Fort Ord Road Race E4

TSB: 10
CTL: 127

Did the E4 race instead of the 35+ 4/5 race because the E4 race started around 8:00 and the 35+ 4/5 race started around noon.

Start and finish moved from last year. Last year it was sunny and cool, this year, very cold, foggy, overcast and windy until I left at about 1:00.

A little *excitement* at the start due to the no show of porta potties until five minutes after the P12 start, if you visit Fort Ord any time soon, watch your step!

Just rode with the group until the one big hill, and was caught behind a little crash and crested about 20 seconds back, followed a couple of other guys to get back onto the group by the finish line. Really never felt recovered from this effort and on one of the small rollers to the 180, just could not pedal fast enough to keep up and had to recover for a minute, then started chasing and for the next lap and a half, stayed the same distance back from the pack. Lost it on the fourth lap and started losing ground so packed it in - ended up with a similar effort to last years 35+ 4/5 race. Lasted forty five minutes with the pack, not sure if I didn't eat enough during the race or if I was over threshold for too long on the short sharp hills.

T: 2:27
W: 1573 kJ
Pavg: 178
Pnorm: 223
D: 71.8 km
C:87

Watsonville Criterium E4

CTL: 127
TSB: 6
Cat 4 race, 15 miles

Had to officiate for the race immediately preceding this one due to a shortage so not much of a warmup but the race felt pretty easy for the most part. Each of the riders who won the Cat 4 and the 35+ 4/5 Coyote Creek races were here so tried to keep an eye on them. The main difficulties on this course are the hill and the wind. The hill is pretty short, it's only about 500 feet from the last corner to the top of the hill where the finish line is, so last corner position pretty much dictates the finish, I thought this was probably not enough to break up our race even on the last lap. There is a 150 degree turn at the bottom of the hill and a 120 degree turn near the wheel pit and three 90 turns going into the start/finish straight hill.

Never felt like I was in difficulty for the entire race. Was able to surf wheels mid pack until we got the three to go card and started moving up. Was sitting about tenth wheel on the last lap and patiently waited for the corner before the finish and was planning on attacking into the corner but there were several riders in front of me that were pretty sketchy and just held off enough that I lost about five positions, then had to choose between sprinting with a draft on the left or leading myself out on the right and went with the right. Was able to pass five people and though I was going to pass a few more but one of the riders died about six feet to my left and suddenly veered all the way to one foot to my right so I had to brake and ended up tenth of forty something. Wish I had worked harder because just sitting in until the final sprint was pretty easy.



T: 40:28
Pavg: 199
Pnorm: 219
C: 98
S: 38.4

American Velodrome Challenge Cat 3 15 lap scratch

I was planning on riding easy today but forgot I had committed to help man registration, so by virtue of having to be there, decided to do the scratch race - also may not have time to do anymore track racing this year so gotta take the opportunity when it presents itself. Was eligible for a ton of other events but wanted to save something for Watsonville.

This was scheduled to be a twenty five lap race but the sprint and keirin heats ran a bit long so ten laps were cut out.

Disappointing but you make lemonade...

Got to the front and surged a bit when the whistle blew, saw there was a gap after half a lap and just went out at pursuit pace for four and a half laps off the front before being reeled in. Recovered for three and a half laps, and went again for two laps, was caught and countered. The guy off the front had a pretty big gap, and after getting dropped, and then catching up with the help of Keith, after three laps of watching him was about to attack again when Rob went with two other guys close on his wheel. I hesitated because I didn't want to pull everyone if Rob was trying to stay away, but isoon regretted this because when Rob pulled up the other two guys pulled up, too, instead of working to catch the breakaway, and only one guy from the main pack would catch him by the end. At this point couldn't do much besides finish behind the sprinting pack. Should have kept on pushing and followed Rob and just pulled the pack so our team could have done better.


T: 7:02
PAvg: 313
PNorm: 334
C: 106
S: 44.5

Lafayette Criterium

CTL: 129
TSB: 1
Afternoon race and it's sweltering. I am not feeling so great, but perhaps everyone else feels the same way. The course is a triangle with one long gradual uphill leg, a short downhill leg, and a long meandering flat leg to a 150 degree turn uphill. I take note that the entire M123 field takes the hill in the big ring and only takes about 1:20 per lap. Their time from the last corner is about twenty seconds, and their time from the last intersection before the last corner is thirty seconds, so my plan A is to attack from the last intersection on the last lap, and plan B is to attack into the corner on the last lap.


The race feels hard but I tell myself this is just in my head - usually it is after I examine the downloaded data. I have no trouble on the hill but even from midpack the yo yo action is pretty bad out of the exit of the downhill corner. One has to take it pretty cautiously due to one idiot or another every single lap trying to surf the inside line which leads right into a chain link fence. At one point someone goes off course on the uphill and tears the yellow tape. I am well away from this but still manage to get a passenger of ten feet of yellow tape wrapped around my rear hub till the end of the race. The uphill 150 degree corner is an adventure every lap with vary degrees of success for everyone, sometimes I can take it really fast and others times come to an almost halt due to the surge, and finally there is a crash in front of me into the hay bales on the turn, but I make it past to 20th position again.

I look down and note it's been thirty five minutes since we've started and we should be getting lap cards soon and we get four to go soon afterwards. I am glad as I was considering quitting because even if it really isn't hard, it sure feels hard. With two to go I get over my laziness and prepare for the end game and easily move up to tenth wheel on the hill, rest a bit, and maintain for the last lap. Just a few meters before I was going to attack, another rider attacks. By the time I have to consider chasing I figure I will wait and see what happens. The pack slows significantly before the last corner, and this is my signal to attack and try to catch the single rider off the front. Slowly I gain on him, each stroke brings me closer and closer. We get to the false flat near the top and I am five meters back but only ten meters from the line and realize I will not catch him and mentally give up. The swarm soon surrounds me and four other riders push me back into sixth. Doh! At least I got in a much better sprint than I did for my 200 meter time trial earlier today.


T: 39:56
Pavg: 187
Pnorm: 227
C: 107
H: 175
S: 38.6 kph

200 meter flying time trial

Haven't done this in a year so wanted to get at least one time recorded this year. Stuck with the 51x15 with the Hed 3 front and rear and used an aero helmet with a normal short sleeve jersey and shorts instead of a skinsuit so I could get ready for the Lafayette crit quickly afterwards.

In the warmup I had a decent sprint but it's from a low starting speed.

The new cooldown/warmup circle is a sweet but maximum speed has to be kinda low so a trainer might be necessary for some riders, use it until it's my turn to get called up. Keith tells me he hits 33 mph in between turn one and turn 2 and gets a time of under 13. I think my average will be 33 for the 200...

Since I don't have much of a jump, try to go into turn one at a high speed, stand up in between turn one and turn and drop kind of late, after turn two, and really can't seem to get on top of the gear. End up with a 13.5 which I guess is OK for not practicing but didn't get a good sprint off, did reach my max at the 200 meter line but it was super low. I need to practice this to get a better time, one day a year on the track just doesn't cut it for me...
T: 13.50
PAvg: 586
C: 126
S: 53.7

The last lap is :
T: 24.0
Pavg: 635
C: 117
S: 50.1

Masters Track Districts

CTL: 128
TSB: 7
Tapered a bit but not nearly as much as last year so carried more fitness than freshness into districts which was the reverse of last year and showed in the results. Trying to maintain more fitness for road racing and crits.

3 Kilometer Pursuit, used 51x15 with Hed 3 in front with Vittoria EVO CX tires and a ghetto disc in the rear. Practiced the standing starts with the 51x15 but never did much else except with this bike for a 34km time trial and have not had the chance to do any track racing either so this would be my first track race of the year. Also lowered the position a bit to get lower.

Immediately after the start feel like I don't have the legs but put that out of my mind and focus on an even paced effort after the first lap. I am not sure of how much I have to give so I hold back a bit to avoid blowing up but end up holding way too much back as I end up with a time about six seconds slower than last year and am able to talk easily shortly after the race. Average power is only 345 which I can do for five minutes instead of four, so I should have been able to do much more for four minutes. Will switch back to 50x15 for the next time as I was slightly faster for the first few laps with the 51x15, starting losing a second by the two kilometer and totally blew the last kilometer, going six seconds slower over the last three laps with the 51x15.

T: 4:09
P: 345
C: 102
S: 43.6
H: 185



There are ten people signed up for the 60 lap points race but two people drop out, probably due to the 3 hour delay. So there will be no where to hide for a long, long time. Don't bother to change from the 51x15 used in the pursuit. I have never finished with the lead riders in one of these district championship races so that is my first goal, since we have a lot of cat 1 road riders, this may be a tall order. A rider who is not one of the cat 1 roadies attacks early and I try to bridge but can see the field not far behind so don't commit and just score a few points while the leader takes two sprints. The race is pretty tactical the rest of the way with the best riders just marking each other and ignoring the rest of us. After the second sprint, it feels like body blow after body blow, but I am able to time trial a bit or wheel suck and get back onto the lead group after every attack and even manage to score a couple more points. The best pursuiter ends up winning the points race and I am happy to be even on laps with him and the other leaders by the finale, if I could have sprinted I might have been able to move up a spot but have already lost track of my score, much less anybody elses by this point. Also, 51x15 although only a tiny bit different from 50x15, felt too big for me to sprint in this year, perhaps if I had been racing more on the track it would be OK, but with less time on the track, should have used a smaller gear.

