Charlie Baker Time Trial – 8/20

My legs felt good on Wednesday after two days of recovery from the weekend’s crit-fest. With all the racing that’s been going on in the past month or two, I’ve done very little steady-state training. I figured the CBTT would be good prep for GMSR next week, especially with the new TT. I left all of the aero gear at home, figuring that I wouldn’t be able to use it at GMSR anyways. In truth I think I just didn’t feel like taking the time to set up my bike.

I really wanted to practice pacing myself because I’ve blown myself up in almost every TT I’ve done this season. One discussion that I’ve read recently suggested starting of at 5-10% less power for the first 5 mintues than your target average power. Seeing as I’m usually in the 15%-20% too high range, I figured it’d be worth a shot.

My 30s man and 60s man were both teenage girls. I passed the both in the first 2 miles and felt like I was killing it. A mile later I got passed by the racer staged 1-minute behind me, then the racer 1.5-minutes behind me, and then the racer 30-seconds behind me. Ouch. Talk about a blow to your motivation. I wanted to quit right there.

The three racers all passed me right around Carlisle center. I found it interested that they really didn’t put much ground on me on the downhill sections. Unlike earlier in the season, my pacing strategy was not to maintain consistent power output over varying terrain, but instead to pedal harder going uphill and softer going downhill. My power was varying as much as +/- 100W depending on the terrain. The racers that passed me going downhill out of Carlisle were on fancy TT rigs, and I would have expected them to crush me on the downhill, but that wasn’t the case. I was soft-pedaling around 200W without any aero gear and they weren’t extending their gap on me. They must’ve been pedaling at like 100W or something super easy. As soon as we hit a slight flat to uphill section though, they took off.

I ended up finishing around 25:20, 23.2 mph average. Power output suffered big time on Monument Road, largely due to saddle discomfort. Along that section my power feel all the way to the 230W range, way below threshold. That may have been due to a lack of TT training in recent weeks. Riding with my forearms pressed hard against my handlebars has to be one of the most uncomfortable positions possible.

Frontier Crit & Fall River Crit - cat4, Wells Ave 'A' Race - 8/17

Frontier Crit

The Frontier Crit is in Loudon, NH in “Frontier Land” behind the race car track. There is a maze of parking lots back there with a lot of options to make a weaving course. I went up to this race expecting a flatter course on the Speedway’s road track, despite the race description saying that the course would appeal to those that prefer road races. The course ending up having a good-sized hill that climbed at a moderate grade. There was no flat section in the course. Once you got to the top it was a fast downhill with a few tight turns before going back up the hill again. The loop was about 1.1 or 1.2 miles per lap, so each lap would consist of 1.5-2 minutes of climbing, followed by 0.5 -1 minute of rest/descending. It was a bit more of a strong man’s course than I expected.

Field size was about 45 in the cat 4/5’s, a good amount larger than most of the other fields. I was really well “rested” for this race, aka totally lacking training in the last 2 weeks. Heart rate would likely run high.

I lined up at the very back, but was able to move up past 10 guys or so that couldn’t clip in at the start. Coming around the sharp turn into the hill was very fast, and required some push coming out of the turn to hold the wheel in front of me. The pace eased up dramatically about half way up the hill and everything bunched up. The two 90-degree turns before the finish line allowed for a nice brief break, but coming out of these turns required a little push as well. The descent was a nice break but too short, and before I knew it we’d be heading back up the hill over and over.

The first few laps were relatively hard, and I think a whole bunch of people were shelled. Of ~45 starters, only 23 or so finished with the pelican. With so few racers and a wide track, it was easy to move around and gain position.

Not a whole lot of excitement during the middle of the race. A break of two went 20-30 seconds up the road but came back as soon as the prime lap bell was rung. I was mostly sitting in and trying to conserve my legs for the finish. Through the two (I think it was two anyways) prime laps everything seemed easy and I was ready to crush the finish.

