Race recovery

I took Monday mostly off and then at Dave's behest and with the generosity of my folks letting me use the car I decided to head to Owego for the TVC Halsey Valley Rd RR Tuesday night. As a guest rider who did not know the course and coming off two hard weekends of racing, I felt a bit unsure about how it would go and if i should bring my phone so I could navigate back to the car should I find myself riding alone. I ultimately decided to leave the phone in the car and hope for the best. I signed up for the A group since four of my ESG Central team mates were also riding A. Off we went. I managed to make the first split (I think it happened within the first few miles) and found myself cruising along in a group of 9 - three ESG team mates, 5 folks I didn't know and me. The pace was pretty steady and pretty fast. I had to hold on or risk getting utterly lost. There were repeated attacks that were chased down by the rest of the field. I did my small part to help close a few down and the 9 of us finished together. 25 miles in just a hair over an hour. I had a blast on a fun course with a great group of people.

Today the legs feel it though.

The Madone is in for some professional TLC ... can't remember the last time I didn't have her home overnight...

No riding planned this weekend. Instead it is off to Pennsic War to be be dressed in 14th century 'garb' by a good friend and to take photos of the event. Dawn has been going to Pennsic for years and has invited me along most of those years. This year I am finally able to make it and Dawn went all out and made me a wool tunic and a dress to wear while there. Should be good times.

Race 15: Tour of the Catskills Stage 2

I woke up Sunday with a headache and feeling a bit low after coughing on and off all night. I decided to start despite feeling less than stellar. I was nervous for the climb up Platte Cove Rd as was most of the women's field. While we were warming up and staging gear ratios seemed to be the only thing the women were talking about. I was also a little bit nervous because I had only seen the last 12 mile of the course and a 10 mile stretch in the middle that we had ridden the day before (a section of 23 into Windham, and the climb out and that long downhill that worried me in Saturday's race). With the exception of a few courses where we did multiple laps, I have at least driven the whole loop before racing it.

The course started off fairly flat and we climbed to KOM1 within 7 miles of the start before descending down to Rt 23 for some false flat rollers into Windham, the climb out and the crazy long descent. This time we made a right off of 23 for a bunch of flat with a few rollers that took us through a super fast (almost down hill) feed zone. After the feed zone was more of the same until mile 45 when we hit the climb on Platte Cove Rd. From the top of the climb in held a few more rollers and a fast descent into a flat finish at mile 56 ish.

The women’s race was odd. We started out fairly slow, but things heated up for KOM 1 when we were still 8km out. I stuck with the main group most of the way and then ended at the top in the second group on the road but we worked together and bridged before the end of the downhill (I barely hung on on the descent). Being back in the field things got more comfortable until we reached the town of Windham. The other groups on the road bridged back up for the most part but they had to push for longer so I am glad I extended myself a little to stick with that second group.

As soon as we crossed what had been Saturday’s finish line, a major attack went off and the pace skyrocketed. It is a gentle climb out of Windham and we hammered it. Things then went into surge and slow mode and people attacked and then things settled and then attacked again. The second major attack came at the beginning of that same long downhill we did the day before. Having ridden it once I was a little more comfortable – hanging 1 – 2 bike lengths back. After that descent we went into rolling terrain for 20 miles and things settled in pretty steady...

Until the feed zone. The feed zone was in a flat and fast spot so it was a bit chaotic in the field going through there. I just moved to the yellow line and stayed there. While half the field was still in the feed zone someone on the front attacked and we went tearing out of there. However, literally 20 seconds later, once we were around a bend the women on the front stopped for a pee break – nearly causing a wreck in the back. I don’t know why they attacked out of the feed just to stop around the bend. I guess someone really had to go. The whole field was stopped (lead car stopped so we all had to).

After we got rolling again things were steady until mile 40. The climb up Platte Cove Rd (Devils Kitchen, 2 miles or so of average 11% grade with some pitches up to 23%) started at 45, but it seems no one really knew where it started. The whole peloton got really nervous. Can't really describe the feeling. There were subtle changes in the demeanor of the riders. We slowed a little. The women started talking a bit more with each other. People started moving around in the pack a little - though not in a way that obviously said they were positioning themselves near the front.

