Nothing Like a Race

I was eager to get out there and do some racing today. The weather was pretty nice and since I haven't really ridden with anyone all offseason, I really wanted to test myself.

My coach said I should not try to win the race but focus on trying to get in 6 hard efforts of about 3 minutes. Basically that was my interval schedule for today. So, the only difference between today and a regular interval day was to be that I don't go all out so I could avoid getting dropped.

Another trick that he passed to me that I'll pass to you, because it worked as advertised: if you're doing intervals off the front, stay in the middle of the road and let the pack swarm you instead of moving to the side. It is much easier to get back up to speed and tuck in.

So, to any of you who were pissed at the Coppi guy who kept going off the front and then sitting up, sorry. I was just doing my intervals. I would start each one when I was about 10 or 15 places back and then I would just try to shoot up the side and then get a little gap on the field and go pretty hard until the next turn. I'm getting to know Tradezone pretty well, so I expect the field to bunch up at a few places and for the most part, it always does. I was timing my intervals so that they would end at about one of the spots where the field always slows anyway.

I'll admit I didn't have the pacing just right. I would like to have done the whole 3 minutes (about one lap) at as close to 340W as I could stand. I tended to jump out at something over 600W and then stick in the 300's for a while and then softpedal into the corners. It doesn't make for those table smooth interval graphs. In fact, because my HRM was going all crazy all day that doesn't go so well either.

My Training File

I hope that works. It should be a link to my workout graph and then from there you can download the actual WKO file if you want. In the WKO file I actually marked the start and end of the race, but in the trainingpeaks graph you can't see it.

So, the race. Well, I'm glad it was a training race. As much as getting ready to actually race, I had to get my stuff in the car and get to the race. At some point during the morning I had to hunt for:
- my license
- water bottles
- my sunglasses
- my extra wheel
- hat (never found it)
- gloves (never found them, did you notice my fashionable, non-cycling gloves)
- powermeter

It was nice to see all of these people I know again. I had some good warmup and by racetime I had shed some of my layers and was down to just some shirts and a thermal vest on top and my knickers and some nice, wool socks with booties on bottom. I was going to wear my St. Patricks day socks, but they are cotton and thin.

The race was a little delayed because of an ambulance tending to a C race crash. The butterflies were ther but I felt pretty relaxed. Maybe because I am getting more experience, maybe because it's a training race, maybe because I was just there to do intervals. We were off, racing had begun.

For the most part, I stuck with my plan of hard efforts followed by a few laps of spinning in the pack. I was amazed that if I sit in the pack, out of the wind, I can put out 150 - 200W and hold my position. Once you get out into the wind though, things ramp up over 400W very quickly. At 400W I'm not good for very long.

There were a few crashes in our race and some rubbing of wheels. There was also some guy who must have had the wrong pads for his wheels. A few times he put on his brakes and this loud noise like a siren or howling woul make us all jump.

Because of the interval workout, I got to the front pretty often. I wasn't really paying attention to the race though. Bryan and a little group escaped, I think he started during one of my intervals. I remember shooting off the front and then looking over to see that he was riding point at the time. He escaped a short time later.

It was good fun I think. Going into the last turn I was placed in the top 10 or so of the field but I didn't execute the turn well and went wide and lost a lot of places. They don't place you after 3rd, but I counted fewer than 20 in front of me after we crossed the line.

Next week, I'm gong to be a soccer dad, but I'm hoping to get into the UMD crit or another Tradezone before Walkersville and Tysons.