With 4 or 5 laps to go everything changed for me. Someone with some serious horsepower got on the front as we cross the finish line and started drilling it down the hill. There was a little bit of separation between the front 8 and the rest of the pelican as we finished the descent. The pace up the hill was super hard and I was hanging by a thread. By the end of the lap the pace had eased a bit and we were one pelican again, but I was gasping for breath and my HR monitor felt like it was choking me. A lap or two later another attack of similar intensity set the pace. I was about ready to black out at this point but was able to get into a zone where I could keep the pedals turning. I was oblivious to everything going on around me. If the racer in front of me had stopped unexpectedly I probably would have drilled him.

As we crossed the line with 2 to go I knew I needed to be in better position, and I could hear Tim heckling me from the sidelines to move up more. I tried to move up a position or two but my legs felt like they were filled with cement.

On the final lap no one was up the road. I had expected a flyer to go off the front on the downhill, but everyone seemed to be saving it for the finishing climb. Maybe I wasn’t the only one suffering. I was about 15 wheels back as we came around the tight left-hander leading into the climb, and things stretched out single file. If you weren’t in the front 5 or 10 wheels at this point there was little hope for a good result. I maintained contact all the way to the top but had little to no fight left in me. My legs were toast and I limped across the finish line in 20^th place, one of the last people to finish with the pelican. Heart rate only reached 188 bpm during the finish, probably because my legs were weakened from the fast pace up the hill on the final laps.

Blount Seafood Crit

I really liked this race in 2007. This year it was the Massachusetts State Criterium Championships and I really wanted to try and get a medal. The fields were arranged different though, and I could only race the cat 4 field (last year I raced both the 4/5 and ¾). The cat 4 race started at 8:30 AM, which meant a painful 5 AM wakeup call.

The course is more or less a perfect square, with one side being a moderate uphill, the opposite side a moderate downhill, and the other sides being flat. The finish line is positioned near the end of the flat side after the uphill. The turns are tight enough to cause braking and some occasional chaos, but not too bad overall. The pavement after the downhill turn had lots of cracks and was in need of repair.

Around 50 starters in the cat 4 field, including many of the faster cat 4 guys that are getting close to their upgrade. I lined up at the back of the field like usual and moved up somewhere around mid-pack after a few laps.

The pace was slow and pretty much totally uneventful for the first half of the race. Compared to the Frontier Crit, this was a casual group ride. Even the prime laps weren’t at all a struggle.

With about 7 or 8 laps to go the prime bell rang. Coming up the hill, Colby Ricker (NEBC) attacks up the inside, with two racers in pursuit. They broke well clear of the field by the finish line. At this point, Colby and one of the two guys that had countered kept the pedal down and were out of site on the fast downhill sections of the course.

With Colby up the rode, we (NEBC) went to work aka being lazy at the front and messing up the rythym of the pelican. I think Oscar, Joe, or myself was either soft-pedaling on the front or sitting second wheel for 90% of the next several laps. I heard some unhappy comments from behind in the meantime.

All was going really well until 2 to go when Colby got a flat. Real bummer for him and the team because I was pretty sure he had it. With the break back, the pace slowed and the swarming began. I didn’t think I was in a terrible position at the time because I wasn’t far from the front, but I was stuck in the dead center and felt helpless as I lost a ton of positions on either side.

After turn 1 on the final lap I was finally able to sneak my way out of the middle and get to the inside. I considered dive bombing the downhill turn 2 but decided against it as the pace picked up more than the previous laps. We carried good speed along the back stretch which made it hard to move up, but I still gained a handful of positions.

Going around turn 3 I did my best to avoid tapping the brakes and hoped to carry my speed up the hill. I was still 20 or 30 wheels back and my only real hope short of a superhuman effort was to carry a large speed differential around the turn. Unfortunately another race snuck in the inside and totally foiled my plan.

That left only Plan C: Superhuman Effort. I really cranked it up the hill, passing a good amount of people. I eased up and tried to relax as I coasted through turn four, and was now in about 10-15^th place. The race leader was well up the road but 5^th place was still within reason. I stayed in the saddle for about 100m as the racer in front of me sprinted out of the corner. This led me out to 200m to go where I came out of the saddle and went to sprint up a clear lane to the inside. The sprint might have worked, but my legs were on fire and my so-called “sprint” last about point-five seconds. Unlike the previous races this week I did manage to keep a little bit of pressure on the pedals, which was good enough for 14^th place.

