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.

26 August San Ardo Road Race

Race: 35+ 4/5 A group
Field: ~45

Started using the Training Manager and planned on taking two easier days on Thursday and Friday. Managed to crack two molar crowns on Wednesday so had to go to an emergency dental appointment on Thursday and never got motivated to ride farther than the post office on Thursday and Friday did one sprint and a short vo2max interval so my TSB on Saturday was 15, the highest it's been this season. Supposedly -10 to +10 TSB is about neutral but above that one can expect to be feeling fairly fresh and my CTL going in was 120 so hoped for good results, given my low FTP.

Used 50/34 with 11/23 cassette - could have gotten away with a 12/25 and never used the small ring, as it was, I found myself in the italian turbo 50/23 a couple of times.

Got to San Ardo a bit early after a little less than two hours ( the way 101 lets people turn left from the left lane near Soledad is pretty scary in the dark if one doesn't drive there often, this often entailed going from 85 to 20 not a few times.) How do I know I am getting old? My bum knee hurts just from driving for two hours...

Had time to scope out and ride the finish route a few times. The center line rule was going to be enforced except after the finishing left turn up hill so position in a large field was critical. It was about one mile from the staging area of the start to the finish line with one small hill, a downhill, then slightly uphill the rest of the way including going under 101 and the finishing left straight into the wind. Probably not hard enough to break up the field so if it came down to a sprint finish I planned on attacking just before the last turn.


Most of the harder hills in this race occur right after the start and continue for five miles, then it's more gently rolling with one small hill then pretty flat for the run in to the start area. The other times I've done this race I really did not like being behind too many people on the descents because of the excessive braking required so I made an effort to be near the front on the peak of every roller or hill so I could bomb down the descents.

At the gun, a big EMC rider and a big Alto Velo rider set a high pace. I wasn't sure if they were planning on sag climbing or were seriously considering going solo for 63 miles but went along anyways. After the underpass it was just the AV rider so I hitched a free ride for a bit. Then he punched it again on a steep bit, I looked behind and the field was not that far behind so I did not think it wise to waste a bullet here and eased up and let some other folks pull him back.

At this point it became apparent that the strongest riders showing their cards in the race were the large EMC rider, a rider with a tan kit from SoCal, a Winning Wheels rider that got top ten at Fort Ord, and a rider from Team San Jose. The EMC rider either wanted to sag climb or just wanted to be at the front and spent a lot of time breaking the wind in the first 2.5 laps. The Winning Wheels, tan kit, and Team San Jose riders would put strong pulls at the front in the flat sections and as I sat on each of these riders' wheels came to the point at which I did not wish to exert myself that much and let them gap me, this is what they did to other riders as well and they were often off the front for a few minutes at a time on the flat sections.

We caught a group of ladies just starting up again after finishing a pee break, and this gave the other old coots an idea the next time we went through the feedzone - they called for a old slow male pee break. I was going to stop but someone said my name and told me to keep going so I softpedaled behind ten other guys as we took it easy for a while. Got to the first steep pitch and someone asked if everyone was there and they said yes, and the tan SoCal guy took the opportunity to attack. He had a ten to twenty second gap until the last of the rollers when we reabsorbed him, but he kept staying at the front and trading pulls until the start of the last lap when the EMC and San Jose riders were taking long pulls on the flats. I decided that I would either follow the tan SoCal or San Jose in the lead up to the final mile as they seemed to be the strongest folks left in the bunch. My calves started cramping after we finished the first set of rollers so I had to stretch and self massage a bit and did as little work as possible while staying at the front, although I took a few pulls.

In the last three miles or so the San Jose rider sat on the front and I just sat on his wheel. Was expecting one of the larger teams to perform a leadout train, perhaps there was one behind me but I did not see anything. As we headed into the left turn a Mako rider made a move on our left. I let him pass me then stood up and accelerated into the turn, putting everything into the pedals, using the full width of the finishing straight to cut inside of him. Did not look behind and felt myself fading close to the line, then the San Jose rider put a couple of bike lengths into me in the last twenty meters or so (pretty impressive after leading it out!), and feeling really deflated, I soft pedaled and a Pegasus rider took advantage of my poor concentration and earned second by a wheel ahead of me as I took third.

