I didn't feel like I had the legs to match the lungs. I was pretty surprised that my average heartrate today was 6bpm lower than yesterday's 37 minute crit--but probably because I didn't really get it up that quickly in the first 10 min. Apples and oranges, I guess. It seems like learning to suffer smart is what time trialing is all about. Afterwards, Paul was talking about over-and-under-LT time trial pacing, alternating between going a few beats above LT for brief bits, then recovering just below threshold.


Times: 
Sam: 30:34 (12th in E4 category)
Paul: 29:22 (11th in Open 45+ category)


Power Test: 307 watts average for 30 minutes (4.2W / kg). Without doing a TT effort, I haven't seen this sort of sustained number, but I was expecting right around 300 based on shorter efforts.


Afterwards, to take advantage of being out in the East Bay and to fill the time until Paul would be done (his group left after 11am), I went for a 40 mile ride through the hills north of Walnut Creek. A beautiful loop: Reliez Valley Road to Bear Creek Rd, then back through Orinda. Reliez Valley road was exceptional, with smooth pavement, welcome shade from all the trees, and steady rollers. And I wanted to try the 3 bears, since it's been a while and I didn't get to any of the Berkeley Hills RR recon rides. East of the Berkeley Hills is truly a great area for riding.

Napa Downtown Crit Race Report - 6/21

Category 4 - scheduled for 40 minutes (actually 37). 24.1mph average.
E4 Mice in attendance: Jeff, Seth, Jake, and I.


Rain aside, the Golden State crit a few weeks back convinced me that technical criterium courses are a good thing so long as you stay at the front. So I've been looking forward to the Napa and Burlingame courses. 

Still, it was a surprise to see how short the course was, a little under a half a mile (~700m). At speed, this made for one-minute laps and a lot of that time was spent turning, with four 90s plus a "crazy P turn" (a 90 immediately followed by a 130 hairpin, around a traffic island and through a yield/merging lane). It also made for an exciting race to watch. This is one of the few races Stacey has come along for, and she enjoyed the combination of having a good local cafe on the corner and the easy spectating. 

Starting first had the advantage of letting us warm up on the course. Race promoters were still patching pot holes and until a few minutes before the race, and we started a bit late. My plan was to line up early so I'd start the race at the front, so I hung out near the start. Everyone wanted good position, and as soon as two guys lined up, the pack formed up pretty quick. Got my spot and worked to keep it when we had to do a surprise "look see" neutral lap, which seemed intended to cover up the race delay as much as anything. Then more sitting. The whistle came out of nowhere 5 minutes later.

The pace was fast from the start and we were all strung out in single file for most of the race. At the front there were a few times when it bunched up, mostly when it wasn't clear who was going to set the pace. And the 90-degree corners in the first half of the course were plenty wide enough to go through two-across. Still, the group at the front was pretty unchanged throughout the race... guys at the front were generally familiar faces and it was a handful animating the race. Jeff was up right at the front at the start, 5th wheel or so. After I moved up right to the front after a few laps, I lost sight of him. Until I saw Seth on the last lap, that was the last I saw of the other RMC guys, and there wasn't much occasion to look around. 

My plan of staying at the front worked pretty well. No matter where you were, the P-turn required slowing down to 15mph or less, then jumping out of the turn with a moderate-to-hard sprint. That's where gaps were opening up, making the race harder the further back you were. When I lost position, I looked for easy ways to get it back. The wide 90s were one place to get a place or two per lap (pedaling through the outside) and when I needed to move up big, I found I could sometimes use my jump out of the P-turn to carry enough speed to move up on the sides of the straightaway. When guys in front of me were slowing down, I either moved up or went off the front. 

It seemed like I was at or off the front a handful of times, but only three moves were meaningful. The first was my attempt to bridge up to a 4-man breakaway that formed in the middle of the race and got close to 10-15 seconds on the field. I made it 90% across in 1.5 laps before hitting the redline and easing up. Definitely burned a match or two there, and for nothing since the group got caught within 5 more laps. Got back in the pack near the front and spent some time actively trying to recover. 

Then I went for the second prime, almost without intending to. I was sitting around 5th wheel when the bell rang and Tim Fehon (Aussie in St. George kit) pushed the pace at the front. Tim was slowing up a bit, so I attacked just before the 4th 90, taking the outside line. Got a good gap by the P turn and was clear for the prime win. Prize: A bottle of Napa wine. 

A couple laps later, with around 2 to go a guy made a hard attack (red jersey, I think, but didn't see team). A guy in blue followed and I worked hard to get on his wheel. I was thinking that any big move this late in the race could be dangerous and I didn't want to let them go. I didn't quite make the bridge, and I don't think the second guy did either--he got caught a half lap later. But while I found my way back into the pack, I didn't see if the first guy got caught. We didn't realize until after the race and a few of us contested the results that he'd gotten a serious gap and stayed away. 

