Syracuse Road Race Cat 5

This was the day of my big marathon.  Obviously, that did not happen.  I decided against running it due to the heat predictions, and they certainly came true!  So I wound up in Syracuse racing the somewhat confusing CAT 5 event with teammate Bob Nugent.

Instead of starting us every 5 minutes as advertised, they sent us all out there.  About half the field was doing 55 miles, Another third was doing 27 and was in the over 40 division, and a few (seven of us) were in the under 40.  And the start was great, I wound up in the front.  And then the endless, rather fast downhill.  10 miles into the race I was at the back of the peloton.  The race separated into two groups, and despite a furious challenge, I didn't make the cut of the first group, and as a result, most of the second group passed me before I could latch on.  I recovered, rode in with a group of about 15, again, no idea here who was in what race.  I had a nice climb on the last hill and at least finished first in the group.  I was thinking that I might have won my race... but found out later I was second.  Then yesterday I checked again and was third... so I am not going to check online anymore and call it third!   Bob wound up a solid 5th in his much larger group!

Not my favorite race ever, but I really did like the finish, and words cannot express how happy I am that I didn't run that marathon!  I will now spend the next ten-twelve days putting in a hard training block before heading with my wife to New Hampshire for her Ironman 70.3.  Next up for me, Wilmington-Whiteface in three weeks!

Syracuse Road Race.. M35+/45+

I am on the fence.

Part of me wants to be happy with this.  The other part is just not all that happy about it.

This season has been odd for me.  Like most of us, I got a lot of training in over the "winter" and came out in pretty decent form.  The downside of that is that the early season events (with the notable exception of Hornby) were stocked full of people who all trained hard and came on like gangbusters early in the season.

So after absorbing way too many defeats, I thought it would be best to avoid the really big events for a while and focus primarily on training and threshold improvement.  I think this has been the primary reason why I have felt pretty good about the bike in the past week or two, although I didn't really want to spend most of Bristol alone or with one other rider.

So I was on the fence about even signing up for 'Cuse, but I figured I'd give it a chance, as I've seen a few signs of improvement over the past week or so.

Rather that have one good-sized Masters field (as would seem logical to me) they prefer to run fields together with separate scoring at Syracuse.  I knew this going in, so the fact that there were only 5 in my field didn't sway me from doing the 35+.  I knew the 45+ would be the main body of the field, and, at this particular locale, the hammers tend to be mostly 45+.

Funny thing about age.  You'd think people slow down as they get older, but sometimes it goes the other way.  I knew who the heavy hitters were, and for the most part they were all in the 45+ field.  What I had to do was make certain that none of the 35+ guys (we all had different number schemes) got away from me.  Then see if I had the legs to make a race out of it.

This strategy didn't work all that well once the first breakaway that really mattered happened on the wall and ensuing grind on lap one.  This section has been my nemesis at Cuse every time I have done the race.  You just spent 8 minutes climbing, then get a very short descent, and then a major attack on a 20% wall requiring everyone to go deep into anaerobic mode, followed by another 4-5 minutes of VO2max climbing.

After the carnage ensued there, the principal breakaway was far enough up the road that it was tough to tell who was in it, although I had a pretty good idea of who was there.  Fortunately we formed up into a good-sized pack again and chased immediately.  Blessing/curse.

Blessing because we were most likely going to catch them.

Curse because the effort it would take would most likely mean that by the time we hit the hills on lap two, many of us were going to be pretty worn out.  This is exacerbated by poor technique, as some riders inexplicably have yet to learn the truth about "working together" and gaps would appear, people would surge, slowing down the overall pace.

Eventually we figured out how to ride together and got into a decent rhythm which brought the breakaway back just about at the boatyard.  Once we were "Gruppo Compatto", the pace slowed down dramatically.  They were going fast, we were going fast.  Nobody wanted to go fast any more and we abruptly went from 30mph to 15 or so.  No complaints.  Certainly none from me.

This friendly pace did not last past the turn onto the hill road however, as the tempo increased bit by bit, until, as the grades increased above the 10% mark, things blew up again.  I did my damndest to catch up to the 4 or 5 riders ahead who were certainly going to make this one stick until the end, but my legs just would not make that happen.