I'm happy I had the patience to execute the plan I wanted to use and stay near the front for most of the race, but unhappy I made such a silly mistake near the line. Think I also overgeared for the finish as my cadence and power during the final sprint were pretty low - next time...

Hardaway tells me I need to work on a killer instinct and not give up at the finish line. Fight until it's over and not one meter before...

Place: 3rd/~45


T: 3:07:33
S: 35.8 kph
D: 112 km ( if the flyer was correct, this should be closer to 101 km )
C: 88
H: 164
Pavg: 155
Pnorm: 207
TSS: 223
IF: 0.84
VI: 1.33

Spent about 35 minutes in or above VO2max training zone.



The last bit of the race felt a bit like the LGBRC club ride or Spectrum sprint at Canada, just a bit easier, wonder what the much bigger San Jose rider was doing:
T: 6:47
S: 33.9
C: 95
H: 178
Pavg: 3.6
Pnorm:4.4

LGBRC "social" ride

So there was a discussion on the club ride about the difficulty of the ride versus a race. This week's ride had the smallest amount of climbing possible without going to extremes - Foothill from Los Altos to Stanford, Almeda de la Pulgas to Jefferson, Canada to Crystal Springs and back.

T: 2:22:49
S: 28.6
C: 86
H: 152
D: 68.0 km
Pavg:150
Pnorm:211
TSS:177
VI 1.41
IF: 0.86



So about the same amount of work as one lap of Dunnigan Hills with a lot more sustained efforts versus the spiky data from Dunnigan Hills. Spent about a half hour at or above my vo2max training range versus only twenty minutes at Dunnigan Hills.
Jefferson climb, dropped by Filip and Diskzero, but Alfalfa was able to bridge up to them after spotting them about one hundred meters at the bottom:
T: 8:06
Pavg: 4.5 w/kg
Pnorm: 4.6

Canada to sprint:
T: 6:08
Pavg: 4.3
Pnorm: 4.7

Climb to Sawyer Camp:
T: 2:55
Pavg: 4.5

Bridge up to leaders and climb Crystal Springs and blowing up:
T: 7.39
Pavg: 3.6
Pnorm: 3.8

Climb out of Canada:
T: 7:39
Pavg: 3.8
Pnorm: 4.0

Racing up Sand Hill:
T: 2:02
Pavg: 5.4

Dunnigan Hills 19 August 2006

35+ 4/5
Field: 60
Place: 39, in back of the main pack
Teammates: none
Friendly rivals: Nakamura-san, Nelson

Race was running about thirty minutes late so had an extra long warmup. After looking around went with the 11-23 cassette in the rear and the HED 60 in front - ended up leaving it in the big ring for the whole race.

