A lot of stuff has happened since my last post. I missed the Out Like a Lion Road Race and the City Park crit a week ago, and missed the races in Greenville, NC yesterday, and am now trying to get back into shape for my next race, which unfortunately is not until April 19th at the earliest.
On my last post I talked about the races in Blythewood, 2 weeks ago. During the next couple of days, I was training more intensely and was feeling good, although my cold, which never really went away, got a little worse. Then, I woke up Friday morning with a fever and feeling really congested. I was hoping that I would feel better, but I missed my race preparation ride and still had a fever Saturday. I felt a little better Saturday night, but not really ready to race.
Sunday I got a little better, but I didn't ride again until Wednesday. Having taken 6 days off, I could only hope that I could get back into shape quickly and not miss my next race. I felt pretty good on my ride Thursday, but felt bad on Friday. That and the fact that the weather in Greenville was forecasting thunderstorms and hail was enough for us to decide not to go, much to my dissapointment.
Well, today I did the Group Ride. The first half of the ride was in a rotating echolon because of the strong crosswinds. After about an hour and a half, one rider took a long pull and dropped everyone except three of us. We waited for the others, and then resumed our paceline. We got onto the longest climb of the route after 2 hours, not very steep but one of the longest climbs in the area. I had just finished my pull when a rider, the same one who had taken that long turn on the front, pulled away from the group. I was a little boxed in and was 10 bike lengths behind him when I started chasing. I caught him right before a short downhill, and pulled the next time the road went up. We traded pulls a couple of times, until I got onto the front near the crest and pulled until the road finally leveled out. 220 to 250 to 280 to 300 watts for as long as I could hold it.
After that I rode back to the bike shop, then turned around and rode home. I'll download the powermeter when I get the chance
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Blythewood Criterium
Yesterday I did the Blythewood crit, close to Columbia, South Carolina. I planned to do the 15-18 juniors race and the cat. 4's, and hoped I'd be feeling well enough to do pretty good after getting strep on Tuesday. Although I had been feeling great and my throat didn't hurt anymore, my biggest concern was if the antibiotics would affect me.
We got to the race at 8 o' clock and were greeted by cold, rainy conditions, but nonetheless a pretty good group of riders. The rain stopped a little just before the start of the 9:35 juniors race and I rode the course a couple of times.
I lined up for the race and saw that there were about 14 riders, 7 being in the 15-18 category, but no one I recognized besides my teammates. The race started, and I got to the front to go around the soaked first corner safely. My teammate, Michael Raynor, passed me, and I got into 3rd place.
Near the end of the first lap on a long strait downhill, I pulled off and my momentum carried me a little past Michael who was still at the front. One bike length became two and that became three and then four, and, not expecting my teammate to chase me down, I decided to go for it. As I crossed the finish line, I had a 5 second gap, and that became 15 the next lap.
Halfway through the 3rd lap, Michael bridged up to me. At this point I wasn't feeling very good, and was glad to have someone else break the wind for a while. We shared pulls, and the gap became bigger and bigger until we were close to lapping the next group. Having never been in a situation were one of my teammate and I were going to finish 1-2, I pulled up next to Michael and asked him if he wanted to finish hand in hand or go for the sprint, and we finished with our hands held up together.
3 hours later was the cat. 4 race, and a 25 rider strong field showed up despite the weather. The race started fast and never seemed to slow down as I was feeling weak, and I was in a bad position until half a lap to go. I had gotten into 2nd when a couple groups of riders swarmed the front. I really had to fight for positioning after that, especially around the last corner. I sprinted hard, and ended up 7th.
I was disappointed about being in a bad position, but I didn't feel that there was very much I could do. On the positive side though, my team did great, winning the 17-18, 15-16 and 10-12 races, as well as getting 3rd in the 13-14's. I also got 45 dollars!
Congratulations to my whole team for their excellent performances. Also, thanks to Micheal, who was probably riding stronger than me and helped me win the 15-16 race.
We got to the race at 8 o' clock and were greeted by cold, rainy conditions, but nonetheless a pretty good group of riders. The rain stopped a little just before the start of the 9:35 juniors race and I rode the course a couple of times.
I lined up for the race and saw that there were about 14 riders, 7 being in the 15-18 category, but no one I recognized besides my teammates. The race started, and I got to the front to go around the soaked first corner safely. My teammate, Michael Raynor, passed me, and I got into 3rd place.