T: 30:07
Pavg: 249
Pnorm: 273
C: 95
S: 40.8
H: 181

40-44 60 lap points race

Coyote Creek Circuit Race

TSB: 14
CTL: 127
Had to drive to LA at the last minute on July 4 so rode less this week and ended up peaking for today unintentionally. Still trying to catch up on sleep three days later.

Signed up for this race without any expections - it's sort of like the Brisbane course where there's a long climb. At Brisbane the descent is long so there's not much recovery time, here, the descent is short and the flat section is really long so if one chooses to not work, one can rest quite a bit between repeats of the hill.

E4 Race:
Teammates: Eddie Z., and a new club member, Marco.
Preview of the course reveals a very strong headwind on the finish straight/climb and a very strong tailwind on the flat section after the descent. Three juniors from the track program are also in the race.

The race starts and we go at a pretty hard clip on the hill but the effort only takes about two minutes with the hardest bit taking forty five seconds. This fits with my short attention span so I am able to comfortably hide in the pack. Surprisingly I am gapped out of the downhill corner into the flat section almost every lap, I sprint hard but the yo yo effect is huge. On the other hand by the time we reach the next corner, the whole pack slows considerably so one doesn't have to chase hard at all to get back onto the group. This repeats itself eight times, every time up the hill I am thinking this hurts but I tell myself the other guys can't be in any better shape, and the juniors don't seem to be suffering that much, and I always tell them to not give up until after the finish line so it would set a bad precedent to give up while racing with them. :) I seem to find myself on either Marcus Smith or Daniel Farinha's wheels, which is fine since they are good riders but since I have fifty pounds on either of them, there is not much draft here! Can do the climb in the big ring in the group but use the inner ring to take it easier, only have to use the big ring on the last two laps to keep up.

There is the usual sketchiness from riders who don't look before they move, and then either start doing the paper boy on the climb without looking to the side first or take a line totally different from the people in front of them. Work hard to pass these guys.

Finally lap cards come out and it's three to go. Unfortunately, I hear a hissing sound and it's Eddie Z, he has to slow and pull out of the race, his rear derailleur wrapped around his cogset for some reason, ouch.

The other thing that happens every single lap is we slow to crawl on the climb, and the right side of the road has an open lane because the wind is coming from that direction, and it's so easy to just echelon to the left. I count on this happening in the final lap so I bide my time until the final lap, start moving up on the climb, fading back quite a bit on the descent/flat section to the back of the pack, and thinking - the race is over for me because I am too far back, but then on the last time up the climb, we slow considerably. I immediately start edging to the right, ignoring some contact, and patiently pass when possible. When the 200 meter sign shows up ( I measured this at 400+ meters before the race ) I finally get to the front of the pack. We are going so slow at this point I assume we could get swarmed at any moment so I attack and hope for the best. Am a bit overgeared for being on the front but grind it out on the slight descent into the final little pitch upward and am still on the front. Holy cow, this can't be happening. Of course it doesn't happen, as a very strong rider easily passes me in the last 50 meters or so but I force myself to turn the pedals over despite the pain in the legs and hold on for second place. The last five minutes of the race is the hardest I have gone for five minutes in a year, even though I just tried to sprint long.
T: 47:20
Pnorm: 248
Pavg: 192
H: 166
C: 99
S: 39.1 kph


The fog burns off and the afternoon race is really hot. No teammates in this one and a lot of faces show up that were not in the E4 race. This race starts off at a slightly more sedate pace than the E4 race, and I force myself to use the 36 on the climb to save my legs as they are complaining mightily. Normally my quads never get sore but I can feel them burning now. Each time up the climb feels hard but I know it can't be as bad as I think and try not to defeat myself with negative thoughts. I hear my friends cheering for me on the sideline, too, so it feels like quitting would be letting them down! Have better luck with staying in the shelter of the pack with this group for the whole lap, though. And I know the speed it is a little lower than the first race, so concentrate on one section of each lap, every lap and hang in there. The lap cards show up at three to go and I concentrate on only four more times up the hill, manage to drop my chain while downshifting and am passed by most of the pack while I struggle to get the chain back on and burn a match to get back into the shelter of the group, near the back of the pack and start moving up. With two to go I am second wheel on the climb so a little too hyper from four cups of coffee, and patiently wait for the swarm and get back in line in tenth on the final big descent. Try to rest a bit on the flats but this costs me about twenty positions. Whoops. Once we hit the first part of the climb after the momentum fades from the flat section we start going about fifteen miles and hour and group up very compactly and there is lots of contact and I concentrate on not freaking out... I try to move up but the hill is not hard enough yet, and we probably went a bit easier so lots of rested legs in the pack so less people are blowing up. I am in the second row when a rider jumps off the front. He gets about twenty meters and it looks like that's the race with about three hundred meters to go. Finally I get to the front and attack. I am gaining on him gradually but I can tell with about thirty meters to go that I will run out of real estate to catch and start to fade. This is when two riders pull even with me and I sprint again but don't have anything left and end up in fourth. The last five minutes of this race tops the last five minutes of the prior race, but I still was overgeared in the final sprint, the last little descent requires a bigger gear but I forgot to downshift for the last uphill.

Woohoo, sixteen upgrade points now over the last twelve months.

T: 43:30
Pnorm:247
Pavg: 175
H: 170
C: 102
S: 38.3



The tactic I used today only works on a few courses, the pace is high enough on flat courses that one cannot go all the way from the back to the front in the final lap , especially when there are 40+ riders.

Vacaville Grand Prix 35+ 4/5

TSB: 5
CTL: 132

Did well last year with a breakaway, and a solo breakaway won the race, but the field is twice as big this year with two teams with big representation, Davis(8?) and Pegasus(5?), and there will be seven primes in fourteen laps.

The first five minutes of most crits seem to hurt no matter what, so when I find myself on second wheel on the first lap and no one wants to pull, decide to dig a little and see what happens and suffer on the front instead of the back. Not sure if Davis or Pegasus are planning on attacking all race or trying to set up a leadout train so we'll see if they send anybody or just pull me back.

Have about two block lead after the descent, and when I go through the start/finish, the bell is rung for prime. Now folks are interested in chasing but I get to practice full speed through almost a full lap and am caught before the last turn. Fade to the back of the pack over the course of the next eight laps. The amount of braking sucks from this position, especially in the dogleg turn. The tradeoff is the climb is easy because people break the wind for you on the flatter section and you can thread through the stragglers and work up through half the field.

I hear Curt Ferguson telling me to move up every lap. My first thought is I'm going to kill him. But I know most races are actually not that hard when I am wheelsucking like this and force myself to move up and start moving up and not relinquishing position. One time on the climb there is eighteen inches between me and the right curb and someone calls inside and we knock handlebars for a while, but I forget about it and try to accelerate away from him. With two to go the Davis train forms with three riders. With one to go, Pegasus moves to the front alongside Davis. It seems oddly slow, so when we go through the grind up the hill for the last time, I attack from fifth wheel. I look under my shoulder and no one reacts so I dig a bit deeper and try to get as big a gap as possible on the hill and take the last two turns without braking. Thought I would have been passed by this front stretch but no, and I get to the chicane with fifty meters to go, it hurts, but hear one of the leadout guys yell "go, go, go" to his teammate so I sprint with whatever I have left and make it to the first painted line I see but there are three lines five meters apart and the last one is the finish, and one guy passes me convincingly, with a one bike length gap at the finish, then a second person edges me out for second with a bike throw at the real line. Same as San Ardo 2006...

3/50
PAvg: 202
PNorm: 257
T: 41:50
H: 173
C: 93
S: 38.9

CCCX MTB XC #9 35-44 Beginner, State Finals

TSB: 6.1
CTL: 131
Finally the hip strain from the pedal unclip and the compressed disc in the neck is healed enough that I can consider racing off road. This race is run under NORBA rules for a change so I *have* to race beginner unless I upgrade.

Broke all the rules for doing well by a.) not verifying the start time until this morning and realizing I have less than two hours to get to Monterey. b.) no warmup c.) forgot to adjust tire pressure for conditions so go off with 45 PSI

Get to old venue with forty five minutes to spare, then realize, I needed to read the flyer a bit more closely and have to drive to the other side of Fort Ord to travel about half a mile in thirty minutes due to construction.

Register with fifteen minutes to spare and line up and the guy next to me points out the guy who won the last five races, a Clydesdale but he must be plenty strong to win five races. Decide to attempt to follow him...