I saw Seth for the first time when he moved up in our two-wide bunch at the bell. I'd lost some position and snap in the last move, but was lying 8 or 10 back. Tim was at the front of the pack and slid out while led us through the P-turn, which surprised me given how solid he is in the corners. Part of it might have been the extra speed and jitters for the last lap. We'd seen several crashes in that corner in the last 10 laps, but this one really caused some confusion as we ended up way overgeared coming out. It felt as a slug fest as we were trying to get on top of our gears, then shifting up for the final 50m dash. It looks like the places mostly stayed the same from the corner to the finish. 


Results: Finished 10th. Seth got 5th. Jake was mid-20s. Jeff said he was pulled with 8 to go after slipping to the back and getting gapped. 


Yay, my first top 10 and first prime win of 2008! Happy to finally do something worth noting this year. But I was kicking myself afterwards about having been quite so aggressive. Confident in my form after peaking for Pescadero, I came in hoping for a top placing and was motivated to win. I ended up using a bunch of energy in moments when I felt those chances threatened.


The E4 race was quite the crash fest, with most crashes in the P turn and all just one-man-down. Over the course of the race, I probably had to go around 5 guys on the ground. The most concerning crash was the highest speed... not in the P turn but in the 4th 90. Sometime in the first half, I was second wheel with a little gap on the pack and the guy in front hit his pedal hard and went down. I avoided it on the outside. 


Post-race lunch: We had the best Mexican since our food trip to Mexico last August. The spot: Antojitos La Mixteca on Jefferson in Napa, which I picked on recommendation from Chowhound. The tacos were awesome (we tried: suadero, which was beef prepared like carnitas; pollo, prepared in a tinga; and pastor), served piping hot on fresh tortillas with a great tomatillo salsa. The chips were fresh, with a great hot red salsa. And the most interesting was the plate I ordered: chileajo de puerco, pork in a red chile sauce, a deep burgundy red and thick and complex like a mole. It was one of a number of Oaxacan specialties on the menu. 

6/18 Track Night - 1st in Cs

 

 

Results link: http://ridethetrack.com/blog/res_wed.html

 

Mice in attendance: Nole, Jeff, Justin, Mateo, Cathy, Eduardo, me.

 

 

Yesterday, was my first time racing at the track, outside of a couple beginners’ sessions. I’m expecting to start getting down to the track a couple times a month through the summer, and just put in an order in at Roaring Mouse for a Felt TK2.

 

I rode in the Cs, which were split into two groups due to the number of attendees. The C2 group included a number of juniors.

 

 

First event was the C1 12-lap points race. My plan was to contest every sprint, but particularly in the second half when other Cs might be tiring. The first sprint was bunched up and I grabbed third. Then a woman took off and got a decent gap to stay away for sprint 2. I let others work to close, then sprinted to grab second. I won the third off of a nice leadout from Justin Cotton. I stayed off the front after that sprint, as the pack slowed down even more than I did after the sprint. With 2 to go I was still off and picked the pace back up, then fully committed with 1 to go. Two guys passed me right at the end, so 3^rd there. Won the event by 2 points.

 

Next up was a 10-lap scratch race. I set tempo at the front, then covered an early move or two. After spending so much time in the wind in the points race, I’d decided to work less in the middle of this race. I covered a couple moves but generally didn’t push the tempo. I realized with a few to go that it was too slow and bunched up. I was blocked in, so worked to get free without getting tangled up in sketchy riders. Got free near the back at the rail as the bell rang and made a move to go from the back to the front up high, then past the pack and fully committed around turn 2. I probably should have accelerated harder to start out, but passed the pack fast enough that I didn’t figure they’d catch back up. I kept it spun out to the line, but got pipped right at the finish by a guy who told me later than he happened to catch my wheel when I moved from the back. Got 2^nd.

 

For the miss and out, I chatted with Nole to get some tips and was planning on trying to grab the pole until it thinned out. I didn’t get the pole but did spend the first few laps at the front, then moved to the back up high and started playing the devil (informally to start, then intentionally). Didn’t have to work much for the next few, but did have a couple that were fun, where I just turned on the gas in turn 4 while boxing lower guys in to get them out. I was playing with the timing a bit to go as late as possible while fully boxing in the guys riding the pole. The last guy eliminated told me after the race that he nearly thought he could make it through before I closed the door on him. But I have to say that I wasn’t fully comfortable with the rules of the format, and hesitated a few times, including when it was down to the final three and the bell rang. The guy who’d been in the wind pulled off and instead of following the fresh guy’s wheel, I sat back to see what would happen. Fresh guy took off, second guy caught on, then let a gap open up, and when I started my sprint with 200m to go, I couldn’t quite close the gap and come around to win. 2^nd.

 

I won the C1 omnium.

 

 

I was looking forward to trying my hand in the final A/B points race. But a nasty-looking crash in the final C2 points race put an end to racing for the evening. There was no clear explanation for the crash, but it knocked the guy cold and caused a lot of bleeding (someone said from a broken nose). The track staff kept him lying down until the ambulance arrived.