At the start, Paula the referee joked about a 43 mile breakaway, but a couple of guys whom I knew did that last week at Patterson jumped at the gun so I got up there and we started a paceline. There was one other guy from Fusion Sport in there who either did not know how to ride a paceline or was trying to disrupt it because he did not slow down any when he pulled off and really did not rest and was not contributing much after the first couple of pulls so after six minutes we got caught. Stayed in the top five for the first half hour of the race and the effort felt somewhat like a flat crit, with a AP of 206 and a NP of 240. I looked back and saw we had most of the field intact in spite of some rolling hills so I drifted to the middle of the pack and the difference was pretty big - AP of 137 and NP of 168 for about an hour. The effectiveness of the draft of the pack was so large that I spent most of the time when going uphill alternating braking with a few pedal strokes here and there. Since the centerline rule was in effect the whole race and the field filled the one lane roads, it was pretty hard to move up so I just enjoyed the ride. The next twenty minutes was on a couple of flat roads before the turn on the the four kilometer finishing straight. Spent a bit of energy fighting for position but it really didn't matter in the end, I could have done most of the passing on the overpass after the turn as it turns out. Knowing what I know now, I should have just gunned it on the overpass and take whoever could keep up with me. As it was, I braked a bit and sat behind the four guys in front. There was a lot of jockeying for position and we soon got the one kilometer sign. I was three feet from the centerline and moved to one foot from the centerline and the guy behind me complained about me cutting him off. So I pulled over and offered to let him go first but he refused. I should have waited a bit longer but figured now was as good a time as any so with about eight hundred meters to go, I jumped. I lasted five hundred meters before blowing up and getting passed by the front few guys, then the lead pack, then the second pack, and just soft pedaling over the finish line. The last seven minutes had a NP of 4.8 w/kg, which was OK, but the club ride last week was harder at the midpoint sprint. The whole race felt too easy - I tried a couple of breakaways but nothing stuck and quite a few guys were able to just wheelsuck to the end due to the non selective course. Maybe I'll try that or the two lap race next time this race is held.


T: 1:58:11
S: 37.8
C: 87
H: 170
D: 74.5 km
Pavg: 165
Pnorm: 212
TSS: 148
IF: 0.87
VI 1.29

TSTWKT

This is a snapshot of the long awaited Andrew Coggan training metric or TSTWKT in his words for my 2006 season so far.



This is one of the reasons it might be good to download every ride file - just in case someone invents a tool or algorithm that can be used to analyze the data for a post mortem.

Blue represents the chronic training load (CTL) or fitness for a given athlete, the pink line represents the acute training load (ATL) or recent training activity, and the yellow line represents training stress balance (TSB).

Thursday Night Racing at Hellyer 10 August 2006

Cat 3 Omnium
Field: 9
Teammates: Jun

Had to scramble just before the start to find a rear wheel for Nick since he noticed his had a broken spoke, could not find one with the cog he wanted so let him borrow my old Specialized trispoke. His current wheel must really suck because he said he felt like he was flying with the trispoke.

10 lap tempo:
The field was strung out pretty right away. After four laps found myself near the front three and felt the field was slowing so I attacked and got a small gap and was off the front for two laps. I was about to get caught when Jun countered and got a big gap so I was able to just sit on the front and sprint for second on the next lap and then folks passed me to attempt to chase down Jun. This chase went on until the end of the race so Jun was able to get enough points to win but we caught him on the front straight so I had to sprint and got second behind Nick on the final sprint for second overall.
T: 4:32
S: 45.2
P: 344
H: 183
C: 108

Someone from Olympic jumped at the gun and I chased and got on his wheel after a lap and he gave up. I gave it a go and had the whole field on me so I gave up after a lap but no one wanted to get in front of me so I sat near the front at tempo for a couple more laps. Just as it was my turn again to pull, I could see Nick accelerate from the rail, I was standing and considered jumping harder but I saw someone shadowing me so I figured I would let Nick go and see what happened. Nick stayed away until the very end. With three to go, the tall Specialized rider jumped hard, it took me a half lap to close and I sat in to recover. I spent a little too long getting comfortable because on the last lap when we were only about twenty meters behind Nick just as I was going to pull out into the lane to sprint I heard someone yell stay so I just paused a bit and let folks pass me. Coulda, woulda shoulda, got sixth and no points.
10 lap scratch:
T: 4:43
S: 42.9
P: 310
H: 183
C: 102

Since there were only eight riders left for the miss and out, the longest the race would be is seven laps - unless a rider got confused and did not pull out. I thought I could stay on the front for that long. What I did not count on was being neutralized twice so I had to be on the front for nine laps. I went straight from the back to the front during the start, jumped at the start whistle and settled into a pace I could maintain for seven laps. The one mistake I sometimes make is easing up too much so I concentrated on working hard, especially into the headwind section and the uphill part. A few times I could hear someone accelerating to attempt to get in front so I, too, would accelerate just a bit, and having the advantage of less distance to cover, managed to hold off everyone attempting to pass me until we got the bell lap for the final lap. I could hear the other two riders stand up and accelerate on the backstretch behind me so I attempted to sprint but had nothing left and came in third.
Miss and Out:
T: 4:44
S: 40.9
P: 323
H: 186
C: 98

Got third of nine(?) in the cat 3 omnium.