Race starts off with a pavement section and find myself second wheel. As we go into the first descent the Clydesdale takes the lead and I tag along. I have no trouble climbing with him but due to lack of practice at speed and way too high pressure find myself bouncing all over the place on the descents and having to make up ground on every climb. The climbs only last two minutes max so it's hard to figure out the correct pacing, plus I want to do well tomorrow so need to not dig too deep. After washing out the front wheel for about the tenth time, I give up on followng him and he drops me on a descent.

Don't have much company for a while, get to the late race pavement section, and the one big climb. Have to use the middle for it and get passed again but he falls on the next descent and I pass him back and don't see him until the end of the race.

On the second lap someone passes me on the descent after the finish and I start reeling him in on the climb but hold back a bit - am I going hard enough to blow, hard enough to hurt my form for tomorrow, dunno, but going hard enough to catch is going to hurt and I cut my losses and throttle back to time trial pace and he gradually pulls away.

Don't see anyone else for the rest of the race except for slower riders from the prior 18-34 wave.

3rd/9

T: 1:15:31
Pavg: 186
Pnorm: 223
H: 178
C: 83
S: 21.6 kph

Pacific State Bank Grand Prix Stockton

CTL: 128
TSB: 9
So my neck injury from January is finally better and the hip injury from last month only hurts after a half hour on the bike so thought I was healthy enough to do a flat crit plus I hadn't done one in about twelve months. No expectations but didn't want to just sit in if I could help it.

About fifty riders for the Cat 4 crit. This felt really hard for five laps but the data shows it was pretty easy, just not used to sprinting for three to five seconds, go easy for ten to twenty, repeat ad infinitum. After about thirty five minutes and two crashes in front of me I finally felt comfortable doing the flat crit thing and started moving up. Started making a move up on a headwind section when there was a crash and had to stop and restart, got back to the pack with one and a half laps to go, started moving up again, then there was a one rider crash in front of me on the last turn and I just gave up at that point and came in at the back of the pack.
T: 45:21
NP: 202
AP: 181
C: 94
S: 41.0 kph
H: 173



Six hours later the last race was the geezer 4/5 race with fifty riders again. This felt much easier. There were still a few single rider crashes all around me so still had to stay on one's toes. But the pace felt so easy I attacked and stayed away for a couple laps and rested and figured I would try that again with two laps to go. With four laps to go I moved up to last wheel on the EMC train on the front of the pack. I bided my time and counted down the laps. As I prepared to attack again if felt like my left foot had a lot of freedom of rotation so I started playing with my pedal and the entire crankarm came loose. Doh! Had to coast and pull out. I am such an idiot. At least I noticed and nobody came close to crashing because of me.

T: 44:24
NP: 200
AP: 171
C: 86
S: 39.3 kph
H: 171

Pescadero 35+ 4/5

CTL:128
TSB:23
Got the start of a saddle sore from sitting way too long on the fixie at Dunlap and had to cut back on riding this week and unintentionally peaked for this, at least according the PMC data, would have ridden differently to peak just for this, but having to stand up most of the time during rides makes it hard to do certain things.

Perfect day for this race with the fog burning off and the roads drying off. Really nice to have a race that is only one hour from home and everything from reg to marshalling is well done. Curt Ferguson is there to support his son and offers to feed me on the hill, and I take him up on it, and only take one bottle with me.

Last time I did this race I got dropped on the first hill on Stage so aim to make it through one lap this time. Start off with 74 other coots and we take it fairly sedate until after the machine gun statue on Stage. As the road goes up, we go a bit harder but we only drop a few riders. This makes the first descent interesting with seventy plus riders, thankfully only a few close calls and one guy locking up the rear in the hairpin and saving it. This makes the trip up easier, but it feels hard and I only catch my breath towards the end. Get my feed from Fergie, woohoo, and try to drink some before we go up the next hill. We make the turn up Haskins and riders start dropping like flies. This still leaves about thirty riders about halfway up and I just can't do it anymore and have to ease up and watch the pack pull away. So close...

Time trial on the descent and don't pick anybody up and no one catches me for about twenty minutes. Finally someone catches me as we get to the school and I have company for the last lap. Happy to have someone to help break the wind and drive the pace, hard to go hard sometimes solo, and we pick up four or five riders by the Stage climbs. Jose from Pen Velo and I drop them on the climbs and we prepare for the last time up 84 with a two man time trial. The Cat 5 lead pack of of seven riders catches us along with some other 35+ 4/5 rider but we let them go and ride ou own race. Jose wants to give up but I encourage him to keep going as I could use the help until we start going Haskins again, and he makes it almost to the turn instead of giving up way before then. We part and I go up as hard as I can, but it's not nearly as hard as I went up the first time.

The first two climbs up Stage total up to about ten minutes of climbing at 4.3 w/kg, and the climb up Haskins until I got dropped was at about 4.3 w/kg. So all one needs to do is about four repeats of 4.3w/kg at ten minutes a pop. Even though I got dropped on Haskins, it's my fastest time up it by about a minute. The first hour is much easier than my time trial fifty minutes last week, but I didn't spend much time over threshold during the time trial versus twenty minutes in the first hour this week.

PAvg: 184
PNorm: 219
T: 2:30
C: 88
S: 29.9

Dunlap Memorial Time Trial 35+ 4/5

The past few years I have done the Dash for Cash crit on the day prior to this event and for a change of pace I skipped the criteriums to focus a bit more on the time trial. Chris D managed to convince me to not do a five hour ride to Pescadero and the group ride outvoted me and we just did King's Mountain so I wasn't too tired and came into this event with a TSB of 7 and a CTL of 134.

Still bruised and battered from the crash before Berkeley Hills, some road rash on the elbow where I rest my forearm and my right hip still hurts a bit when I press hard but it goes away after about an hour so today I'll just try it and see what happens.

Use the pursuit bike with Vittoria EVO CX tires and a latex tube in the HED 60 front with the ghetto disc in the rear, wearing skinsuit, space helmet from Louis Garneau and shoe covers. After reading my report from last year, switched from the 50x15 that I had been doing the valley loop (doh!) to a 51x15, calibrated the SRM, and left the bars where I last used them about eight months ago.

Been doing mostly sweet spot training at about 90% of what I think my threshold is so today I test the theory out by aiming for 260 watts. At the start I remember to zip up the skinsuit unlike last year, and try to hold back a bit as the start is not that important in an event this long. Still manage to catch my one minute man as he has a mechanical on the side of the road. I am going at about 270 for the first five minutes and it feels easy, and I hope I am not digging a hole that I can't recover from later. It is a long fifteen minutes before I see the next rider and he fights hard to stay in front of me so he's a good rabbit. The wind has picked up but it is not nearly as bad as last year. My 30 second man had a P2C with a Zipp disk and a Zipp 100 deep wheel, didn't think I would see him again and I don't. On the second head wind section I start catching someone every minute or so and soon pass about ten riders in quick succession. Now I am hoping the race will end soon, look down and only about thirty minutes have elapsed. Probably about twenty minutes or so to go. Tell myself this is doable and I force myself to pedal faster into the headwind. I struggle with really painful sit bones, but can't adjust anything without slowing because I'm on a fixed gear, and in the the time trial position. On the plus side that takes my mind off the hip and the re opened wound on the elbow. I pass a couple of more riders and look down, forty minutes down, about ten minutes to go. Make myself pedal as hard as I can, the bike swaying a bit to the right and the left, thankfully no one near me. There's one corner ahead that says 15mph and I take it at 25 and the rear wheel slides a bit but that's it. There are two more corners left with course marshals and I think there's about two kilometers to go and I am drooling over myself at this point. Finally on the last straight, one and a half kilometers, and I want to give up but remember that the difference last year for a couple of spots is less than five seconds and press onward. Finally the finish line arrives and my time is 50:10 which is thirty seconds faster than last year. Good enough for 7th of 35. My top five/ten/twenty/thirty minute powers all start from the beginning of the race but the average for the first thirty minutes and the last twenty minutes are only one watt different, well within the precision of the power meter so my pacing was pretty good, even going a good four percent harder than last year. It does seem the power/speed sags in the middle when there was no one to chase but something to work on next year.

After the race I can't sit down for about two hours on a chair or a bike saddle due to the tender sit bones, may have to change saddles next year...

Changes? Wonder how much time a 100 mm deep wheel would get over a 60 mm deep wheel. Someone I spoke to had almost the same power output but his time was about four minutes faster. He's been in the wind tunnel, though, and last I saw he had a custom 18cm long stem. Not sure if I am up for that kind of dedication. :)

Otherwise, not sure what else to do to improve except increase the power, and maybe use the under the jersey camelbak as my mouth was parched at the halfway point and it only got worse as the miles went by, and judging by this picture, learn how to apply numbers. Also, the helmet makes my butt look bigger.



Thanks to Mark and Paula for the photo!