The climb was tough, but I just kept it steady and didn’t worry about anyone else. I had put on my 12-27 and was wondering if that was an easy enough gear. It was. I climbed out of the back of the pack and was pretty steadily passing men and women all the way up. My HR stayed under control, my breathing regular, the legs weren’t burning Yes, I know that means I could have and probably should have gone harder, but I was enjoying the climb. At one particularly steep switch back I must have looked like I was smiling because one of the many many people lining the sides of the road told me to stop smiling and keep riding. The only black mark on the climb was a van driver ignored the road closed and kept stopping in the middle of the road (pretty much directly in front of me) because the riders in front of the van were going slowly and many were getting off to walk. That forced me to the sides of the road where the pavement wasn’t nice and on some of the switchbacks I couldn’t choose the part of the road with the easier pitch. The van kept leap frogging with me and it was making me crabby.

Anyway I stayed on the bike all the way up. Caught someone at the top and another woman caught us and the three of us worked together the last 10 miles of rollers into the finish. Landis was at the race and in the second group of Pro/1/2 men on the road. His pack caught my little group about 400 meters from the finish causing a little confusion in our sprint, but I got to finish with Floyd. Yay or something and stuff. Anyway I managed a 29^th on the stage (out f 48 starters and it only lists 44 finishers), and a 29^th on the GC. Not great results but I had fun, learned a lot, and managed not to get dropped on the big descent!

Results are posted at the Anthem Sports website and at BikeReg.com

Race 15: Tour of the Catskills Stage 1

The Catskills Epic Road Race:

Took a while to clear the lungs Saturday morning, but they felt many time better than the night before. A quiet night's sleep also made Saturday a rosier day that I might have guessed it would be given how I felt Friday night. The day got better at sign in when I saw the results for the first time: my painful, lung busting 9:02 minute effort was good for 23/52 starters and 51 finishers.

The course: Start at the Windham Mountain Ski Lodge and neutral down off the mountain and through the town of Windham. Then it was gently climbing (a few small dips along the way) for 6 or so miles before the first big descent. Driving the course, this descent made me whimper - long, sort of steep in sections, a few curves, variable pavement, and a hard left at the bottom. After that it was rolling for several miles until the climb up to KOM1. That climb went on for a while and then it was down and rolling into the feed zone and rolling and up into KOM2. From KOM2 it was a screaming (ok whimpering for me) downhill with a sharp S curve at the top down to Rt 23. The last 10 miles on Rt 23 were flattish to false flat rolling into a bit of a headwind for what looked to be the potential for a super fast sprint finish. I knew my first key spot would be not to get dropped on that first long downhill. Having been dropped on hills like that before, I was a little concerned. Knowing some of the ladies in the field, I also knew that between 5 and 3 km to go to the first KOM there would likely be an attack and I made sure I knew the landmarks leading up to that spot.

I contrived to hang on on that first long downhill. We did drop a couple of women there, and I was dangling on the back with one to two bike lengths of open road between me and the person in front of me. Not great, but that is a gap I am fairly certain I can close if I need to (provided I am paying enough attention to know it needs to be closed at a given time). I hung with pretty easily after that – drifting to the back of the pack on the downhills and moving back up towards mid-pack on any climb. The first big climb was several miles long with varying pitches, but steepest right off the bat and then again near the top. I focused on keeping a steady pace and a smooth cadence and stayed with the field as the riders started dropping. There was a surge at 5km to KOM and I hung with. At 3km to KOM the expected major attack came and I was dangling and then off. It was curvy in there and by the time I came over KOM 1 I couldn’t see the two women who came off just before I did. Looking back there was no one in sight. Mile 27 out of 52 and alone in no man's land. Crap. There is nothing quite like the sinking feeling you get a you watch the gap grow to the point where the race caravan pulls around you and leaves you 'unprotected'. Don't get a flat now! I found out later that 20 women had been shelled before I got dropped, but I just knew that there was a large pack ahead and some off the back behind.