Was in the pack for the first ten laps, when the bell rang for the first sprint, the cat 2 rider in front me let a gap open, Jun was able to close it, but I could not hold his wheel and died a slow death. The two riders off the front, jandy and p-dizzle ( I don't make up these nicknames, I just report them), soon caught me and I just sat in behind them and made it back to the pack by wheelsucking for ten laps, this was much easier than working solo. Then there was another bell and I was dropped like a rock. I lost five laps in the next thirty laps to the lead group, just could not hang with them at all after the beginning of the race, but got in a good long effort.
50 lap points all hands race:
T: 23:02
S: 40.8
H: 176
C: 97
Pavg: 249
Pnorm: 262

Timpani Criterium 6 August 2006

35 +4/5 race:
Teammates: none
Friendly rivals: Keith D. from CCCX.
Felt a bit tired after having to course marshal for four hours. Same course, long rectangle with two short straightaways and two much longer straights. Wind was a big factor so that the front straight and the straight just before this had a tailwind and the other two straights had a headwind. This meant the best place to attack was before turn three so a small group or single rider would make the best use of the wind. Spent the first third of the race near the front, managed to get behind some riders who braked excessively in some corners and had to fade back to the tail of the pack, spent the next third of the race getting back to the front and found myself on the back of the three riders leading the pack, all from the same team. The front rider gapped the pack by about twenty meters, and the gap was growing when I saw the lap cards say five to go. Took half a lap to get on the leader's wheel when I could tell he had just given up. Doh. Got reabsorbed into the pack in short order, let myself get too far back in the pack and ended up behind way too many people when the final lap bell rang. On the backstretch there were enough riders to fill the entire road but none was interested in going very hard so it was a bit sketchy and hard to do anything positive until the last corner when finally it opened up a bit, and was able to get one good effort >15 w/kg to finish mid pack.


T: 38:46
S: 41.8 kph
C: 84
H: 167
D: 27.0 km
Pavg: 182
Pnorm: 219

Fort Ord Road Race 35+ 4/5

Teammates: none
Friendly rivals: Bob from EMC, Keith from CCCX, Wayne from CVC

This was on the altered course from prior years, excluding the main Barloy Canyon climb.

The pack stayed together until the turnaround on Eucalyptus when Keith attacked a few times a couple of riders dropped off. As we descended toward the bottom of the one big climb, first the P123's caught us, then the 45+ group caught us. This made the climb quite confusing. We should have neutralized but the folks in front just pushed the pace anyways. I've ridden this before but could not remember just how long the climb is - it's about half a mile. I made it half way up then blew. Looking at the data, I could have done this and probably caught the group on the descent if I had paced myself instead of trying to keep up with the leaders.
For the four times up the hill I get:
#1: T: 3:21
P: 5.0 w/kg
#2: T: 3:54
P: 4.3 w/kg
#3: T: 3:50
P: 4.3 w/kg
#4: T: 3:34
P: 4.7 w/kg
Somewhat disappointing since I have topped the numbers from the first time for a longer time period during training and track races, and even the last time up I can repeat lots of times during interval training, and at that rate would have left me something in the tank for a chase. There is one small climb that takes about 40-50 seconds with a two minute descent just before this climb begins that makes this climb harder than it would be by itself. If there is a next time, I am just going up the climb within my limits at an even pace and chase if necessary.