Again we formed up a (now reduced) peloton and resumed our chase rotation.  People were skipping pulls.  I think they were mainly just worn out, rather than being crafty.  We caught a Cookies rider in no-man's land who I spied as the only 35+ cookie guy who I remembered being in the race (or so I thought) and swallowed him up.  By now there were maybe 8 of us left, and 4 or 5 up the road.

I thought I had a shot to win my division in this one so I started skipping pulls and trying to conserve energy.  Once the final corner came, Cookie jumps ahead and starts setting a high pace on the hill.  I grab his wheel and stick to him.  A minute later and we seem to be alone.  I figure all I need to do is keep this up and then have a good shot at sprinting past him at the line.  He increases the pace and...

I blow up.

Fuuuuuuuuu

I can still do threshold pace though so all is not lost.  I am pretty certain that Bruce R (35+) is far enough back that if I just hold onto threshold to the line I can sew up second.  I do this, being passed by a whole mess of 45+ guys and not really caring.  I cross the line.  Sort of happy that I made second.  Sort of pissed that my legs gave out at the crucial moment.

On the fence.

I go for a warmdown.  The Quarq conks out.  I figure the battery finally died.  Incorrect.  It's dead and needs to go to the factory for the second time in 6 months.

Fuuuuuuuu

I get back to the parking lot.  Chris tells me I was third.

THIRD???

Who the eff was up the road?

Turns out there was another Cookie who signed up day-of.  I did not see him get up there but he did.  Third.  Out of the money.

Fuuuuuuuuu

But....

I felt better than I did the week prior.  Baby steps.

Fence

http://app.strava.com/rides/8970120

Bristol Road Race Cat 3

After spending the whole weekend of Tour of the Dragons in the basement on GC courtesy of the same ultra-strong 40+ field that crushed me at Battenkill this year I thought it would be better to try the 3s for this one.

As expected, the speeds were slightly slower, attacks were not quite as brutal or long-lived, but (even though several of the other fields were combined) we were in a pretty small group of 15 at the start.  Fifteen for a hill race on a windy day is probably going to mean trouble.

And trouble it was.  The first lap, as expected, was an attack fest.  I (not thinking of this race as any more than a training session) was quite active on lap one, taking a few more pulls than I should have, and doing a bit more chasing as well. 

I still had enough in the tank for the first two climbs, but there was a split on the second climb, and we formed into two groups of 5-6 or so.  My group (the second one) was doing a pretty good job of dragging back the first one when, inexplicably, a young rider decided to attack our chase and blow everything up.  He compelled one rider to go with him, one to stay with me, and two to drop off, never to be seen again.  I kept my pace steady, eventually catching up to the attacker (who must have used up every match he had left in his futile bridge attempt and promptly dropped off and abandoned the race.)  This detonation of our group was the nail in the coffin of our successful chase though. 

A third of the field abandoned this race.  The wind was just too harsh to be out there alone or with one or two other riders.  I didn't let that stop me however.  Having gotten used to riding alone lately in races, I just kept going, committed to catching whoever I could and finishing this one as well as possible.  I caught a rider from Minerva and we spent the second half of lap two and the first half of lap three together, mostly at a pace which allowed some talk, but (especially in the headwind parts) was still very much race-ish.

The trouble with spending so much time in the wind is that once I get into TT mode, it's tough (impossible?) to really hammer the hills.  The strava file shows that for sure, with my VAM way lower on lap two and three than the first lap.

Jeff (Minerva rider) decided he'd had enough on the third trip up the hills and let me go to fend for myself.  At this point I wasn't really able to push very hard.  2 hour time trials (although something I have more experience with than I'd like) tend to deflate me a bit.  It's different from being off the front.

Off the back is a place where the pain feels like pain.  Off the front, it somehow feels different.

But I kept my spirits as high as I could, finishing solo in 8th place.  Not terrible, but not really what I had in mind.  I wish that rider hadn't attacked our chase.