At least I got to take the short steep down hills at a comfortable pace to me and I didn't have to worry about drifting into somone's line or someone drifting into mine. I pushed KOM 2 just because I didn’t want to lose too much time in teh GC - not that I was in contention for anything, but it is the priciple of the matter and the fact that if you finished too far back on stage 1, you would not be allowed to start stage 2. I do have to admit though that there were times in there where my thoughts went towards "if I got dropped this early today, tomorrow is going to be an even longer TT so maybe it would be a good thing to be time cut". At the top of KOM 2 there were a couple guys on facny motor cycles (tricycles where the two wheels were in the front and only one in the back) and I did offer to trade with them. They just laughed at me and told me to keep it going. As soon as I hit 23 I put it into time trial mode and hammered the final 10 mils wondering if I would be outside the time cut to start on Sunday since apart from a sturggling junion I had seen no one on a bike for 15 miles. The false flat rollers felt completely un-flat and the wind felt pretty strong, but I just put my head down, cranked up to cadence in a big gear and powered it home. I started passing single riders and pairs of riders from the masters field at this point. Having those riders in front of me as rabbits was a huge help. I was hoping to catch one of the other women who had fallen off, so I would have someone to work with, but they were all guys, so as per USAC rules I had to pass them in a reasonable distance and keep on keeping on alone. The field must have slowed down along that stretch because I managed to almost bridge on those 10 miles. I finished in sight of the peloton 37 seconds back. I was shocked by that and by the group of 6 or 7 women who finished together about a minute behind me. There is no way riding alone into a headwind I should have been able to stay away from a group of 6 had they been working together. I managed 31st out of 51. Not great but at least I didn't lose gobs of time and I didn't have to find the snap for a sprint at the finish. I was a little concerned that I had burned up too many matches in my 25 miles of solo riding, but I have noticed that I recover fairly well and hoped that this would not be an exception.

After the race it was time to eat and then I toured the key part of Sunday's race (Platte Cove Rd - the famed and much hyped Devil's Kitchen climb) with several members of the Ommegang Team. The cars were not happy climbing that road, and the nerves for Sunday began to tingle. Once we got back to Hunter from that I went to soak in the river with Dave - the cold water felt really good on the legs and at ESGs I credit soaking after the ITT and the RR with how good the legs felt there. We sat in the river for near an hour - until we got cold. Then Dave went off to a team mates house and I went back to Windham for some supper (greek salad followed by steak and potatos and broccoli) before heading back to my hotel. At the hotel I changed my cassetter from the 12/25 that was on there to the 12/27 I had brought specifically for this race. I took the bike around the parking lot a few times to make sure she was shifting OK and then turned out the light for some much needed sleep.

Race 15: Tour of the Catskills Prologue

Well...

2 mile uphill time trial.

Expected a bit over 8 minutes of complete hell.

I was utterly ready to go for it when we arrived at 10:30 ... however ... my start wasn't until 4:44:30. (I arrived early, because my carpool included a rider with a 12:04:00 start).

I am not good at 'sit around a wait'.

I spent too much time standing up and walking around.

I spent too much time in the sun.

I did not put on sun screen early enough.

I allowed myself to get too nervous.

My focus was minimal.

When it came down to an hour to go I got on the bike and took her for a spin up and out of the town the TT was staged from. Up I went and down and down and down and then back up and to the staging area for yet another bathroom break and more water to drink and then back out of town in a different directions and then paranoid about a missed start back to staging 20 minutes early and just stood there in the sun.

The legs had no snap in the warm up - despite a few hard out of the saddle climbing efforts and some high cadence efforts. I felt great on Wednesday. I felt good commuting on Monday and Tuesday and Thursday. Not in my warm up on Friday though.

And not in my race.