Anyways, after the first time over the climb, found myself about 100 meters off the back, and about 100 meters in front of the next set of riders. Unfortunately the next set of riders were 45+. So I had to wait for a couple of miles before someone from the 35+ 4/5 group caught me, Wayne and someone else. We worked together and lost the other guy, then another rider from our group passed us and stayed solo in front of us for the next three laps. Wayne was much stronger on the flats and I had to hold back to not drop him on the uphills so it was prudent for us to stick together. A couple of times Wayne wanted to give up but I encouraged him to keep going because he was a really good wind blocker! I started having trouble shifting to my big ring during the last two laps so I had to use my hand to shift up. On the last time up the climb, Wayne got his second wind and was pressing me the whole way on the last climb and I finally gave up and got behind him because the breeze felt like a factor. I could not shift into the big gear for a ceremonial sprint for 20th or whatever at the end so Wayne got in ahead of me easily.

Spent 40 minutes in or above VO2max zone.

T: 2:20:41
Pavg: 171
Pnorm: 222
S: 29.5
C: 87
H: 170
TSS: 192
IF: 0.91

Watsonville Crit

Field:64
Teammates:Chris P., Jun, David P., Daniel H.
Conditions:85 and humid
Used 50x34 with a 12/25 cassette. Tried 11/23 during the warmup but never felt very good in the 50x21 by myself on the hill so played it conservative and went with 12/25.

Arrived a couple of hours early so I could get a long warmup and eat lunch as my race started at 12:50. Traffic was bumper to bumper on 17 even before 10:00. Ran into Chris P and he said he was switching to a Santa Cruz club because he lived in Santa Cruz, made sense. The course starts on a gentle hill with a slight right then a short steep downhill into a 120 right, short straight into the wind, 100 left, longer straight with a truck on the left side, 90 right, maybe 20 meters with a truck on the left side, 90 right, long straight into the wind, then back to the finishing hill. Ran into Jun and he asked for advice and I told him to be careful of pedal strikes because almost every corner ended up being off camber because of the crown of the road. Funny thing is I ended up hitting my pedal in every corner once and actually sliding for a bit on the pedal one time. It was so hot at the start that parts of the asphalt were starting to melt. Done this race twice before and been pulled twice so my first goal was to finish and if possible do something at the end. For the first third of the race I fought for position at the front and this felt hard but it really wasn't according to the data. So for the next third of the race, settled in at the middle of the pack. With about ten laps to go, sitting mid pack, it looked like a lot of guys were trying to squeeze into a small space in one of the turns onto a straight with a truck parked in it, possibly razoring each other, so I started slowing rapidly in anticipation, then the two guys directly in front of me touched bars and started going down so I slowed a bit more and started sliding my rear tire and then lifting the rear due to a lot of front brake action, stopped braking, and barely maneuvered around them. Took a couple of laps to regain my composure and started moving back up the pack. Each of the last six laps got faster and faster but I felt pretty comfortable just moving up on the hill and defending that. With one to go I got up to about fifteen position and held that onto the final straight. What I should have done was sprint all the way from *before* the last corner since the front straight took fifteen seconds total, however I paused so I could draft off the guys in front of me on the front stretch who both stalled and then blocked me. I attempted to split the two guys in front of me but right as I went between them one of them started rocking his bike back and forth. We touched handlebars a couple of times and I started wobbling due to the impact but recovered, but didn't make up any more ground. That was my totally fault for trying to go through a hole that was not there, so afterwards I apologized and he was a good sport about it.

On the one hand, happy to have finished with the front of the group, on the other hand, really frustrating because I felt I left a lot in the tank and could have done better - that is exactly what the data shows - not that much harder than just sitting in during a flat crit. It can be hard to stop enjoying the draft sometimes and do some work. This felt hard possibly due to the heat and the strong coastal wind on a couple of the straights that strung the pack out.

T: 40:29
S: 38.3
C: 77
Pavg: 192
Pnorm:212

place: ~15/64

This is the shirt. Did not win this but sometimes if you officiate at a race you can get some schwag. At first I was trying to figure out why the person on the bike is wearing lederhosen but on further examination the picture is apparently of an old time rider.