Photo © 2007 Mark A. Adkison, Ph.D., Hors Categorie Photography



T: 50:10
NP: 257
AP: 256
HR: 187
C: 93
S: 39.9

Mount Hamilton Road Race 35+4

Stats going into this race
CTL: 134
TSB: 7

Lost CPU about two miles before finishing my post ride 38 mile cool down so no data except the parts I remember. Doh.

Also managed to tweak the hip I did not fall on three weeks ago, perhaps as compensation or in a really long hypochondriatic search for a worst case solution - leukemia or the bone necrosis. Whatever, I assume it's just a strained muscle and have to get out of the saddle for pretty much every hill for the past two weeks.

On the plus side, if logistics for the riders is difficult, it's ridiculously hard for the promoters and they pull off an awesome job again this year with reg/marshals/EMT (even for non participants...)/refreshments/and a feed from the SJBC car sweeping the course at the end of the day!

Recognized one of the riders as MVV Bill, at six foot plus it's hard to miss him. The race started off much slower than last year as I was able to ride at close to FTP on the first short hills. Even so, since I lined up at the back, I had to close a lot of gaps when riders got dropped on the descents. On the last hill before the longish flat section leading to junction my chain fell off, but I didn't panic and was able to shift it back on with hand and catch the group pretty quickly on the descent but had to burn a match. Then we started going slow leading up to junction and it seemed a lot of riders were riding really close since they couldn't go faster than the riders in front of them, and they didn't want to give up their position by slowing. Then the slow motion ballet of riders going down started playing out in front of me with eventually three riders falling, and about ten of us slowing or stopping. Since it was still mostly flat and the pace was still slow, the chase to the pack was over pretty quick. Then we started the first rises on the big climb. I remember really having trouble here last year because we went so hard from the gun but this year I was able to follow, along with thirty of the forty five starters, at a pretty mellow for a race pace, at about my FTP. This continued for a really long time. Finally by the mid point of the climb, the mountain goats came out of hibernation and started accelerating out of the pack. I think I was nearly last of the thirty or so but just went at my own pace and picked off about a dozen riders. At this point I thought only about ten total riders were in front with three about one hundred yards ahead when one larger rider caught me from behind. He encouraged me to work with him to catch the group ahead so I rested a bit and pushed the pace a bit as we crested the hill and got us to within twenty yards. We lost them on the next hill. I could not see anybody close to us from behind as we crested this last big rise, and we committed to chasing these three down. This went on for a good five miles and we never saw them again. I thought we were in trouble when I kept dropping my on the road companion from Valley Spokesman as we were descending and he was much bigger than me. We, on the other hand, were caught from behind. Eventually we became a group of ten. This turned out the be the main pack as far as I can tell. At least this made the ride to the final descent much easier as more people could share the load, but it felt like some folks weren't pulling their weight. While I was in the middle of the paceline an insect of some kind flew into my helmet. Ordinarily I would stop and get it out but I really did not want to get dropped so it stung me a couple of times before getting tired of listening to me whine. On one of my turns at the front while going uphill I ramped it up to a much harder pace than before but this only caused a slight separation in the group so I waited until the last two sharp rises before the narrow bridge and attacked in earnest. My Valley Spokesman companion for the two man time trial joined up! So we worked together for half a mile when the other fellows behind us woke up and decided to try, and they chased us down. Since most of the other guys were much bigger than me, wasn't sure of my chances in the sprint but at least the attacks had given me good position in second wheel. On the final, crazy descent, three riders, who hadn't shown any cards in our little group, attacked and were joined by Valley Spokesman and gapped me and the rest. I was able to make up ground on the descent and first accelerated in the final straight to reel in the EMC rider, then got to the front three who helpfully weren't paying attention to the midget on their wheels. I saw the 200 meter to go sign and this finish hill was much shorter than the hill I use for long uphill sprint practice so I just went when it started going up, and gapped the rest of the field by about twenty meters. As it turns out there were fourteen folks ahead of us, so I ended up 15th/45. The max power I had on this sprint was really low, only 11 w/kg but I must have kept it high for a long time.

Compared to last year I felt much better after finishing this year, even after riding back to my car it felt like I had a ton of energy, just not strong enough to keep up on the long hill.

3rd Annual Mount Hamilton Century Plus, LGBRC/MVV

Someone wanted to see this data. Milipitas to Mount Hamilton, Mines, Del Valle, Livermore, Calaveras, Milipitas.

19 May 2007

T: 6:53
D: 171 km
S: 24.9 kph
TSS: 391
kJ: 3554
AP: 144
NP: 185



When I got home, I was so hungry I could almost eat what was on the kitchen counter:

Berkeley Hills Road Race

In the interest of sabotaging myself worse than last race, managed to unclip from a pedal during a sprint and roll about thirty feet on Foothill on Wednesday, then went out on Friday to watch yet another sequel and subsequently spend way too much time discussing the merits of different zombie flicks, i.e. any time.

Also lost fellow race carpooler with cold feet, in spite of this, managed to make the start of the race with plenty of time to spare.

The 35+ 4 race filled in forty eight hours so I signed up for the elite 4 race. Conditions were about fifteen degrees cooler than last year and also nobody had done Cat's Hill the prior day as we did last year so the race would probably be harder.

In this regard the race did not disappoint. For the first forty minutes, even though I was just sitting in, it was about ten percent harder than last year. A combination of younger and fresher legs probably contributed to this. After the turn from the flats, it was strung out for the next six miles and we passed the P12 women pack. Tried to rest a few times but at no point could I really coast and hang with the pack due to the terrain and pack speed.

What was really irritating is that the exact same spot as last year, about forty minutes in, at the middle of the first longer hill, I lost contact with the pack. By itself this hill is not that hard, the rollers in the leadup to the hill compound the difficulty.

Well I've paid so still need to race so for the next forty miles. Chase and am chased by a few fellow refugees from the cat 4 pack. Played the game of trying to see how long I could hold off the P12 women's pack since we had passed them. This only turned out to be one lap. Just for fun followed at a discreet distance up the last hill and the P12 women were going at about 4.3 w/kg for the four plus minutes, but they seemed to all be pretty comfortable as no one was dropped.

Actually felt stronger than last year and did not cramp (and fall over) and ended up finishing in about the same time this year, even though was solo for most of this year and with the groupetto last year. Also didn't want to disappoint all the kind folks yelling in support, so had to go hard.

CTL: 134
TSB: 6
Pavg: 181
Pnorm: 217
S: 29.5
C: 90

Cat's Hill 35+ 4/5

Teammates: none, one registered, DNS :(
Field: 75
As prep for this, did a century + going over Mount Hamilton and back over Calaveras last weekend so was able to ride a bit less during the week and still have a fairly high level of fitness after a small taper:
CTL: 133
TSB: 9
Lost a bit of weight with the century but the ice cream and movie popcorn at work dashed the best laid plans so only squeezed a one kilogram weight loss compared to Wente. Too hard to say no to cherries on top of chocolate covered chocolate ice cream, then there's the 31 cent scoop day at Baskin Robbins...

Have not finished this so my first goal was to get farther than before with the pack, then finishing without getting pulled, not much but gotta start somewhere. During the warm up going up Kennedy, dropped the chain every time I shifted to the small ring, so I had to fix this, and make sure it worked. Last year I just used the big ring the whole race so I wanted to try something different. Was able to downshift to the small ring on the straight before the hill every lap, stay with the pack and go up the hill in the 34.

The first two laps it felt kind of easy, but probably was that way for every one's fresh legs. By the fifth lap, I was ready to cry uncle. Cheers from friends and teammates kept me going as I did not want to let them down. It's only about twenty five seconds up the main part of the hill to the stop sign so I made myself think - every one else is suffering just as much, and then trying to work as little as possible anywhere else. Found I was able to gain a lot of ground by just not braking during the last turn onto the finish straight, being in back helped as I could choose whatever line and follow distance, but made it a bit chancy as one had to constantly maintain vigilance and pass folks who were giving up. By the eighth lap it felt like every one let up a bit from the ferocious start so tried to recover whenever possible on the descent/flats while the respite lasted. On the next lap came round the corner at the bottom of the hill and there was someone stopped about ten feet in front of me, had to look behind, steer around and not think about how close we came to a collision. By the last lap only about half of the field was left.
Going out of turn one I could see some riders getting really close to the outside curb, then riders and bikes falling. Tried to go for open ground to the inside but the domino effect went too rapidly and had to slow to avoid hitting someone in the back. This left a big gap to the main pack of twenty or so ahead of the crash. Went to try and close this gap on the hill and did not have the legs for it, so cruised into the finish, meeting a couple of goals: getting farther than before, and finishing, but oh so close to something more...