I had a stable and balanced held start. Accelerated the 20 yards to the 90 degree right turn and tried to kick it up that steep pitch. I felt like I was going about 2 miles and hour. The heart rate went up and I kept it there but the legs felt filled with lead. I crossed the line at 9 minutes exactly by my computer. I have no idea how that stacked up in the 54 strong women's field. Maybe not last but not likely in the top half of the field.

They routed us back to the parking area via a different set of roads and that turned out to be a pretty good warm down - except my chest hurt like crazy and about 10 minutes into the warm down I started coughing and barely stopped long enough to catch occasional breaths for at least 15 minutes after that. Still coughing now about 6 hours later.

I guess I worked hard, but I am a little bummed that I had no spark in the legs.

Saturday is a new day, and based on the course (we drove it today) it will be a tough one.

Bed time.

Race 14: Empire State Games: day 4 team time trial

It really isn't all that often one has the chance to compete in a team time trial. The smoothest way to ride one is to practice with your teammates a fair bit so everyone is comfortable with each other and riding close on a wheel while stretched out in an aero position. (There is a reason aero bars are not permitted in mass start events!)

Our Central coach, Andrew Ross, arranged for a team time trial practice before the games. Most of the team was able to make it out, and we all went in one big group. The advantage of a large group is more rest. The disadvantage is we varied widely in strength and comfort riding close on wheels and that made it very difficult to ride smoothly. But we got the chance to see how it felt.

Satruday after the crit we had a team meeting and talked a bit about the TTT - and the men were divied up into their two teams. Poor guys had it rough - most regions fielded 10 men and thus had two teams of 5. We only had 8 and thus we could either field one 5 man team that was equal in numbers and one 3 man team (at a huge disadvantage in the numbers game but also dangerous should one man have a mechanical because for the men the clock stopped after the 3rd rider crossed the line). Or, we could field two teams four. They decided two teams of 4 was the safest and strongest bet. For the women there were no decisions to make - we had a full compliment with three of us and the clock stopped on the second rider. We did discuss some strategy for how to play it because Vanessa and I were fairly equally matched on flats and Heather was newer to the sport and was really nervous about riding fast in a tight paceline.

Sunday morning we got out there fairly early and the three of us ladies decided to work on our paceline technique and try out different speeds. Our goal was to ride at Heather's threshold for as long as she could hold on and then have the remaining two kick it up as high as we could go for the whatever distance was left of the 20 or so miles. We did our "slow" work on a side road and our "at speed" work on the course, working in a few turns to get the feel of those when trying to keep our line tight. The course was pretty much hot dog shaped - two parallel roads with several connectors. We went up one, crossed to the other on the connector and back down the other. We started in the middle of the hotdog, and did two complete laps so we had 4 turns to maneuver. The turns felt a bit tighter than the curves on a 400 meter track, but not quite as tight as on a 200 meter track. On a regular bike it was possible to peddal through the turns. Time trial bikes handle differently though and feel much less stable in the curves. We finished our warm up and found the start with 5 - 10 minutes to spare. The men started half a lap away from the finish (and women's start) and were doing 3.5 laps to our 2. The first women's team to start (Adirondack) was going to go off a minute after the last men's B team went by the finish.

Adirondack went off. Then NY. We were the 3rd out of 4 teams to start (Western only had one woman, and Hudson Valley didn't have any). We were glad to be done waiting - the nerves are always worst while waiting and they tend to decrease dramatically as soon as the pedals start turning. We had a smooth gradual increase in pace that allowed everyone to clip in and line up according to our preplanned order. Then it was head down and ride. We negotiated the first turn and were coming back into the headwind at mile 6 or so. Heather was feeling the strain and was debating when to pull out and say "Go!" when we passed someone at the side of the road in a Central jersey with what looked like a bloody face. I couldn't tell who it was (didn't see his bike) but it was definitely one of our guys. That sobered all of us up and Heather decided that she could not focus on riding close on someone's wheel while in areo bars after seeing that when she was so winded, so she told us to go for it. Heather kept riding in case one of us had a mechanical and her time would be needed to stop the clock. Vanessa and I continued to put our heads down and do the work. We all three of us left everything out on that course. Vanessa and I kicked it up to 30 for the flat spint across the line and we finished right together.

