28 September 2008

2008 28 Sept CCCX #2, Fort Ord, Day Camp

Lap 1, Gary in yellow passes me on the downhill near the 4:45 and crashes on the gully:

2008 CCCX #2 Fort Ord (Day Camp) Lap 1 of 4 from Steven Woo on Vimeo.
Lap 2:
I crash at about 8:15, just slide out so nothing dramatic.

2008 CCCX #2 Fort Ord (Day Camp) Lap 2 of 4 from Steven Woo on Vimeo.

Lap 3 crash at 8:30

2008 CCCX #2 Fort Ord (Day Camp) Lap 3 of 4 from Steven Woo on Vimeo.

Lap 4:

2008 CCCX #2 Fort Ord (Day Camp) September 28 Lap 4 of 4 from Steven Woo on Vimeo.

Due to a few folks upgrading out of C's to B's and some no shows, manage to move up five places from last week. Not really getting any better, yet...

Pavg: 163
Pnorm: 196
H: 182
T: 40:05
S: 20.6 kph
C: 91
cccx2

22 September 2008

2008 September 21, CCCX #1, Fort Ord


(photo courtesy of Rick Rasmussen and Dusty Downs)
CTL: 110
TSB: 18

Not trying to peak, just no time to ride anymore, and riding fast in the dark is kind of scary.

Stay up a bit late and miss my wake up call by an hour, make it to the race venue with twenty minutes to spare, register and get ready and don't have time for a warmup lap.

Feel better than during the Friday night track racing.

This lasts about two minutes.
Lap 1:

2008 CCCX #1, Sept 21, Fort Ord, C Lap 1 of 4 from Steven Woo on Vimeo.

I think I pretty much solidified my 20th position out of 25 on this lap.
Lap 2:

2008 Sept 21, CCCX, Fort Ord, C Race Lap 2 of 4 from Steven Woo on Vimeo.

Lap 3:

2008 CCCX #1 Lap 3 of 4 Fort Ord from Steven Woo on Vimeo.

Lap 4:


2008 CCCX #1 Lap 4 of 4 from Steven Woo on Vimeo.

My laps times were consistent and slow. :)


T: 44:54
S: 22.2
C: 86
H: 179
Pavg:178
Pnorm:208

cccx1

2008 September 19 Friday Night Track Racing

TSB: 18
CTL: 111

Haven't been riding much on weekdays, too much work, but want to see if I can get any track race video. It turns out once the lights go on, it's too dark for this video camera to capture anything useful but I get the first race that happens before sunset.

40+ 123 Scratch

40+ 123 Scratch Race start from Steven Woo on Vimeo.
Go at the gun, get in a small group, get caught after five laps, get caught, get dropped at I think ten laps. Even though I am rested, don't have the snap one needs to do well at track racing, haven't done this longer, high intensity in a while.

T: 5:00
C: 101
S: 42.3
H: 184
Pavg:302
Pnorm:333

P123 Scratch
Ride at the back and hang in for fifteen laps
T: 7:45
C: 103
S: 43.2
H: 181
Pavg: 237
Pnorm: 273

Match Sprint with Brian Peterson and Daniel Holloway
I draw third position and attack when Daniel wants to track stand at the quarter lap mark, but I waited a little too long as the chief ref called for a restart. I try the same thing again on our retry, but the first jump took all the snap out of my legs and we only had about sixty seconds to recover.

P123 Win and Out
Ride near the back and watch the race unfold from there, but manage to finish a race for once...
T: 6:00
S: 41.4
H: 186
Pavg: 253
Pnorm: 278
C: 99



2008 Sept 19 Track racing

07 September 2008

Benicia Town Race

CTL: 112
TSB: 20

Throat feels better after doing the time trial. Go figure...

E4 Race

Had illusions of going for a prime or two, but was never close enough to the front to go for it. The video camera malfunctioned or I messed up turning it on/off so no video.

Was pretty far back with two to go and had to sprint pretty hard with one to go to move up from there to mid pack on the hills.

On the last lap, the normal mushrooming of the field happened where no one wants to go on the front but lots of riders want to be near the front. Here with the hill combined with both lanes of the road open make it easy to move up so I put in an attack, and make it up to about fifth wheel. Was kind of surprised to not get farther up, so have to settle for the field sprint. Go into the finish straight about fifth, and manage to pull a ninth place out of that...

T: 42:30 (without the neutral lap)
S: 40.1 kph
D: 28.4 km
H: 176
C: 104
Pavg: 189
Pnorm: 230
BeniciaE4

35+ 4/5 Race
Was not feeling so hot after doing the E4 race so decided to conserve and just sit in until the end game started. Pretty much every lap I try to think of an excuse to quit, it seems really hard.

Video of the race, mostly of me wheelsucking as much as possible. If you want to skip over that, go to the last video for just the last two laps.









Somewhere around here, Derrick and I both look back and we see that we are at the back of the pack and some thirty plus riders have been dropped.



Last two laps


By four inches (that aero front wheel was a good choice! )
Benicia Town Race Sept 7 141

Gio with first by a mile

Jason back from injury with second

T: 38:53 (without the neutral lap)
S: 39.7 kph
D: 25.7 km
H: 174
C: 103
Pavg: 183
Pnorm: 233
Benicia35

P.S. For every one that's been asking, I now have thirteen upgrade points, ten from San Ardo, and three from today.