T: 29:14
S: 36.1
C: 92
Pavg: 198
Pnorm: 273
D: 17.6 km

Wente Road Race 35+ 4/5

My preparation for this race involved staying out till two in the morning and then getting a leg cramp when I first stepped out of bed. At least I have cut out the daily ice cream and have got my weight down to 67kg from last years' 69kg at the same race. This year I concentrated on *not* leading the group up the feedzone hill and this and the weight change helped immensely as I was able to hang on well past the overpass with the main group of forty or so. The last of the hills after the overpass was my undoing, just could not pedal fast enough in the 34-26 to keep up, either need to cut out the daily M&M rations to cut down the weight more or get an even smaller gear... The group was only about thirty seconds ahead but I had already used everything keeping up, maybe should have gone till I had blown or caught. After a few minutes on the downhill some other folks caught me from behind and we worked together for the next 45 miles, they were stronger than me on the downhill and headwind sections, and I could comfortably ride at the front on the long uphill sections. The same calf that cramped this morning started cramping again so I tried to massage it a bit when I could. The next to last time up the finish hill simply followed the guy in front of me and we dropped the others by about a minute. Since we were well behind by this point I figured I would try something in and see if I could solo in the last lap. This was working fine until my leg started cramping again and I had to ease up. When the groupetto caught on the descent, I slipped back in but just as I was easing into the rotation my calf totally seized up and I had to wave them on. I alternating stretching and massage and after a minute I started pedaling again gingerly. Was not making up any ground nor losing any by the time we go to the flat section, when thankfully the rest of the groupetto caught me. This enabled me to get a bit of a rest and I was able to close the final gap for the rest of the guys. The last time up the hill I was able to ride away from the groupetto (to be fair many of them said they were saving it for the crit tomorrow) and catch five or six other stragglers. If I could just lose another three kg... On the positive side stayed with the group ten minutes longer than last year, with pretty much the same fitness so the weight factor is enormous for me and this group and this course.
TSB: 11
CTL: 128
T: 2:30:34
PAvg: 178
PNorm: 214
C: 90
S: 30.7
VI: 1.2

Santa Cruz Classic Crit 2007

Teammates in the 4's: Filip V., David P., Steve S.

TSB: 0
CTL: 128

Signed up for the 4's and 35+ 4/5, figure doing the early 4's race will give me an excuse to find a great parking space, get a few laps in to get used to the course, make sure my shifting works because I plan on using the 34 and ride with some teammates. Fifty seven show up for the fours which doubles the field size compared to last year. The race starts off hard and feels hard for the eight laps I am with the group, then tailgunning at the back off and on for the next two laps when the fellow I am wheelsucking gives up on the hill( it turns out we are both going to do the 35+ 4/5 race later ) and I really don't want to bury myself to catch up just to finish in the pack with a second race later. My shoulder starts acting up as well so I figure might and I consider packing it in but figure I will just not sprint too hard in the next race. For the twenty minutes we are in contact with the group I get a Pnorm of 255 and Pavg of 208 which will turn out to be about the same as the later race. Filip manages a twelfth with tired legs while the rest of us DNF'ed.

Forty eight in the field for the 35+ 4/5 which is about twice the size of last years' field as well. Managed to show up early enough to snag a front row position and prime photo ops. I always snap in quickly so after the whistle find myself comfortably off the front going down the hill. Have to force myself to soft pedal up the hill as I am definitely not strong enough to spend much time at the front and don't want to give into the temptation to go too hard too early and folks start passing on the little dip after the first rise. Immediately notice that a lot of people have to get out of the saddle to get up the steep part after the 90 turn/stop sign. Since I can't pull very hard with my arm have to spin a small gear, better for me but laziness makes me like the big gears... As soon as I get comfortable with this group on the hairpin, the next time through, a few riders are sprawled in the apex so the rest of us have to thread the needle to get around safely. None of us is strong enough to stay away for long so it always regroups on either the climb before the stop sign or the climb after the stop sign, even while tailgunning for a bit I find I can manage this with a little effort. If only being able to use one arm for pulling isn't enough drama, my right foot slips out of the pedal and I realize my cleat has worked it's way loose, possibly due to striking the ground hard in the hairpin a few times. Now I get to see how I do with one good wing and one good leg in the sprint... With three to go I think about moving up and latch onto a rider's wheel as he barely makes it past some riders in the gutter on the left during the descent and then I think better of following him but he does put me in the top twenty. I hold this position for the next two laps and the last time up the climb the first acceleration puts a gap into me but I accelerate in the small and manage to make up ten places, on the main part of the climb. Now I hesitate as last year I was actually boxed until closer to the line, doh, (the file shows me not pedaling for five seconds) then wake up and try to spin a bit more and realize this is too small a gear for this part of the climb and then go to the big ring (it works) and accelerate again and get close to the front (I swear the winner is only two bike lengths ahead) but run out of real estate as my throw earns me ninth of forty eight.


T: 29:42
Pavg: 198
Pnorm: 257
S: 35.8
C: 98
H: 176

Ronde van Brisbane 35+ 4

Teammates: Doug H.

Entered this race pretty fit for me, CTL of 125 and TSB of 3, but a bit overweight at 67kg due to a lot of chocolate cookies, cupcakes, and ice cream for birthdays at work... Got dropped the last time I did this race at about three laps so I decided to play it pretty conservative and not do any more work than necessary until the end game.

Great race organization and course as usual for Pilarcitos with the start at the crest of a longish, not so steep hill, going into a right hand steep descent with a 90 left at the bottom leading to a long descending backstretch with a 90 right going up a bit, down a bit, then rolling up the longish hill to the finish. We had half the road with the other half of the road open to traffic.

During the race I found I could just start at the back of the group at the top of the course with a gap and catch the group by the right hander at the bottom of the descent so I didn't worry about keeping right in the draft, but this came back to bite me during the race. During the uphill portion about where everyone lost their momentum from the descent, the pack spread out pretty wide and slowed a lot so there was another place to recover or get back in the group if necessary.

The uphill portion was taking us between 2:30 and 3:00 and the descent was taking us about 1:30 each lap. This felt hard but doable and the post ride analysis shows this is below my FTP.

At four or so laps to go, a couple of riders went off the front and I could see them and Doug ahead of me in the pack, and thought, good for them, felt like I was barely hanging on! We did ramp it up slightly in the latter parts of the race, with some folks trying to catch the breakaway. With two to go, as I was running up on the back of the group again a rider pulled in front of me and braked really hard in the apex of the turn. Sort of freaked me out and I had to slow and felt the tires slipping, and I pulled out my inside leg for some outrigger action but it didn't come to that but I had to sprint like mad for once to catch back up this time going downhill.

During the next to last ascent I made a stupid mistake. I had been going up in my 50x26, and then started using the 34x19 to give my legs a respite the last couple of times but I shifted under load going from the little ring to the big and spent about ten seconds getting the chain back on and lost contact. Doh. There was only about fifteen seconds to the group with one guy just off the back. I decided to just use this fellow to get back up. Unfortunately I was concentrating too much on wheel sucking and not enough on getting back up as the group disappeared by the time we got close to the crest and we would not be contesting the finale. Should have drilled it instead of being lazy and drafting, had a lot more in the tank - waaahh. Only managed to catch a few stragglers but at least I improved greatly over last time, was not pulled and finished (with an extra six pounds of chocolate).

T: 50:27
Pnorm: 241
Pavg: 199
S: 36.2 kph
C: 97

March 17 Beat the Clock Time Trial Canada Road

Managed to wake up late again(!) and had to rush over to Woodside to park and get ready for the half hour *training* time trial. I asked that I start in front of Peter Tapscott to give both him and I some extra motivation since our times were so close last time, little did I know he was one of the first people scheduled so we got a super early start at 7:34. This time I took it a bit easier in the days before the event and came in with a CTL of 122 and a TSB of 3.7 so hopefully a bit fresher. Equipment-wise the same except I mounted the disc wheel cover on my rear spoked wheel, good for thirty seconds to a minute over an hour so maybe fifteen to thirty seconds on this course. Wanted to go a bit harder over TT pace on the uphills this time and easier on the descents as one wants to minimize the amount of time going slow for the best time. I thought Peter had a chance at catching me on the outbound leg and this idea kept me going, it turns out I had almost the same split on the outbound leg as the last time. Managed to mess up the turn around this time by going in too fast, taking a long look around for cars, then braking really hard to avoid hitting the curb. I could see an Alto Velo rider very close behind me after starting the in bound leg so I wasn't sure if this was Peter or the two minute man, and a two man team a bit in front of me so both a rabbit and a chaser to keep me honest on the inbound leg. I never saw the team in front of me again, but the chaser caught me on the next to last riser, and it was impressive how much faster he was. ( I think he's a cat 2.) After he got twenty meters I tried for a little while to use him for pacing but it was a little over my head so I went threshold over the next to last rise and put everything into the last hill. This was the only point where I got out of the aerobars to climb as the speed dropped down to thirteen for a bit. I thought I saw some other racers in front of me and I caught them but it turns out they were just out for a ride. Was pretty spent by the end, losing about a quarter pound of drool, just to try to catch anybody in front of me and to keep anyone else from catching me. Managed to cut about forty five seconds from my last ride on the inbound leg so either it was less windy today or the pacing was better, ended up finishing about forty five seconds quicker than last time, too. Still have a bit of room for improvement as I have done better for the same amount of time in some other events so if I have the chance to do this again I have another target for which to aim.