No power data to look at for Saturday or Sunday because I used my rear carbon wheel. I do feel that there is a lesson to be learned about positioning though. I am terrible at maintaining position. The idea of fighting extra wind to maintain position bothers me and I rarely do it. Many of the races that I’ve had good results at this season have had flat or downhill finishes (i.e. Heartbreak Hill, WMSR RR, Arlington, Concord). The downhill sections seem to give me good recovery which supercharges my legs for a sprint. In faster flat races (Witches Cup, Ninigret, New Britian) or races with hills near or at the finish (Frontier, Fall River) positioning becomes significantly more important because I can’t deliver nearly the same sprint. This week I went into the races with the same strategy that has worked for me in the downhill finish races and it was a bit of a disaster. Hopefully I’ll be able to race smarter in the future.

Wells Ave ‘A’ Race

So at 9:45 AM, Tim, Colby and I are in a Fall River Subway and we realize that we can still make it up to Wells Ave in Newton. We fly up there and make it in time to do 37 laps of the ‘A’ race. I really wanted to do this after feeling like I wasted my time sitting in the pelican all day at the Fall River crit.

The pace was a whole bunch easier than I expected, easier than any of the 3 previous crits that I’d done this week. Looking for a good workout, I went towards the front to try practicing positioning.

At some point early on Colby attacks and establishes a break of 3. Shortly after he was joined by 3 others with BRC and CB represented. I spent the next several laps soft-pedaling on the front with riders from CB, BRC, and NEBC doing the same. After a good 10 laps of this or so, I notice Colby sitting on the sidelines. Turns out he got another flat. Doh.

I really buried myself the best I could throughout the race. A MRC rider yelled at me for not pulling through while chasing down a break. Truth is he had pulled so darn hard that I was pretty much blown up. I tried to make up for it and killed myself on the front a lap later. Almost got dropped after doing so. I was doing the best I could, but I certainly don’t have the horsepower that some of the other A riders do

With three to go there was a break not far up the road. I felt good so I tried to bridge up to it and actually succeeded. In doing so I pulled the entire pelican up with me, not that I was surprised. I was ready to quit at that point but just kept going and was surprised that my legs were still working. The leadout to the finish seemed really fast and I sort of hung in there, ending up something like 10-15^th at the line. Not a great result but I didn’t care because that was a ton of fun and an awesome workout. My legs are still weak two days later.

Witches Cup Criterium, cat 4/5

The Witches Cup is a 3-turn downtown criterium that runs around Salem Common in Salem, MA. The three turns are tight and the pavement has a number of cracks and manhole covers, making this race one of the more technical races on the New England calendar.

Originally I had planned on this race being a priority to plan my training around, but between work, weather, and vacation I’ve only been on my bike once in the past 10 days. Come race day I left later than I had planned, hit traffic and made on the road decisions to change my route from 93N to 1N, and finally to 1A-N. By the time I made it to the race it was 4:50 (5PM start). Ken was waiting for me with food and water and pretty much saved me in getting ready to go.

I lined up towards the back of the race and stayed there for the first 15 minutes or so in hopes of warming up a bit. Not sure what was up with my heart rate today but it was running ridicously high, probably due to the little amount of riding that I’ve done lately. My heart rate reached the 195-200 bpm range during this “warm up” despite perceived effort only being medium.

A few racers were being dropped but for the most part I was able to stay ahead of this. Initially I tried riding the inside line but it seemed sketchy and hard so I moved to the outside line where I stayed for the majority of the race. It seemed a lot smoother there. This ended up being a good decision because there were three crashes during the race, all of which occurred on the inside line. One racer was taken away in an ambulance.

After sitting in for the first 15 minutes I felt good and moved towards the front. The first prime had come and gone and I expected that the second would be coming up shortly. The prizes were good and I wanted to try for one. Two riders were off the front so I bridged up to them anticipating that the bell would ring. After joining them I realized that this break was pretty much just one rider pulling around the other. By the time I caught my breath from bridging we had already been caught and the prime bell definitely hadn’t been rung. It’s amazing how breaks never seem to stick in cat 4’s.