The Adirondack coach saw us out there riding and he told us he was hurting just watching us bury ourselves out there. He gave us kudos for putting so much effort in. Despite that effort, we were 20 seconds out of first place and took the silver. Adirondack had a great team this year and really cleaned up.

20 seconds!!! Over just 22 miles!!! Aaaargh!! So close and yet so far. As is typical with these things you spend way too much post race energy trying to determine just where those 20 seconds could have been made up. In our case I think it was the corners. We were coasting in and out of them and had we been able to pedal out and not lose quite as much momentum on them we could have made up that time. However, if we had pushed the envelope too much in those corners, a fall would have been a lot slower than coasting in and out. Everywhere else on the course we were really giving it our all.

Results are up at the Empire State Games website.

I have found several photographs of the cycling events they are at:

Drew Zinck Photography

Py's digital trail and road eyes

FlickRiver and

Terry Wherry

Race 14: Empire State Games: day 3 the dreaded crit

My fear of crits is alive and well. Nerves started building Friday night and all morning Saturday. David didn't need the jaws of life to extract me from his truck the way Chris did at GMSR, but he did get the evil eye more than once when being kind and supportive. Sorry Dave - really, I wasn't giving you a dirty look every time I rode by... I was just giving the crit in general a dirty look....

Anyway. As has become my pre-crit routine, after getting to the venue I walked the course, taking note of corner 1 being very close to the start line, corner 2 was up hill so should be safe, corner three was from a narrow road onto a wide road with a tail wind. Corner 4 looked like the place for the spatula brigade, and was the corner with the pit on it. That corner went from super wide road onto very narrow road, a grate on the inside, a little gravel on the outside and about a city block from the start/finish line. A fairly strait forward square course. All left turns.

I attempted to warm up on the trainer and it wasn't happening. I did a lap of the course. that wasn't so bad. At 15mph the corners were quite tame.Then it was hurry up and wait for the masters group before us to finish.

After they finished we got sent around for two laps while they waited for the next lead car to show up. Once the car was in place we were given our instructions: This was being scored as a points race using track racing scoring. Every 5 laps around the 0.8 mile course there would be a sprint for points. Points went 4 deep. If a rider lapped the field they got 20 points. If the field lapped a rider, they got -20 points. A lapped rider getting lapped a second time would be pulled. A lapped rider was eligible to compete in sprint points again in the next sprint lap after they got lapped. Free lap for incidents up until the second to last sprint lap. Any incidents after that the rider would be pulled but keep their points. As we found out later (though was not clear from pre-race instructions) on the final lap (the final sprint) over all place was also important as points were somehow awarded all the way down, rather than just to the top four as with the other sprints. After that confusing crash course in track scoring, we were sent on our way.

I tried to sit 4th or 5th wheel back but found there were a few ladies who drifted laterally in places that made no sense. I got pinched against curbs. I got run over rough spots. I decided I didn't want any part of that so after 6 laps (after the first sprint where since I was technically in a great lead out spot I should have managed a point or two, but where I was 6th) I took the front and pushed hard... for way too many laps. Sprint two came up and I started increasing my speed right out of corner 3 and continued to increase through corner 4 and tried like mad to hold the other ladies off for the points. I managed 4th and 1 point for my team. Whoo hoo! I moved off the front at that point and into the pack for a lap or two but again lost patience with the slowing and weaving going on "back there" and took the front again. Heck. I won a point the last time... So I led for what was I think 3 laps, into the sprint again. Everything according to plan increasing pace out of turn three and keeping it high into turn four... when someone came around and then cut my line and I went inside. AJ, one of the Central pit guys says it looked like my back wheel hit the grate on turn four, came off the ground and then came down a little sideways to the direction of travel leading to a skid. All I know is the bike was skidding and I was thinking "I hope they have their spatulas" and then I was going forward again and people were sprinting and I hit it... but came in 5th by just a fraction of a bike. I lost my nerve a bit after that and hung out mid field/ on the back... seeing a few moves I should have made, seeing some moves others should have made. Just wanting the race to be done. The last 10 laps were pretty uneventful. I failed to give it my all in the sprint on the last lap since I knew I was not in contention for 1 - 4 and maybe lost a place or two and the associated finish points due to that.