T: 26:05
Pavg: 245
Pnorm: 247
C: 95
H: 181
S: 37.3 kph

Beat the Clock Canada Road TT, Feb 17

The reason I have not been doing much posting lately is that I think I have a compressed disk in my neck so I can't pull or push on the handlebars very hard or I get a shooting pain down my arm.   Even without the shooting pain there is a constant pain from the left shoulder down the arm, and sometimes in the neck, which varies in intensity, along with a varying amount of tingling in the same areas down to some of my fingers.  This is about how I felt in the last CCCX cross race and some testing every once in a while with hard efforts out of the saddle or hitting the odd rough spot in the road gives the injury a chance to remind me that it is still there.


But there's lemonade to be made and after playing a bit with the pursuit bike I found that I can ride in the aero position on the time trial bars with less pain than I have when I am sitting upright in a chair at work so I found an outlet for some pent up race jones'ing. Also I want to test my fitness as my CTL is finally starting to teeter over 120 TSS again and I was topping 4.0 w/kg on OLH repeatedly. The Beat the Clock series is a fund raiser for the
Lance Armstrong Foundation, which no matter what you think of its namesake, helps cancer survivors. Since it is not a race, the traffic is not going to stop for the riders but at least they have marshals around to warn you if you are going to need to stop or slow.  The course is a gradually descending 5 mile outbound leg and a gradually ascending five mile inbound leg, most of the elevation change in the first mile of the course and a series of rollers to the turnaround.

We had to pre reg for this race and got our start times via email which was a nice touch. Found myself slotted at 7:40 AM(!) behind multiple district and national champion Al Morrison and a few others I recognized as cat 1 and cat 2 so I was sure I was not seeing them again until they came back from the turnaround and two minutes behind me was scheduled someone who beat me by six minutes at Dunlop TT (about twice as long ) last year so I had my work cut out if I wanted to either not get caught or catch anybody.


I tried preriding the course in the same gear I have on my pursuit bike but had to use my arms too much which wasn't an option with the neck thing so I just stuck clip on aerobars on my road bike.  The other equipment concessions to aerodynamics were shoe covers, skinsuit, aero helmet, Hed 60 front wheel.  Also put on the Vittoria EVO tires with latex tubes to try them out in anger for the first time.   Considered upping the gearing from 50x11 but didn't want to mess up the shifting and if any time needed to be made up, it would be better done on the uphill sections, not the fast bits.  

Normally one has to be concerned about going out too hard but since I can't use my arm too much did not worry about this and got up to speed fairly quickly with the assistance of gravity.  Not much to say about the rest of the ride except that since the course was rolling, one has to try to go harder on the uphill sections and a little less hard on the downhill/downwind sections.  Felt like the outbound leg went really well and no one had caught me and I could see the riders who started before me only after they had started coming back from the turnaround.  I glanced down at my elapsed time and it was twelve minutes then almost missed the turn but the helpful marshals waved me through.  I did not catch anyone and no one caught me on the inbound leg either but from the results it looks like the guy who whooped me at Dunlop came close.

Examining the data reveals I should have 

a.) gone a little harder on the downhill sections, especially after cresting the hills it looks like I rested too much or was satisfied with going fast and not thinking about going hard

b.) already I went out about ten percent harder twice this week for the same length of time but those were constant intensity efforts and not stochastic like this, maybe need to try to make this more constant so I don't need to make a judgement on balancing the high/low intensity load.  In either case I should be capable of a much better time and if I get an aero rear wheel instead of just using my normal 32 spoke wheel can save some time there as well.

c.) took three minutes longer on the uphill split.  I might have saved a bit too much for the last five minutes which was my max five minutes for the day but not that great for me, was hoping to average that power for the whole event!

Pavg:240
Pnorm:242
T:26:48
S:36.7 km/hr
H:182

CCCX #5 7 January 2007 Fort Ord East Garrison

Teammates: Mike S.
Friendly rivals: ~15 including Grant S.

Missed about a month of racing due to illness and work.   Finally got my fitness back up to a semirespectable level.  The tradeoff with doing the short races on Sundays is that one has to decide if one is going to try to do well and taper a bit and let fitness fade a bit by passing up the opportunity to ride hard on Saturday or just keep training to raise or maintain fitness.

For some reason my shoulder that was sort of bothering me on Saturday was really bothering me by the time I got to Monterey but since I had driven that far I figured I had to ride.  It only hurt when I used my left arm so if I fell, I would try to roll on the good shoulder...

The course was changed a little bit with more hairpin turns added and full road closure on the road bit.  Even though it was hilly, the longest one only took about thirty to forty seconds so it felt like a fast course.

Managed to bend the inner chainring during my last warmup lap so decided to do the race with just the big ring.  Probably could have used a small ring but this really only hurt the last two times on the biggest hill.

Slotted in at about eleventh of thirteen on the first climb and fought off Mike for two laps and then he just rode away from me on the parts where one had to brake, just like on the road ride the day before!

Salvaged a 12/13 on the day with the threat of being lapped in the last lap motivating me a little bit, and 14/46 overall for the series.  Afterwards, did the MTB trails around Fort Ord then did a lap on the Fort Ord road race course.   For a non local, Fort Ord roads are pretty neat because most of it was closed to cars so one only sees hikers and other bike riders on the roads.

Power seems kind of low, freshness and snap not there due to burning a lot of matches trying to hold Rob, Filip and DiskZero's wheel on Saturday.
ATL: 127
CTL: 112
TSB: -14
Pavg: 172
Pnorm: 201
H: 171
C: 78
S: 21.1
T: 46:27
D: 16.3 km

CCCX #3 26 November 2006, Manzanita Park

CCCX #2 26 November 2006, Manzanita Park, Prunedale
Teammates: Mike S
Friendly rivals: ~20

Lost some skin off the hip sliding down Montebello a couple of weeks ago and it grew back in time for this race. For this and other reasons missed the last three race weekends so had lots of riding time but no racing with a ATL of 135 and CTL of 118 going into the race, fit but not very fresh with a TSB of -17...

Keith and the gang promised a new course and delivered with a change up from prior years, missing was the one short and steep runup, this was replaced with a shorter runup and overall the course felt a bit faster, a nice change from the past. At this point in the season only the guys who have a shot at the overall and the real diehards show up and Mike and I fall into the latter category. Mike said he only rode his bike once all week. What surprised me was he was hot on my heels for the next forty odd minutes! I could never drop him and he could never quite reel me in, either. Early on he passed me, bobbled the runup and I never saw him again. I managed to knock my PowerTap CPU loose so missing data from the middle two laps.

Pnorm: 198
Pavg: 165
H: 173
T: 26:13 - about 16 minutes
S: 20.7

Surf City Cyclocross #2 Watsonville, 35+B

Teammates: Mike S, JD in the C's

CTL is settling in at about 115 and FTP is going down from road season highs.

The venue was double booked so there were some last minute course updates, I really liked the course (as much as one can like suffering...), as it was a change from prior years with a little bit of everything, lots of pedaling opportunities and only one set of barriers, the course providing several natural dismount opportunities, and avoided the stables. Went with the bike with 42mm tires as I have been too lazy to put racing tires on the bike with thin tires.

Weather was cool and slightly overcast, with ground still dry. If it had rained, our laps would have been twenty five to fifty percent longer with all the off road hardpack trails.

At the start I lined up behind Morgan and at the whistle he came to a complete stop after only about fifteen yards. This puzzled me, I saw him afterwards and he showed me that his fork steerer had sheared off right at the stem. Good thing we were going slow. Anyways, found myself even closer to the back and saw lots of folks way ahead of me that I should be near at the end based on this years races so had my work cut out.

After one lap my time was about 9:00 flat and Casey and Tom had set out the lap cards saying two to go already! Think I set my sights too low as I get behind people and get comfortable there instead of trying to pass them to get to the people in front of them, I was with one group of folks and we almost caught the next group. I decided to not pull again at one point because I thought we were going to catch but that was a mistake as they pulled away for good at a technical section and I had to brake hard for the folks in front of me. That's what I get for being too lazy. On the last lap I could see the mountain bike guy who was going back and forth with me for the last three races but could not pull him back, also the C leaders caught me in the last kilometer so I had to try to not interfere with their race as well.

Finished two minutes plus back of the winner which I guess is not so bad but only beat ten people. One more race before I have to go out of town for a mid season break so maybe I will try a different strategy at McLaren Park.