As the bell was rung for the remaining primes I was out of position each time. I was floating back and fourth from 10^th to 25^th in the middle of the race, but it seemed like I was closer to 25^th on every prime lap. This was probably for the better because I started feeling really tired in the last 10 or 15 minutes of the race as it was.

During the last third of the race I spent most of my time resting up for the finish. The field had shrunk considerably from 73 starters down to 45 or so and I was not finding it difficult to gain position. It was my plan to burn a match and stick myself in the front with four to go and duke it out until the finish.

As we went around turn 1 with 4 to go I began moving up along the outside and heard someone’s tire burst, but I couldn’t tell where it was. Suddenly the rider who’s tire had burst came out the side of the pelican directly in front of me. I swerved to the outside to avoid him which was a bad decision because that was the direction that he was heading. I ended up giving the brakes a tap and got back to shelter, but ended up losing position.

With 3 and 2 laps to go I was able to move up a little bit, but not as much as I’d like because everyone else was doing the same thing. It also required quite a bit of extra work and I was really starting to fatigue.

The pace really went hot when we crossed the line on the finishing lap, but I was still a good 25 wheels back. With the tight turns before the finish I knew I needed to be much further up than that. I caught a lucky break between turns 1 and 2 when a big gap opened up on the inside. I went through the hole and moved up probably a good 10 wheels or so, putting me in 15^th position on the inside line. Not a horrible place to be.

Approaching the final turn to the finish I stopped pedaling just a little early, allowing a little more space in front of my wheel. I figured that the guy in front of me would break more than I’d like to, and I wanted to be able to carry as much speed as possible through that final turn. I didn’t time it well and I was forced to tap my brakes just a tiny bit. Exiting the turn I came out of the saddle to sprint up the clear inside lane but my legs felt like cement. I coasted down the finishing stretch and was passed by a ton of racers, finishing in 26^th place.

I don’t have my race statistics ready to post yet, but I will put them up later. Normalized power was 270W, average power was 242W, VI of 1.12. Looking at the power file I’m surprised that normalized power isn’t higher and that VI is so low. With the tight turns my power was about 500-600W coming out of each turn with coasting at or near 0W in between. This is the second time that I’ve seen a power file with an extremely peaky shape yet low normalized power. I’m not sure, but I think this is because the normalized power calculation is based off of 30-second averages. The 500-600W durations were only about 15 seconds long (if that) and a 30-second average may understate the shorter efforts.

Concord Criterium / Central NH, Bow Road Race - Cat 4

This weekend was the Concord Crit/ Bow Road Race duo. Last year I skipped the Concord Crit to be 100% for Bow. This year I’ve learned that not only is climbing not my strength, I’m pretty much terrible at it. My priorities have done a 180 and my focus for the weekend became Concord. I would go to Bow and see if I could survive the climbs then hopefully make a good sprint for the finish, but with no big expectations. Being an NEBC racer I was also committed to marshaling the second and third waves of fields at Bow.

Since Working Man’s Stage Race I’ve taken some time to refresh my legs. My training volume had gotten small, and with all the races in late June/early July the intensity work seemed out of control. For the last two weeks my training has consisted of mostly zone 2/3 work, trying to get in as many 3-4 hour rides per week as possible. This is right back to March/April training and it felt great. Physically my legs felt terrible after 2 hours of being in the saddle. Mentally it has been awesome to go out and cruise at my own moderate pace. I wasn’t sure how this type of training would affect my racing results, and I tried to keep reasonable expectations. Anaerobic efforts typically come easy for me, but still, going 2.5 weeks in the middle of race season without riding above threshold can’t be ideal for racing.

Concord Criterium, Cat 4

The course is a one-mile loop with one slightly technical turny section followed by a short power climb that almost felt like a switchback of a major climb. There is a long false-flat back straightaway that leads into a fast downhill section with three, left-hand turns. The last turn before the finishing straight is just over 200 meters out, and is tight enough to cause some braking in the pelican if you’re not at the front. Very similar to the Attleboro finish, but maybe just a little bit wider. Cat 4’s did 20 laps for just over 20 miles total.

