Morgantown Road Race (APRRS #1)

Today's race was another tough one. 4500 feet of climbing, with CRAZY winds. Immediately after the start, I jumped up front and stayed in 5th place for about 12 miles or so. This was a mistake. The entire time I was up there, my HR was around 180. Way too high. On the second climb, I couldn't keep it up anymore, and got dropped off the back of the pack, which is where I stayed. My legs were so dead, that on one of the climbs, I looked down and realized that I was going 4 mph! At least I can say that I finished the race, under my own power. I know, it's not as glorious as staying head-to-head with the competition, but after I realized that I wasn't going to finish with the group, it basically became a survival game. The wind was so strong, that I almost got blown sideways off my bike at the top of one of the mountains. I hate wind.

Next weekend's race looks a little easier. It's on a circuit, and less than half the length. I just need to learn to ride my own race, and not worry about trying to keep up with some of the other guys.

My training has changed dramatically, but is going extremely well. After getting DEMOLISHED at the first race of the season, I backed off of my training plan. It was becoming too cumbersome and a little too structured for my schedule right  now. Instead, I've decided to focus on simply riding as many miles as I can, and when I'm out, I concentrate on 2 things: FORM and POWER. I try to ride as hard as I can while maintaining my best form. If I go anaerobic while attacking a short hill, so be it. It's interval training, right?? When I'm on the flats, I work myself into a tempo and just put power to the pedals. Aside from that, I just try to go as fast as I can, for as long as I can. It seems to be working well so far.

Today, I started working a part time side job at a local bike shop: Eastern Panhandle Bicycles. They carry Specialized, Fuji, and Cannondale. They're also working on putting on a race/points series, and a team. It's a great shop, that seems to be run correctly. Should be a good time.

It's been a couple weeks since I wrote anything here. My riding has been amazing since my last race. In the past 2 weeks, I've ridden with teammates, friends, and even a Cat1 Pro. My next race is the Morgantown Road Race (APRRS #1) on 4/3. On the same day, a teammate of mine is heading South to do the Boone Roubaix in North Carolina. Hopefully we come back with some good results for the team. I know I'll be much more ready for this race than I was for the last one.

Today, we did about 40 miles in and around Washington DC, which was awesome! We FLEW down Macarthur Blvd, we kinda chilled through Georgetown (including riding past the steps where they filmed the famous scene in "The Exorcist"), then dodged some traffic in Southwest. Hopefully by next week, Hains Point will dry up a little bit, and the afternoon rides will commence. Supposedly it's a total drop-fest. Sweet.

Training, Training, Training

Well, after getting my ass dropped in the first race of the year, my training has come back into full swing. I have ridden more in the past week, than I did all winter. This week alone, I climbed around 13,000'. Today a few of us rode through the mountains of Berkeley County, WV. This was a great ride for me. Twice this week, I've had the opportunity to ride with people much better than me, which has been awesome. Today's ride included a Cat 1 Pro who made us all look silly, but was still fun to ride with. Hopefully, I can keep this trend going, and be well enough ready for my next race in April.

Race Report: Team Nature's Path Criterium @ Richmond International Raceway

Subtitle: Criterium Racing Can SUCK IT

Let me start by saying that for the past 2 months, the winter weather here has been terrible. If it wasn't laying down 2 feet of snow, we had 25mph winds. In the immortal words of Lewis Black, "It has been an utter dogshit winter." Going into today's race, I knew I wasn't physiologically prepared. Since December, I've been on my bike maybe 5 times. My hopes were that everybody else was in the same boat that I was in. Here's what happened:

I met my friend Poon (yes, that's his name) early this morning, and headed down to the race track. I was excited to be racing on a bicycle at RIR, where NASCAR races are held. Arriving at the event totally lived up to my expectations. We got to drive through the tunnel, into the infield, and walk right out onto the track. Very cool. When we arrived, the women's class was underway, so we stood and watched them until they were finished. Next up were the juniors, ranging in age from 8yrs. to 18yrs. We watched them take off, then headed back to the truck to get dressed. Obviously, I didn't judge my time well. By the time I got fully dressed, put my bike on the trainer, and inflated the tires, I only had about 5 minutes to warm up. This was a pretty big error. Ideally, I wanted at least 30 minutes. Next, we lined up at the start and got underway. Let me say here, that the wind was atrocious. However, since the track is shaped in an oval, we went about 30mph on one side, and around 15-20mph on the other! This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, though, because it meant that anybody trying to break away would just get caught once we turned into the wind. For the first few laps, I found myself on the inside of the track, which made it nearly impossible to make any significant passes. I passed a handful, but ended up getting passed by the same few once we slowed down in the wind. It was like an accordian: we would spread out, then bunch up, then spread out, then bunch up. About half way through the race, I had worked my way to the outside, and made a pretty good jump to the front, finding myself looking at second place. I knew that once we turned into the wind, I'd be in trouble without anyone to draft in front of me, so I worked my way back into the pack. All in all, things went well throughout most of the race. There was great communication in the group, and I didn't notice any rude or obnoxious riding. With 3 laps to go, I wasn't paying attention, and fell off the back of a fast break away. Somebody (wayyyyyy strong) jumped from the back, all the way to the front, and kept going. The rest of the field followed. "No problem", I thought, "I'll just catch back up when they slow down, when they hit the wind." Well, the problem was, that they NEVER slowed down!! Once I came around the turn, and saw the group pulling away, I made an all-out effort for about 30 seconds, before realizing that I wasn't making any progress in the wind, and the group was steadily disappearing. Oops. A pretty rookie mistake, to get caught not paying attention, and get dropped that quickly.

You can imagine how the remaining couple laps went. Since I had lost the back of the peloton, I had nobody to help me work through the wind and it wasn't long before my lungs couldn't keep up with my legs. At that point, I just told myself that I WOULD NOT QUIT, and that if nothing else, I was going to finish this race on my own. Which is exactly what I did. Dead last. I suppose the silver lining in this story is that by being as far back as I had gotten by the finish, I missed being in the massive crash at the end, which sent 3 riders to the hospital via ambulance. I can finally say that I finished a bike race without crashing! (I crashed in my last 2 XC mountain bike races, and flatted in my first road race last fall.)

Lessons learned:

1. Train, train, train. I was ill-prepared, and I knew it.

2. Nutrition. In the excitement, I had forgotten to eat some simple carbs prior to starting the race. Breakfast wasn't sufficient, either, and was about 4 hrs prior to my start. I had also forgotten to take my dose of Sport Legs, which is a supplement that buffers lactic acid.

3. Allow enough time to warm up. Duh.

4. Pay attention. Although all breaks are not important, when the entire field jumps...I'll go with them, and quickly!

Wow, it's been a crazy winter so far...

With back-to-back blizzards only a week apart, plus another 20" of snow prior to that...and countless days with 20+mph winds, I'm estimating that my training is about 6 weeks behind. I've tried to stay somewhat in shape on the trainer and rollers, but honestly, some days it's pure torture. Yesterday was the first day I've ridden outdoors in about 3 weeks.

Last week's race was canceled due to weather (no surprise there), but this week's race is still a go. It's the Richmond International Raceway Criterium put on by Team Nature's Path. It is on a 3/4 mi. car track, and should be fast and smooth. I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Well, we got about 8" of fresh snow on the ground...again. It's been a difficult year to try to train outside. The next snow storm is due to arrive in another 2 days as well. It's getting pretty cumbersome to train indoors, but with the race season kicking off in 2 weeks, I'll have to try to stay focused...