 

 

Side note: There was something in the air last night that really didn’t agree with me (or many others, it sounded like). I started coughing after the first race and was coughing all sneezing all night that I wasn’t actually riding the bike and a bit this morning. Spinning around the warmup circle seemed to help. I don’t usually have allergies, but that’s not inconceivable. I might also be coming down with something.

Pescadero Road Race 6/16

Category: E4 (47mi)


This was my third road race of the season and my first A-race for 2008. At Wente and Panoche, I got dropped in the middle of the major climbs, so my main goal here was to stay with the lead group on the climbs and be more in the mix for the final run-in for the finale. A top 20 placing was the stretch goal. 

I did the two-lap recon ride with the Mice women a couple weeks ago and was really happy to discover then that the 3-4 min stage hills and 8-10 min Haskins hill matched up nicely with the length and profile of the Legion of Honor and Headlands climbs I've been doing repeats on once or twice a week since May, trying to build up power to stay with the surges. And I was feeling quite good on race day, having tapered down my midweek volume and intensity following my peak training week two weeks ago. 


We had 75 starters head out in one of two Cat 4 groups, including Isaias, Seth, Tim, James, and me from Roaring Mouse. Ryan was in the B group, which also had 75 reg'd. The first prime sprint came as something of a surprise, and even though I wasn't planning on contesting, it's good to know where it is for future reference. Up popped the 200m sign just a couple miles after the moto sped up and released us from the initial neutralized promenade through town. We were barely cruising along doing easy tempo, so it didn't take someone more than a easy jump off the front to grab the $15 prime. The second time through someone was motivated enough to jump off the front and solo it from just after town. 

The sprint did what it was supposed to, stringing us out a bit before we hit the Stage Rd climbs. Ben had said the Stage climb gets particularly fast, so I went to the front so I wouldn't have to cross gaps as they open. The first bump didn't seem all that hard, but the descent required moving around some guys going super slow downhill, opening gaps. The second bump was much harder, I was setting pace at the front for a while, but got to redline around halfway up and started drifting back a bit. That worked fine, as we hit the top before I ran out of pack to drift through. 

I used the flat to rolling stretch on 84 to recover a bit. My legs were complaining a bit from the second climb, but felt OK by the time we got to Haskins. Isaias chase group (including Seth) coalesced after the bottom and we hammered in a rotating got on the front and set a strong tempo that strung the pack out at the foot of the climb. The pace felt pretty sustainable and I got on the front around 1/3 of the way up, but somewhere passed the halfway point there was a surge that I didn't have the legs to go with and 15 guys or so went up the road. I had a moment of disappointment thinking that I'd just lost the leaders and was out of the race, but kept trucking and hit the top at the scattered tail of one of the leading grouplets. I hammered at the crest to try to get on a wheel but basically got dropped in the top half of the descent. But a sizable paceline and saw the leaders within 5 minutes. We got caught behind a minivan that was trailing the pack, but eventually it pulled over and we were back in the mix. It got pretty slow and Seth remarked that we could have saved some energy and not worked as hard to chase. Something like 40 guys made it back in the pack by the time we got back to town and started lap 2. 

The second time through the Stage Rd climbs didn't feel nearly as hard as on lap 1 (something confirmed later when I downloaded my Powertap). But the legs were starting to get tired, and I felt my calves started threatening to cramp up (again!). On the way down the back of second Stage climb, I heard a loud pop that was later confirmed to be a blowout, which caused the one crash of our race. When we hit 84, the group had been whittled down to 25 or 30, but basically sat up. Given how my legs were feeling and that Isaias was looking strong on the climbs, I decided to get to the front and work a bit with the intention of letting any more stragglers rejoin. The group didn't really follow when I tried to gradually pull the pace up, so I went off the front. Two guys bridged up and we worked for a few minutes. I sat in on one turn for a rest and the group stopped working. But mission accomplished, when the pack caught us, the pace was higher and the group was strung out. I told Isaias to sit in and Seth and I took turns with a few other guys at the front. 

I was at the front heading around the corner and up the little hill into the feedzone, and realized on the hill that was basically it for my legs. I drifted right to the back, and worked enough to barely catch back on. After hitting the bottom of Haskins, it only took one big surge to pop me off. I didn't follow and just kept with a sustainable hard tempo pace. Ben was at the side of the road and shouted "Finish strong!" as I passed, which was great encouragement. I ended up catching and passing two guys on the way up. There was a little group of 3 guys who finished 100m ahead of me. 

Done. Whew. Coasting down hill never felt so good. Spent the easy spin back to the start chatting with Tim (the Aussie in St. George kit, a frequent track racer) and the guys who came in 1st and 2nd. Overall, this was a tremendously fun race. It helped that the sun came out and everyone was in good spirits and hanging out at the parking area. 


Results: I finished 28th. Isaias got 11th, and Seth got 22th. 


I'm satisfied with the result. It was a lot more fun being (mostly) at the head of the race. It gives me some hope for doing well in upcoming road races with hills in the middle but not at the finish. I've got to figure out the calf cramps, as that's been a limiter.