Oscar and I lined up at the back of the 74-man field with no intentions of getting anywhere near the front early on. I think Oscar maybe have a bit of Jens Voigt Syndrome, and today he wanted to battle it by sitting in and resting. Two laps in we were still hanging out at the back, but things were not easy there. Gaps were opening up in between riders all over the place and I was hurting. Realizing that many people were on the threshold of being dropped, I made a big effort to move up at least to mid-field. Oscar did the same. Once we got there the race was much easier. Oscar looked at me and with a sigh of relief said, “Yeah, that was too far back!” The results show that almost half the pelican got dropped, and I wouldn’t be surprised if 20 people or so were dropped on the first handful of laps.

The course suited me well and I was able to settle into a rythm pretty quickly. I stayed to the right side which was probably the more dangerous but faster side with most of the turns being to the left. This seemed to make the power climb much easier though. The power climb is almost a switchback and each lap I was able to carry my speed to the outside around the turn and gained position with minimal effort.

The meat of the race was very uneventful and I spent the entire time resting. I considered contesting a prime, but each lap that I was close enough to the front to have a chance the bell was not rung. My focus was to place well at the finish so I was unwilling to burn too many matches just to win a prime.

With four laps to go I was feeling pretty overheated in my long-sleeve skinsuit. I reached down to grab my bottle of water and completely showered myself. Back, head, chest, you name it. As I sat there with liquid pouring down my face, a few drops got into my mouth and I thought, “gee, that’s nice and lemony”. I looked at the bottle that I was holding in my hand and realized that I had just poured half my hummingbird-strength Gatorade all over myself. After the race my hair felt so brittle that it’d break in half and my skin felt like I’d taken a bath in glue.

On the turn entering the powerclimb section with three to go I got caught up behind a crash that happened maybe five wheels up. The crash sent two riders down and I ended up going right between the two of them. This brought my speed down to the 5-mph range and I was spat out the back of the pelican. I charged up the hill with Geoff Martin encouraging me to get back in the race. It was a pretty taxing effort though and I was uncertain that I’d have anything left for the finish. Normally I like to make two big efforts before a sprint finish: the first at up to 90% to get myself into the best position possible and the second is obviously 100% all the way to the finish. Making a third big effort so close to the finish would surely kill me I thought.

With two to go I moved myself to the left side of the track. The right side had been good for conserving energy throughout the race but I wanted to be on the left side both for safety reasons and because I had visions of attacking up the inside on the final turns before the finish. I found several teammates here including Colby, Oscar, and Joe. Colby had missed his original strategy of attempting a longer solobreak, and offered to lead out an NEBC train. Oscar quickly jumped on second wheel, I took third and Joe grabbed fourth (I think).

We followed one another through the chicane section and up the switchback powerclimb. There was no one off the front at this point and the pace was moderate at best, and we were riding at least three people wide. As the pelican swung wide up the back straight, Colby took charge and moved us up along the inside. This caused panic and other racers shouted out to watch our attack on the inside. I’m not sure exactly what happened next, but our train died pretty shortly after. I think that several racers pushed their way into our train, including in front of both myself and Oscar. Once Colby realized that Oscar no longer had his wheel, he drifted back onto the front of the pelican. The train was not a complete failure though, and I was psyched to be in decent position about 15-20 wheels back with energy to spare as we approached the downhill.

The downhill was fast, and I was unsure of when to attack. I was considering an attack similar to the one that won me the Attleboro Crit, but I was further back this time. Just as I was ready to attack the inside, Colin Huston (Cl Noonan) moved up on my left blocking me in. I hesitated and missed my opportunity. As he continued to move up the inside going into the last turn, I followed and moved up a few positions. I overtook Oscar and he yelled at me to go now. In hind site, that would have been the perfect time.

Around the last turn I went into full sprint mode and found I had great legs today. The lane was clear to the inside and I flew up it, overtaking a ton of riders. The racers in front of me seemed to be pushing further and further left, forcing me to do the same. With about 75 meters to go I was about 7 wheels back and finally had a glimpse of the leader. For a split second I thought that I had a chance to overtake him, but I got blocked on the left by the racer that ended up finishing fourth. A race official was standing in front of the judge’s stand that jumped up and out of the way just a milli-second before I came by with my handlebars just inches from the wooden platform. I was forced to stop pedaling about 20m short of the line in fear of crashing into either the racer in front of me or into the judge’s stand. After the dust settled I’d finished in 5^th place out of 74 starters. The velocity results finishing photo only shows the top 4 for our race because I finished too close to the camera for my number to show up. I had to speak with the officials after the race to verify the results.