06 September 2008

2008 Warnerville Individual Time Trial

CTL: 112
TSB: 23


Not trying to peak for this, just been trying to shake a sore throat ever since the University Road Race two weeks ago and feeling a little worse after the Giro last week, trying to not push myself into a hole and getting sicker.

So I am really well *rested* coming into this from a lot less riding, but five pounds heavier than last week because I haven't bothered changing my diet...

Wasn't sure I was even doing this until I woke up and my sore throat wasn't as bad as it was yesterday.

Rick said this will probably be a road race next year in the spring, to avoid conflicts with farming schedules.

One of the four riders who signed up for my category did not show up, and I start last, this gives me a three minute man, and a one minute man. The course is continuously rolling with very good pavement with the exception of maybe ten to twenty potholes marked by cones. Due to the rolling hills, often times cannot see anyone who is more than two minutes ahead.

The course starts with a big downhill, and I hit 45 mph and decide that crashing in the first turn would look pretty silly and get on the brake levers just in case. I remind myself to save a little bit for this hill at the end.

After the excitement of competition wears off, try to go a little above threshold on the uphills and a little below threshold on the downhills ( by the end, I am coasting on the downhills). After ten minutes I catch my three minute man, but the one minute man is nowhere to be seen. He beat me by about a minute at the Mt Diablo Hill climb so he is a better climber than I am, but I have a few more aerodynamic pieces of equipment compared to him and I am a midget compared to him so I have to push those advantages to the hilt to even things out on this course.

Fifteen minutes I think I can see my one minute man. I put my head down as I put in a little extra effort and then I hit a pothole really hard and think I have broken my front wheel but it turns out my chain has come off my one chainring setup and is making a heck of a lot of noise. I stop, check the front wheel ( did I break a spoke? no) and put the chain back on in thirty seconds and start rolling again.

Twenty six minutes later I reach the turnaround, my one minute man tantalizingly close. We must have had a slight partial tailwind going out because it is much harder coming back.

I spot my rabbit, Roland, every so often, cresting hills ahead of me. There is a bridge we traversed on the way out that is one lane where a CHP officer is stationed and this time through I stay on the aerobars but manage to hit an expansion joint so hard that my chain goes flying off again. Attempt to put it on by hand, but come closer to chopping off my fingers as the chain goes from outside to the chainstay, so I stop, put it back on, and start my pursuit again after wasting a minute with the chain.

To add to the list of things going wrong, the dry conditions mean my throat is parched and my thirst is driving me a little crazy. But I am still sweating so haven't reached dehydration.

At this point figure I should save some for the crit tomorrow, and try to ride just threshold on the uphills, and whatever I can manage on the downhills. VeloPromo has helpfully provided miles to go signs starting at five, and I spot my one minute man way off in the distance cresting a hill, he is so far away that I can't see his legs moving, but I know it's not a mirage because he's not there when I get to that hill top. I might yet have a chance at this, just need to finish within a minute of him to win, not catch him, screw the crit tomorrow!

I push myself over threshold on the uphills again, just to not lose any ground, and threshold on the downhills. (My average power for the end of the races keeps rising above threshold for the last five miles). With each passing mile marker I can see Roland get larger and larger. I don't know if it's closer than a minute so I have to keep pushing. The last long hill is cruelly hard on a time trial bike with only a big ring. I pedal so hard that I don't notice I am drifting off the road and onto a shoulder made of quarter size rocks until it's too late and start my cross season a little early, but I don't panic and steer back onto the road. Then I blow, and the crest of the final hill and the finish line is still out of sight.

Haven't driven this far to quit. I just make myself ignore the searing lungs and demons telling me to quit and sprint the last part of the hill and win by the tiny margin of ~ten seconds after almost an hour of racing.

Most time trials around here start the riders by alphabetical order of last name, in larger fields this is disadvantage because with enough riders, there is enough passage of time for winds to pick up, but today with a small field it turns the race into something akin to a really, really long pursuit for me, and it's a huge advantage to be able to see the rider in front of me.

T: 56:37
D: 36.1 km
C: 90
S: 38.3
H: 184
Pavg: 227
Pnorm: 237


2008warnerville

02 September 2008

2008 Giro di San Francisco

CTL: 116
TSB: 6

Felt a bit sick with a sore throat after University and took it easy this week, sort of backsliding into cyclocross season.

Got better then as CD says, shot myself in the foot with a six hour ride on Saturday... :)

Signed up for two races, not feeling so good at the start so stuck it in the small ring for half the race, then used the big ring for the second half of both races.

Went on a few attacks early, of course including the first one..., nothing stuck after six laps so hid in the pack for a while. Video tells rest of the story:











Almost deja vu except for the part where I blow early...

Weird, my only excuse is maybe I am sick. Anyways manage 6 w/kg for the last 1:20 (from bottom of hill to finish), and 5 w/kg for last five minutes. The last five minutes is similar to but not quite as hard the 92 sprint leadout for the Spectrum or the end of the Sunday social ride when I am trying to drop the CX racers...

T: 44:18
S: 39.5 kph
C: 97
H: 177
Pavg:194
Pnorm:241 ( sort of like going up OLH twice at twenty four minute pace )

giro3545


Was all tuckered out for the cat four race, could only suck wheels, cramped really late in race, recovered tried to move up but legs would not cooperate, mostly video of the backside of other racers if you're into that and there's an accident in there somewhere:










T: 44:07
S: 39.7 kph
C: 99
H: 179
Pavg: 177
Pnorm: 221
giro4