Near the end of the first lap on a long strait downhill, I pulled off and my momentum carried me a little past Michael who was still at the front. One bike length became two and that became three and then four, and, not expecting my teammate to chase me down, I decided to go for it. As I crossed the finish line, I had a 5 second gap, and that became 15 the next lap.
Halfway through the 3rd lap, Michael bridged up to me. At this point I wasn't feeling very good, and was glad to have someone else break the wind for a while. We shared pulls, and the gap became bigger and bigger until we were close to lapping the next group. Having never been in a situation were one of my teammate and I were going to finish 1-2, I pulled up next to Michael and asked him if he wanted to finish hand in hand or go for the sprint, and we finished with our hands held up together.
3 hours later was the cat. 4 race, and a 25 rider strong field showed up despite the weather. The race started fast and never seemed to slow down as I was feeling weak, and I was in a bad position until half a lap to go. I had gotten into 2nd when a couple groups of riders swarmed the front. I really had to fight for positioning after that, especially around the last corner. I sprinted hard, and ended up 7th.
I was disappointed about being in a bad position, but I didn't feel that there was very much I could do. On the positive side though, my team did great, winning the 17-18, 15-16 and 10-12 races, as well as getting 3rd in the 13-14's. I also got 45 dollars!
Congratulations to my whole team for their excellent performances. Also, thanks to Micheal, who was probably riding stronger than me and helped me win the 15-16 race.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
I went to the doctors office yesterday because of a sore throat that I've had since monday. Turns out I have Strep and have to take antibiotics for 10 days, up until the day before my next big race. The good news is that I am feeling better today and don't have a fever.
Also, I downloaded my powermeter today. Here are the figures:
70 miles
3 hours 51 minutes
17.93 avg. mph
117 avg. watts
1511 KJ
Peak Power Records:
1 minute: 303 watts
5 minutes: 214 watts
10 minutes: 207 watts
30 minutes: 161 watts
6o minutes: 147 watts
120 minutes: 136 watts
Also, I downloaded my powermeter today. Here are the figures:
70 miles
3 hours 51 minutes
17.93 avg. mph
117 avg. watts
1511 KJ
Peak Power Records:
1 minute: 303 watts
5 minutes: 214 watts
10 minutes: 207 watts
30 minutes: 161 watts
6o minutes: 147 watts
120 minutes: 136 watts
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Group Ride
The last couple of days here in North Carolina have been really nice, with weather in the mid 70's and even 80's. Out riding in just a short sleeve jersey and shorts, it is hard to believe we got a couple inches of snow just a week ago. The nice weather and daylight savings time has made for great cycling, and it seems the season is really getting started.
Yesterday, I did the Group ride. I rode the 30 minutes it takes to get there, and was glad to see that there was a great turnout. About 25 people were there due to the perfect conditions, including Alexander, a strong cat. 3 and Todd, a strong cat. 1 and masters rider, and many other good cyclists. Once we got out of the busy Southern Pines / Pinehurst area, we went up a hill that traditionally marks the end of the warm up and the start of the fun. More than half the pack was dropped up the hill, and we circled around waiting at the top until 9 of us had regrouped. After that we went up a couple more hills, and I took a pretty hard pull, which whittled it down to 6. Other riders also pushed the pace, which distanced the dropped riders.
Maybe 30 minutes later, the six of us sat up, but then the pace increased and again the group was back down to the 6 of us..
Up one of the next hills, I took a short but hard pull, trying to sustain a fast pace. After a little while, I pulled of and saw only Alexander and Todd behind me. All of us took very hard turns on the front for what seemed like a long time, until it seemed that all of us, or at least me, were hurting. We went a little easier after that, stopped at a gas station to refuel, and rode back to the bike shop.
I was feeling very good after the ride, and had a little ways more to go until I had went 4 hours, so I took a longer way home. I was going to do a couple of intervals, but decided not to as I have plenty of form for this time of the season. Instead, I just went hard, but not all out, a couple of times before cooling down. I went for 3 hours 5o minutes, and did about 70 miles, but I'll post the stats after I can download my powermeter.
Yesterday, I did the Group ride. I rode the 30 minutes it takes to get there, and was glad to see that there was a great turnout. About 25 people were there due to the perfect conditions, including Alexander, a strong cat. 3 and Todd, a strong cat. 1 and masters rider, and many other good cyclists. Once we got out of the busy Southern Pines / Pinehurst area, we went up a hill that traditionally marks the end of the warm up and the start of the fun. More than half the pack was dropped up the hill, and we circled around waiting at the top until 9 of us had regrouped. After that we went up a couple more hills, and I took a pretty hard pull, which whittled it down to 6. Other riders also pushed the pace, which distanced the dropped riders.