Normalized power for the race was very high at 293W and is the second highest of any cat 4 race I’ve done this season (just behind Longsjo Crit). My sprint at the finish was also the best of the season in terms of raw wattage, averaging 1,070 W for the last 12 seconds of the race. Given the high normalized power for the race and the crash that left me scrambling 5 minutes before the finish, I’m extremely pleased with those numbers. Going into the sprint my heart rate was 189 bpm (202 bpm max), and the effort brought my speed up to 37.2 mph max at 120 rpm along the flat finishing straight. My heart rate continued to rise up to 200 bpm 15 seconds after crossing the finish line.

Bow Road Race, Cat 4

The course is a 10.5-mile loop along the hilly roads of Bow, NH. There is a nasty steep hill right at the start that climbs in three parts with flat to downhill sections in between. The difference in vertical elevation is about 500 feet between the min and max point, but the actual climbing elevation is much greater due to the downhill sections. After this hill the course is pretty much either all uphill or downhill, with almost no flat sections and a couple of sharp 90-degree turns. The one thing about this course that actually suited me was the approach to the finish. Most of the last mile is downhill, with only the last 250 meters kicking up to the finish line. My feeling was that I would either get dropped and do terrible, or stick with the lead group and sprint to a good result at the finish.

All NEBC racers got to start at the front of the 69-man field. There must’ve been ten of us or so in the cat 4 field so we basically had a wall at the front. Starting at the front would allow me to sag climb if necessary and decrease my chances of getting dropped. The first time up the hill on the first lap was supposed to be neutral, which I was also pretty pumped about.

So we take off and head up the hill, and it definitely did not seem easy. In fact, it was pretty hard… in “neutral”! We stayed at a constant 10 mph all the way up, and my power was hovering in the 330-350W range, well above threshold. I got a chance to recover on the downhill sections, but it wasn’t enough and I was still really hurting. On the last little kicker in the neutral zone my power jumped to over 500W for the 20-30 seconds it took to crest the climb. Ouch!

By the time we were cresting the top of the hill I was in big trouble. We were no longer neutral and I was already sag climbing and suffering tremendously. I fell just off the back over the top and thought it would be easy to make up the 50M and catch back on. I was wrong. The pelican flew away from me as I was exploding. There were several of us together back here, and we fought hard to get back on. I was burying myself and was doing less than average work in the chase. No matter how hard I pedaled it wasn’t enough.

Half way through the first lap a guy in my chase group says “Hey NEBC, your real wheel is seriously messed up.” I looked down and my wheel was wobbling all over the place. The SRAM car was within site up the road but I had no chance of catching him and this was all the reason I needed to end my suffering and pull out. I sat up and rolled back to the start/finish.

Turns out I broke a spoke off which caused my wheel to go seriously out of true. When I got off my bike and went to roll it across the parking lot it wouldn’t move because the rim was rubbing firmly against the brakes. I don’t know exactly when the spoke broke, but I suspect (hope) it was broken before the start. This would explain why the “neutral” start seemed so ridiculously hard.

The neutral start was almost exactly 5 minutes long. This was the amount of time that it took us to leave the school and crest the second tier of the hill. During this time my average power was 338W. This includes soft pedaling along the flat section before the climb starts, and gliding at 0W between the first and second tier. 338W at my weight of 75 KG is 4.5 W/kg. For a 5-minute effort the Coggan Power Profile Chart puts this effort right on the border of a cat 4 and cat 3 racer. This effort came while we were “neutral”. I really hope that my spoke broke the day before at Concord and that the brake rub was killing me at Bow. 338W for 5 minutes is a good effort for me.

This is where the story gets good. After my race I was signed up to marshal the following two waves of races so I immediately reported to my assigned corner. There was a raffle for people that volunteered to help out at the race, and the prize was a custom Maietta (www.maiettacycling.com) frame. Last night I get an email saying that I was the lucky volunteer to win the drawing! I am so excited to have won a custom steel frame.