I survived.

My overall place in the crit was 6th.

Race 14: Empire State Games: day 2 road race

After a poor nights sleep (thank you hormone swamped teen aged girls!) we got up bright and early to head to breakfast and then the course. The road race course looked great for me when we pre-drove it - well great except for the super fast descent - that just looked scary. Again we got there with plenty of time to get ready and warm up despite me missing our exit and taking us the long slow way around.

Having time to warm up and warming up are two different things. I did head up the road a bit and then back down, but not far enough to actually get a warm up out of it. I was uncharacteristically nervous about the race too. I guess I was feeling pressure. On Thursday, the central women carried the combined team for points and I didn't want to let either my female or male team mates down with a lackluster race.

As it turns out, I had both a good and a frustrating race. We ended up doing 4.25 laps of a 10 mile loop. So we finished at the top of a big hill (1.5 mile climb) and we started a mile or two shy of it. From other races, I knew my lady to mark - Jenny Ives. She is a stronger rider than I am but also a wicked smart rider. My hope was to stick with her.

From the start to the first hill my team mate was on the front. On the climb I moved up to warn her not to pull too much and let others work. She promptly fell in behind me and I ended up setting pace. Not my plan but it did mean I got to ride the hill at a super comfy pace for me. I was not breathing hard, my legs were not feeling stressed at all, and my hear rate was not too high. Jenny glued herself to my wheel. I kept the bike in the big ring and right there probably psychologically scored against several riders.

Anyway, at the top I looked back and saw i'd split the field in two. 7 in my group (two central, two Adirondack, two Long Island, and 1 Western. I liked that split. (There are 6 regions and each region can field up to 10 men and 3 women.) From the top we had some descending and flat terrain and a lot of wind before a hard right up a fairly short but steep gut buster of a climb.

Jenny went for it on that climb on lap 1 and after a false start or two being blocked by two other riders I grabbed her wheel. At the top we had 10 bike lengths and we looked at each other and said "let's work it!". We drilled it from then on, and we stuck together for 3 full laps from that point. At the same spot on the last lap (5 miles from the finish) she punched it and I couldn't hang. From the top of the pitch it was false flat up and then a screaming descent and then a little flat before that 1.5 mile climb to the finish. With Jenny I hit 50 (she was sitting up for me a little) on the downhill.

My last lap, after Jenny had dropped me, I topped out at 47. At the bottom when it started to level out I felt and heard that I had a rear flat! With 3 miles to go! When Jenny and I went, the wheel car did not go with us. I kept riding and at each corner I asked the marshalls to send up a wheel car if they saw one. I slowed a little, but kept pushing since I had no idea what our gap to the rest of the riders was. The wheel car came up when I had 0.5 miles to go and I said I would keep my momentum and ride it out over a wheel chamge from a non- cycling volunteer. I doubt I would have made up enough time on Jenny to win had I not had a flat and I finished 2.5 minutes behind her and 4.75 minutes ahead of 3rd.

They are scoring this as an omnium, so how far back on Jenny I was won't end up mattering. It was a bit frustrating not to have the wheel car, but if I were to be able to choose my flat in a race, this is the one I would take because it did not change the outcome at all, and the rim is OK. Riding the wheel on a totally flat tire chewed the tire up a bit, but that tire was done anyway - I've ridden and raced on it since early April. New tires were put on that night (I had brought a brand new pair with me just in case). My pretty blue and white and black bike now has matching blue walled tires instead of the "ugly" yellow ones. I kind of miss the yellow ones though... Go figure.

We parked next to a bend in a river and after the race the four of us who swam in Lake Erie the day before took cold dip in the river. My legs felt really good on Friday - almost as if I hadn't raced on Thursday. I figured the cold water would help with recovery for Saturday's Crit.