Maybe 30 minutes later, the six of us sat up, but then the pace increased and again the group was back down to the 6 of us..
Up one of the next hills, I took a short but hard pull, trying to sustain a fast pace. After a little while, I pulled of and saw only Alexander and Todd behind me. All of us took very hard turns on the front for what seemed like a long time, until it seemed that all of us, or at least me, were hurting. We went a little easier after that, stopped at a gas station to refuel, and rode back to the bike shop.
I was feeling very good after the ride, and had a little ways more to go until I had went 4 hours, so I took a longer way home. I was going to do a couple of intervals, but decided not to as I have plenty of form for this time of the season. Instead, I just went hard, but not all out, a couple of times before cooling down. I went for 3 hours 5o minutes, and did about 70 miles, but I'll post the stats after I can download my powermeter.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Fork Shoals Road Race
Yesterday I did the Fork Shoals RR, in Greenville, South Carolina. I raced in the cat. 4's, but the organizers decided at the last minute to combine the 3's and the 4's. Thankfully the distance stayed the same, at 42 miles on a 14 mile loop. The loop had 3 hills, 1 before the finish line. My plan was to attack up the last hill, but the hill really wasn't that decisive and the stronger pack was difficult to get away from.
The weather was terrible, with a lot of rain and 50 degree temps. I knew getting through 2 hours soaking wet would be difficult, but was still determined to try my hardest and race good. I was wearing big, full finger gloves too, and I had to squeezes them out every 5 minutes.
The race started and we got onto the biggest downhill of the course. A huge amount of rain was on the roads, and as we reached almost 40 miles per hour on the descent I felt like I was going blind (I don't like wearing sunglasses).
The pace was pretty fast until the 2nd lap, when the pack really slowed down. That was bad in this case, because it only made me colder. Thankfully the speed picked up by the end of the 2nd lap, allowing me to warm up a little. On the last lap, I got into a good position by the 2nd hill and was in 9th when we rounded the last corner with half a mile to go. Up a slight rise 200 meters before the finish, Jacob Arnold, a strong juniors racer, attacked. I thought I was in a great position to respond to it, but one of the officials motorcycles got too close to the field and really slowed down the right side of the pack, unfortunately the side I was on. After the motorcycle realized that he was about to be absorbed by the pack, he sped up, and the other side of the pack surged, and I went from 10th to almost 30th. I managed to pass a couple people before the line, but the damage was done, and I got 24th.
After the race was over I noticed I had only drank maybe 2 sips from my water bottle, but I'm guessing that all the rain water I drank more than made up for it. Even though I didn't get a great result, I felt good and now know that I am capable of being competitive in a cat 3/4 Road Race.
Here are the figures from the race:
42.16 miles
1 hour 50 minutes 3 seconds
23.17 avg. mph
Here are some photos from the race.
The weather was terrible, with a lot of rain and 50 degree temps. I knew getting through 2 hours soaking wet would be difficult, but was still determined to try my hardest and race good. I was wearing big, full finger gloves too, and I had to squeezes them out every 5 minutes.
The race started and we got onto the biggest downhill of the course. A huge amount of rain was on the roads, and as we reached almost 40 miles per hour on the descent I felt like I was going blind (I don't like wearing sunglasses).
The pace was pretty fast until the 2nd lap, when the pack really slowed down. That was bad in this case, because it only made me colder. Thankfully the speed picked up by the end of the 2nd lap, allowing me to warm up a little. On the last lap, I got into a good position by the 2nd hill and was in 9th when we rounded the last corner with half a mile to go. Up a slight rise 200 meters before the finish, Jacob Arnold, a strong juniors racer, attacked. I thought I was in a great position to respond to it, but one of the officials motorcycles got too close to the field and really slowed down the right side of the pack, unfortunately the side I was on. After the motorcycle realized that he was about to be absorbed by the pack, he sped up, and the other side of the pack surged, and I went from 10th to almost 30th. I managed to pass a couple people before the line, but the damage was done, and I got 24th.
After the race was over I noticed I had only drank maybe 2 sips from my water bottle, but I'm guessing that all the rain water I drank more than made up for it. Even though I didn't get a great result, I felt good and now know that I am capable of being competitive in a cat 3/4 Road Race.
Here are the figures from the race:
42.16 miles
1 hour 50 minutes 3 seconds
23.17 avg. mph
Here are some photos from the race.
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