21st/32

T: 27:02
S: 22.3
C: 79
PAvg: 186
PNorm: 214

Pilarcitos #2, Superprestige Cyclocross #1, Candlestick Park, San Francisco - October 2006

Teammates: Mike S.
Flat, not that bumpy and a little dusty but since we raced early, the course was still a bit solid and not the sand pits that later racers got to endure. The barriers were set up in a couple of places so that if one got back on the bike, one was going to have to pump the pedals pretty hard to get up a short steep five foot hill or stay off the bike and just run.
Got the usual back of the pack start with Mike and Juan, and got to draft some folks on the long road section on the first two laps, was not feeling too great trying to keep up so on the third had to ease up and duked it out with the folks who caught me.
Could see a few folks that normally beat me just ahead with two to go and turned on the afterburners but could not close the gap. Did catch someone from Cyclesports with whom I race with a lot on the road, he had slowed significantly so I wasn't sure if he was fading or saving something for the last lap so I tried to drop him towards the end of the penultimate lap but he responded with an attack of his own on the long road section and I could not find another jump in me so ended up just behind him. Went with 30 PSI front and back and the tires felt a bit squishy on the road section and too hard on the bumpy sections so that must have been just right.

T: 42:29
H: 184
S: 21.6
Pavg: 170
Pnorm: 191

Surf City #1, Soquel High School, 15 October 2006

Teammates: Bob S.
Friendly rivals: Benoit, Juan

Since tapering didn't seem to help my performance for the last two races I decided to just enjoy the bike on Saturday and did a 90+ mile ride with the LGBRC proto crew, didn't seem to affect my performance today, either.

Cool temps and overcast skies greeted us at registration, so we're getting closer to real cyclocross weather, at least for here. The course was changed up a bit, for the better in my opinion, reversing the hill near the tennis courst from previous years, and adding a new section over some culverts into some unused fields. Bumpy but not like Hellyer, with a long gravel access road thrown in for some variety with a thirty step runup, and 100 meters of road for the final sprint, instead of the 50 meters of gravel we got last year.

Much smaller field than Pilarcitos, not sure why, so was able to get second row out of four on the start line. Since the race was shorter than the other two series, would have to start and go harder for the whole event.

I still could not convince myself to go hard at the start due to fear of blowing up so stayed with the others with a tiny bit of precarious front wheel right on someone elses skewer action even with only about thirty guys during the gravel road start.
During the first lap, I had to brake heavily to avoid hitting people from behind in most of the corners, managed to pass most of these guys by the second lap and behind a new group. There was quite a lot of back and forth action and the occasional super C from the second wave catching us. The runup was a bit long for my five second running sprint so I ended up making up most of my ground by not braking as much for the road corners, and the long fast descents. On the third lap one of the guys I passed in the first lap retook the lead and I ended up chasing him until the final straightaway and fell short by two seconds. Could see Bob S coming up on every long switchback and was surprised he did not catch me, was more surprised to learn this was his first cyclocross race!

18th/28
T: 28:43
H: 180
C: 72
S: 20.1
Pavg: 159
Pnorm: 193

Pilarcitos #1, Superprestige Cyclocross #1, Hellyer, San Jose - October 2006

Teammates: Mike S.
Friendly rivals: 54 including Juan, Benoit, Mark from Pen Velo, former LGBRC Chris P
Got to the velodrome early and met the usual suspects. Chris D insisted on preriding the course on the bum leg. The first thing one notices due to the lack of recent signficant precipitation is that the course was hard and bumpy and stayed that way or the somewhat loose descents that would become more loose and more sandy as more traffic went over it. The laps were surprisingly short at a leisurely warmup pace as well. The longest incline was less than twenty seconds, and the course used the other six foot tall bumps for runups and descents and we ended each lap with a tour of the velodrome. Even though the course was mostly flat it was still hard to get a good rhythm as the bumps threw me all over the place and I could not stay seated except on the trip around the velodrome and out back to the course. I ended up going with 30 PSI in the front and 25 PSI in the back.

Went out conservatively and heard Benoit cajoling me towards the front but the other 52 folks up there were not cooperating during the crazy start so we would have to wait until the barriers or the runups to make any ground. The *big* runup was short enough that I convinced myself to sprint up it to try to make up ground, and to not let down the people gathered there to yell for us, this was where I passed the most people. I got passed mostly on the bumpy double track or the one descent that took one right into the tree trunk, pictured here:

Juan got a good start and it took me a while to reel him in - I am not sure if I should try to get a better start as I have blown up every time I have gone from the gun in a cross race. Maybe next time...

The best part of the day was the San Jose Bicycle Club's junior program season ending picnic. Andrew Lanier barbecued food and handed out prizes to all the kids.



30th out of 54
T: 38:47
C: 80
S: 20.2 kph
Pavg: 161
Pnorm: 187

CCCX #2 1 October 2006, Fort Ord, East Garrison

Teammates: Mike S, Benoit D.
Friendly rivals: ~30

Great day for a race with moderate temperatures and an overcast sky in Seaside. Course started in the middle of a gradual road road with a circuitous route off road with a mix of single and double track typical of the trails around Fort Ord, back to the bottom of the road climb.

Started in the back because the first descent was sketchy with tree branch barrier that would cause a big bottleneck, we would all be rushing to funnel into there, just like Sea Otter, so no point to burn a match to get in a line. We started so close to the prior group that it was possible to catch them on the first time up the hill. Maybe that would have been a better strategy, dunno, but I don't think I passed or got passed by that many people in our group.

I could see Mike just behind me on every switch back so he was doing pretty good for someone who was sick and hadn't ridden during the week. :)

The one big hill took less than a minute so even though it looks intimidating, I should have pushed myself harder as I was trying to only go at a little over FTP, this was way too low.

I was dueling with the same Sycip rider from last week and was pulling him back when he had an unfortunate mechanical. This left me riding by myself for most of the rest of the race. During the last two laps a SCCCC rider starting catching me so I concentrated on riding hard on the hills and flats and under control and not making any mistakes on the technical spots. He actually got pretty close on the last straightaway but I was able to hold him off for the glory of 17th place.

Managed a bit higher NP for this week's race so that's an improvement.

17/32

T: 46:02
S: 22.0 kph
C: 78
H: 179
Pavg: 164
Pnorm: 204

CCCX #1 24 September 2006, Prunedale

Teammates: Mike S
Friendly rivals: about 40.

I felt pretty good on the start/finish hill but after blowing up here a few years ago, held back a little on the next parts of the climb, felt like I had way too much in the tank after the finish and ended up riding two hours on the road bike afterwards and felt like I could rip the cranks off...

Tried to go hard on the climbs and recover on the downhills and flats, but ended up resting too much on the flat sections, and possibly should have accelerated harder out of the many technical turns - harder to motivate oneself sometimes versus a crit where it's do or die and get dropped. The other fields also played a mental part for me, when I got passed by riders in other fields, in attempt to not interfere with their race, let myself get complacent about passing people where I could. Gotta get that killer instinct.


T: 53:03
S: 20.1
C: 78
H: 179
Pavg: 152
Pnorm: 192




P.S.

Part of the reason the report was so short is I hit my head pretty hard on the last lap so it made the race a bit of a blur and. Had decent technical form mid race here:
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=253859545&size=l
But feeling a bit of pressure from a rider behind me on the short, steep runup, and managed to do a face plant, my recovery from that was captured here:
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=253859559&context=photostream&size=l

3 kilometer pursuit, masters 40-44

Events got pushed back about three hours due to events running over from the prior day so plenty of time to get ready. Used the Hed 60 with Michelin Pro Race 2 in the front ahd the CH aero disc rear with a Vittoria Open Corsa Evo with the 50x15. ATL was 95, CTL was 116, TSB was 16 so supposedly I should have really good legs according to the Training Manager, also worked a lot of high L5/VO2max lower duration intervals during my taper so specific workouts to address just this event for the prior week.

An odd number of entrants so I get to race by myself on the track, a rare luxury, and concentrate on a good start, not blowing up after too hard a start, and maintaining an even tempo after two laps. The standing start is surprisingly hard on the legs and feels excruciatingly slow but I get on top of the gear by the backstretch like in the kilo and am somewhat surprised and hesitate for a bit to get in the aerobars but decide to stop worrying and get aero. When I look down to check my power after one lap it's at 480, and I'm wondering if my SRM is out of whack or what. It turns out I just looked at it during my peak of lap two but at the time I wasn't sure if I should hold back more on the throttle or just go with it and decide to push it hard on the headwind part and pedal slightly less on the tailwind part of the track. After four laps I am feeling horrible, but after doing a couple hundred VO2max four to five minute repeats on Moody and Mt Eden this year , know that I can push through this, and just picture my progress on one of those climbs and keeping up the pace no matter what. Brian Peterson is kindly giving me splits which at first I was not paying attention to then realized I was keeping pretty consistent laps and something else to keep my mind off the pain. With two to go I feel like I have a second wind but hold onto it until a half lap to go when I am able to accelerate into the finish. Now I am thinking - I should have done that earlier because I had a little bit left at the end. The four hour coughing fit afterwards cured me of that notion. The muscle soreness in the hamstrings and glutes is unusual - this typically only happens to me when braking a lot using the legs.

Set a new personal record of 4:03 and change (versus first time last year at 4:24) and new two minute and four minute power max averages, and the first minute was only about 5% less than my kilo start yesterday. The average for the four minutes is higher than I can generally do for two minute L6 repeats which had me doubting the data so I calibrated the SRM again to check and I know I zeroed it several times before the event.

