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