One interesting note:  Perhaps due to the wind, I set my all-time downhill speed record of 62mph on this day.  Bonkers!

http://app.strava.com/rides/8396756  (lap 2 is race)

Du The Lakes "W"

Road racing is fun, exciting, and the ultimate adrenaline rush, but it's also one of the most challenging sports there is.  It's not enough to be fit; one must also be alert, able to read a race, and able to execute the right move at the right time.  The competition is stiff, and there's no room for error.  One lapse of attention or judgement can instantly turn a fun race into a nightmare.  The worst part is, the mistake doesn't have to be yours for it to ruin your day.

This year I decided to try something different in addition to the usual Road Races.  I've increased running into my training and added several running races to my schedule (last weekend I did well at the Thom B 13K Trail Race with a 4th place finish), but wanted to try a combo sport since I've also been improving my Time Trialing.  While a triathlon certainly is enticing, I'm not much of a swimmer and don't have an easy way to train for it, so when I heard of the Du The Lakes Duathlon, I decided to give it a go.

The race consisted of a 3 mile flat run, followed by a 20 mile mostly flat bike, followed by a repeat of the 3 mile run.  I knew that many who do these events are primarily runners, so I was counting on having a competitive advantage on the bike, since I'm primarily a cyclist.  With that in mind, I decided not to hold back too much on the first run, figuring that, even if I was a little tired from the run, I'd still be able to push hard on the bike and get through the second run, and I'd need the fastest time possible to compete with these runners.

That was a good strategy as I was able to do a solid first run, finishing 4th in my age group (30-34) at 20:10, then moved on to the bike and never let up.  I finished the bike at 51:53, second in my age group, but more impressively 6th overall (174 participants including 2 pro Women).  The second run hurt, but I was able to push through, passing my only age group competitor (aside from the 2nd place overall finisher who was in my age group, but didn't get counted in the age group results).

So, I finished with an overall Time of 1:35:04, well below my goal of 1:40:00, and got the "W" for the 30-34 age group, and 9th overall.  I was pretty happy with that.  I don't plan to give up road racing, but I do think there are going to be more events like this in my future.  The event was incredibly well run, and the atmosphere from all participants was friendly.

Full results are here:  http://score-this.com/ResultFiles/20120512DULDResults.pdf .  I also want to give a shout out for Pat Kapinus, and all the Mission In Motion ladies who all did phenominal at this event!

CAT 5 Binghamton Circuit Races

It is going to take a little while for me to get comfortable in a larger pack.  I generally am happier when an early hill breaks things up a bit,  so this race was the one on the schedule I was the most concerned about, and with good reason I guess.  The first race was a tough one for me.  I had a tough time staying with the pack on the downhill and particularly right at the bottom where my momentum never seemed to be that good, so a sprint had to occur pretty much every few minutes.  I was burned pretty quickly.  I stayed with the group (the slowed quite a bit after three laps) but had nothing on the last sprint.  Not sure of my position, but relative to the group, it was near the back.  To make matters worse, I was involved in a crash.  And by involved, what I mean I was the last person apparently to successfully slow in time after a small incident in the front caused everyone to chirp their brakes... I felt my bike get hit, maybe a hand ( or bars) into my back, and a guy hit the pavement.  While not at the maximum speed of the lap, it was still pretty fast where he went down.  I was thankful not to go down, moreso when I saw the small chunk out of my shoe from the collision.  I really wish I hadn't been involved at all though, so that shook me up...

Second race was better.  I figured out where to be to avoid that wind at the bottom of the hill.  The race slowed down about 1 mph, and that helped me a TON!  I was fresh the whole time, and at the end we wadded up with the 3/4 race in to a massive peloton... the 3/4 group were told to stay neutral on the last lap, but they didn't and the group remained tied up.  I slowly followed another five up the back on the back stretch, he broke, I followed and we had clear road up to the finish.  I would up third in that sprint, much of it due to thinking about how the race was going to end up, and the rest of it was getting a little bit lucky that other 5's didn't find the same line.  Third place was a big improvement, and I was happy with it.

Thanks to Brad for supplying this photo.  Going to take a mid season "break" to focus on my upcoming marathon and half marathon before getting into it again, training for the Tour of the Catskills.  Love the new team gear also, so thanks to all involved in organizing that.