All I have to say is wow, the training manager does work.

T: 4:01 (two seconds different from recorded time, SRM doesn't start recording until after first revolution of the cranks )
H: 186
C: 107
S: 44.1
P: 376

Track Districts 2006

Used the last two race weekends to fine tune my work weekday taper and found that about a 100 TSS day every day of the week except 50 to 75 TSS on Thursday and Friday led to a 10+ TSB day on Saturday, the hardest part is holding back on Thursday and Friday. Had an ATL of 101, CTL of 117, and TSB of 12 for today's events.


Used the sprint bike with the Michelin Pro Race 2 on a H3 in front and Vittoria CX Open Corsa on a CH aero disc in the rear with a 50x15 gear.

I managed to screw up and lose count of my laps and was doodling along at fifteen mph in the front stretch when I got the bell. I had laid out a plan of ramping it up at L6 for the entire last lap and making the sprint into a longer effort but threw that out the window and started stomping on the pedals for the last 335 meters, took what I thought was a bad line and just tried to spin and prepared myself afterwards for confirmation of a poor result. Somehow I still set a personal best of 13.28 seconds in spite of the impromptu change in plans with an approach I may never have tried otherwise.

T: 29.5 for full effort
S: 48.7
C: 116
H: 174
Pavg: 10.8 w/kg






Used the pursuit bike with the Michelin Pro Race 2 on a Hed 60 in front and Vittoria CX Open Corsa on a CH aero disc in the rear with a 50x15 gear. Got in a good hour's rest between the end of the 200 meter time trials and this. Did a bit of practice this week on the standing starts, my peak power consistently was about fifteen percent less than a sprint with a rolling start. Maybe need to work on that more next year. Got on top of the gear in the middle of the backstretch, a bit before I expected and just got ready for the pain, and was wheezing for the last two laps of the ride. Set a personal best one minute power and a personal best time of 1:17 and change which was barely good enough for second in the 40-44 group.

T: 1:16 ( the SRM only starts recording after the first revolution of the cranks so first second plus is missing )
S: 47.8
C: 114
H: 185
Pavg: 7.5 w/kg

9 September 2006 Carrera de San Rafael

Friendly rivals: Phil from BRT, Mr. 270+ career wins and still a cat 4 :)
Teammates: none

This course has a long gradual uphill start/finish, a short, sharper uphill right, a long gradual downhill, steep downhill turn right and a right turn into the start/finish straight.

I was just going to sit on the start line for staging but someone told me we would have five minutes while they towed a car so I went off to take a couple of laps but they staged us after the first lap. Doh, again. I got stuck at the back and prepared myself mentally for working pretty hard at the beginning to pass the riders who would be dropped.

At the gun, lots of riders had trouble getting clipped in and filled the width of the start finish (crowded even further by the fancy start/finish arch ) so as soon as we got up to speed we at the back had our work cut out for us as I could see the lead riders already at least one hundred meters up the road at the turn. During the first five laps I had to work pretty hard to continually pass riders who were getting blown out the back. Finally got in contact with the lead group on the seventh lap and tried to recover a bit, about 4.3 w/kg NP for the first ten minutes, unfortunately for me, the hardest effort of the race. After a bit I was able to surf up closer and closer to the front. The most difficult part of the course is figuring out who is braking too much in the final downhill corner and who was taking it without braking, and following them. If someone took the corner well one did not have to pedal very hard but if they blew it, one had to put in a big effort to get back on the pack. In our group the hill was doable in the big ring, I never shifted from the 50 but did use the 23 in the back a few time to save my legs.

With about half of the race done, the loud explosion of a tire rang out in the last corner but it seemed fine until folks started braking a bit much and then I saw someone faceplant. That took the wind out of my sails quite a bit and set a new goal of just finishing, but still had to make up about thirty meters on the pack. Burned a match on the two uphill sections of the course, did tempo on the downhill, and looked back for help and a Cyclesports rider was game and took us the rest of the way back up to the pack, but it still took me three laps to get my breath back.

During the last four laps I made the same tactical mistake that I did at the Giro of only trying to move up on the steep uphill and getting stuck but I really wanted to go to work on Monday, so I did not try that hard otherwise to position myself for the sprint and finished in the middle of what was left of the pack. Had to brake a couple of times to wait for an opening during the final sprint.

This was possibly the hardest and longest criterium of the year for me. Disappointing with my result but can say I finished out the season with zero crashes and probably the best fitness I have ever had. Now if I could just get my head screwed on right for the tactics part of this. I need courses that are hard enough to whittle down the field due to attrition but not so hard that I get dropped in order to do well. I am really surprised I have done well in races with short hills - my short time interval power is relatively low and my longer time interval power is relatively high which would lead someone to reach the opposite conclusion for racing success.

13/75 ( 25 finishers )


T: 47:52
C: 101
H: 174
S: 40.6 // this is faster than a lot of the flat criteriums I did this year.
Pavg: 196
Pnorm: 241

Giro di San Francisco 2006

Used the 50/34 with 11/23, stayed in the 50 for the short climb as the speed of the pack is decent going into the base of the hill.
35+ 4/5 race:
Teammates: Doug H, Jim W
Friendly rivals: Bianchi Juan, Nakamura-san, Mark S, Travis from Pen Velo, Mr. 270+ career wins :), Phil from 3BRT, others.

Came into this race with a CTL of 120 and TSB of 6, so hypothetically fit, and neither super fresh or tired.

Managed to twist my skinsuit jersey sleeves into my rear wheel like a dork but just dirtied them up a bit during some recon laps of the course early. At the whistle I clipped in quickly and looked for an early attacker and someone from Metromint went so I just followed him. He powered us to a small lead and when I looked around when we exited the back stretch I saw it was only ten meters so I eased up and let other people bring him back, but noted he took the last two corners really well at about 30mph. Slotted in towards the front of the pack and never really felt pressured because if one timed it right it was possible to coast most of the way up hill with a few strategic pedal strokes. After a while the pace felt downright pokey on the uphill section. Halfway through the race I saw the riders in front of me part as a rider with his rear wheel in the air was in the process of cartwheeling prior to the next to the last turn, he either locked up his front brake or caught his front wheel in a crack and I picked the left side of him to go by and he slowly went rear wheel over front wheel, so I don't think he was hurt badly as he held onto the bars most of the way. This unnerved me a bit so it took a while to calm down. With six to go wanted to move up and every lap there was plenty of room on the left after the bridge on the hill so I waited and just went straight to the front and found myself with a fifteen meter gap by the start of the next to last turn. I hesitated here as I was not sure if I could hold the pack off for six laps and decided to ease up on the front stretch. I let about ten people pass me and got back into the group and onto Keith's wheel as he was the strongest person I knew in the field. I was able to hold it until three to go when on the first corner, a few people managed to bring each other down I believe after getting their wheels into the trolley tracks and both Keith and I had to brake hard but Keith got right back to the front in short order but I could only manage the back of the front group. Was starting to get impatient and with two to go came within a couple inches of Doug as the entire pack came almost to a standstill in turn one, hope I did not affect his race as he said he slowed down for me as I was trying to yield to him, doh. My position and Keith's did not change much from here to the finish as Keith won and I was about 20th and had to stop my sprint after 50 meters as I could see there was not going to be room to pass anybody safely.

Possibly I should have just stuck with it when I had the opportunity for a six lap solo or taking some inspiration from Keith's adrenaline inspired move after the accident and just moved right back up again but I was too conservative with my matches at six to go and probably overthinking personal safety at three to go.
T: 44:02
C: 81
S: 39.8 kph
H: 166
Pavg: 191
Pnorm: 235






4/5 race:
Teammates: Doug H, Jun A, Keiran C
Friendly rivals: Nakamura-san, Mark S, Travis from Pen Velo, Mr. 270+ career wins :), others.

T:42:08
C:88
H:168
S:39.8kph
Pavg: 185
Pnorm:222

Felt a cramp coming on after the first race so ate a Clif Bar, Gu, and one bottle of electrolyte and did not have any issues during the second race. This race felt harder at the beginning but was really easier, probably just the fatigue from the earlier race. No accidents that I saw versus the five that were reported in the 35+ 4/5 race. This race was really frustrating because after about halfway through I wanted to move up but found myself confounded by the narrowness of the bridge on the uphill section. I should have tried an alternative like burning a bigger match on the downhill right after the uphill but was too occupied with saving myself for the end. Next year... Was able to get behind Keiran, Jun, and Doug but not able to help them out any unfortunately for a mid pack finish. The only consolation was I was able to get a decent 15w/kg 5s sprint in at the end. I really felt fresh at the end so this was a pretty disappointing ending.

My take away from this is that I was not flexible enough with where I could move up, moving up was definitely possible on the downhill, especially with so many people barely moving at the top, I just was too comfortable with moving up on the hill from the earlier race and finding it just easy, and not willing to make myself suffer a bit more to move up on the downhill.