Monday, November 17, 2003
Trimble Crit
Race: SJBC Winter Series Race 4 - Trimble Criterium
Date: 11/16/03
Cat: 3
Field: 65 overall; 7 in my category
Distance: 28.8 mi.
Weather: high 50s?
Result: 9th, 4th in category
This race is #4 of 11 in the SJBC winter series.
What a weird race! The course is a 1.1-mile stetched-out rectangle, so two long straights and two short ones. The cat 1's started midway through a straight away, and the cat 3's started at the far end of that straight, essentially getting a 3/4 lap head start on the 1's. There were only two cat 2 riders, so they started with the 1's also.
My plan again was to stay upright and don't do anything stupid. I also decided that if I got dropped there was no point in killing myself, since it's not that time of year yet (the killing oneself time of year).
The pace was reasonable for the first few laps, and I hung onto the back. A CTS rider was just in front of me and looked back frequently. About the 2nd lap, he attacked. No one went with him, so 1/2 lap later, I bridged (so much for nothing stupid). When I caught him he immediately indicated for me to pull through, which was not a good thing... I needed a break after that chase. they caught us about 1/2 lap later.
I rested up as best I could and attacked again on the prime lap, with just under 1/2 lap to go. I didn't get completely free-- one rider went with me. I didn't think i could drop him, but I tried attacking when he turned his head to look at the pack. That didn't work, so I towed him for a few meters before sitting up. He took the $5 prime.
Soon after we were caught and dropped by our local Armstrong: Alan. He had left the 1's behind and caught us.
The race was pretty uneventful for a while, and then it got weird. With maybe 8-10 laps to go, we noticed a group in front of us and a group behind us. The group behind turned out to be 3-4 strong riders from the 1's. The group ahead turned out to be Armstrong and a group of 1's and 2's that he had lapped. Armstrong and lapped rider Michael Ma stayed free for a while. before we all came together.
I felt pretty good coming into the last lap. With 1/4 lap to go a rider attacked on the right, not to get away but to get up to the front. Perfect, I thought, so I jumped on his wheel and was in good position coming into turn 4. However, this rider didn't realize I was there (he was the deaf rider I met before the race, and he couldn't hear me). On turn 4 I tried to follow his line, but got boxed in and moved over into the gutter. I tried to recover, but in doing so swung out about 1-2 feet into another rider's line. Some cursing followed, and frankly, I was a little shaken that I almost took out another rider. Because of that, I never did get my sprint going. Too bad, too, because I felt pretty good. I don't know what number I was over the line, but because of all the riders in there that were 1 lap down, I ended up placing 9th, and 4th in my category.
Near the finish, I had let a few guys cruise by me to the line, and realized when I checked the standings that two of them were in my category, and I would have had a good chance at a top 5 finish if I hadn't messed up in that last turn.
Date: 11/16/03
Cat: 3
Field: 65 overall; 7 in my category
Distance: 28.8 mi.
Weather: high 50s?
Result: 9th, 4th in category
This race is #4 of 11 in the SJBC winter series.
What a weird race! The course is a 1.1-mile stetched-out rectangle, so two long straights and two short ones. The cat 1's started midway through a straight away, and the cat 3's started at the far end of that straight, essentially getting a 3/4 lap head start on the 1's. There were only two cat 2 riders, so they started with the 1's also.
My plan again was to stay upright and don't do anything stupid. I also decided that if I got dropped there was no point in killing myself, since it's not that time of year yet (the killing oneself time of year).
The pace was reasonable for the first few laps, and I hung onto the back. A CTS rider was just in front of me and looked back frequently. About the 2nd lap, he attacked. No one went with him, so 1/2 lap later, I bridged (so much for nothing stupid). When I caught him he immediately indicated for me to pull through, which was not a good thing... I needed a break after that chase. they caught us about 1/2 lap later.
I rested up as best I could and attacked again on the prime lap, with just under 1/2 lap to go. I didn't get completely free-- one rider went with me. I didn't think i could drop him, but I tried attacking when he turned his head to look at the pack. That didn't work, so I towed him for a few meters before sitting up. He took the $5 prime.
Soon after we were caught and dropped by our local Armstrong: Alan. He had left the 1's behind and caught us.
The race was pretty uneventful for a while, and then it got weird. With maybe 8-10 laps to go, we noticed a group in front of us and a group behind us. The group behind turned out to be 3-4 strong riders from the 1's. The group ahead turned out to be Armstrong and a group of 1's and 2's that he had lapped. Armstrong and lapped rider Michael Ma stayed free for a while. before we all came together.
I felt pretty good coming into the last lap. With 1/4 lap to go a rider attacked on the right, not to get away but to get up to the front. Perfect, I thought, so I jumped on his wheel and was in good position coming into turn 4. However, this rider didn't realize I was there (he was the deaf rider I met before the race, and he couldn't hear me). On turn 4 I tried to follow his line, but got boxed in and moved over into the gutter. I tried to recover, but in doing so swung out about 1-2 feet into another rider's line. Some cursing followed, and frankly, I was a little shaken that I almost took out another rider. Because of that, I never did get my sprint going. Too bad, too, because I felt pretty good. I don't know what number I was over the line, but because of all the riders in there that were 1 lap down, I ended up placing 9th, and 4th in my category.
Near the finish, I had let a few guys cruise by me to the line, and realized when I checked the standings that two of them were in my category, and I would have had a good chance at a top 5 finish if I hadn't messed up in that last turn.
Friday, November 14, 2003
'R & R' week is harder than it sounds
In my periodization training, this week is an 'R & R' week, where I'm supposed to take it easy and allow my body to recover and reap the benefits of the harder work in previous weeks. The trouble is, I really want to ride! I'm supposed to do 5.5 hours this week, and I already rode 2.5 with Nila on Tuesday, and there's a club crit on Sunday I'm planning to do, so that only leaves about an hour and a half to play with. That will be taken up Saturday by either a ride with Naomi in Monterey, the Saturday South SJ group ride, or maybe going back to Hellyer Velodrome.
This week I was expecting to be really busy, but because of the holiday on Tuesday, the lab I'm TAing didn't meet this week, and I had more time than usual to ride. And the weather was pretty good, too. It's probably a good thing overall, though, because it will make me all the more eager to get on the bike next week when the "Base 2" period begins.
This week I was expecting to be really busy, but because of the holiday on Tuesday, the lab I'm TAing didn't meet this week, and I had more time than usual to ride. And the weather was pretty good, too. It's probably a good thing overall, though, because it will make me all the more eager to get on the bike next week when the "Base 2" period begins.
Monday, November 10, 2003
To crit or not to crit?
Early Bird crits are coming up in January. They are a good chance to get your feet wet early, and they have the added benefit of providing a race clinic before-hand, too. You need 10 races as a cat 5 to upgrade to cat 4, but a race clinic counts as one as well, so if you do all 5 early birds you have 10 right there.
However, when I mentioned it to Howie, he said, "if you want to hit the deck, do the early bird crits." Apparently they are pretty dangerous due to all the inexperienced riders out there.
Hmm. A big advantage of getting to cat 4 is to race with more experienced riders. Just how risky are these early birds?
However, when I mentioned it to Howie, he said, "if you want to hit the deck, do the early bird crits." Apparently they are pretty dangerous due to all the inexperienced riders out there.
Hmm. A big advantage of getting to cat 4 is to race with more experienced riders. Just how risky are these early birds?
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
LSD...
...in cycling terminology stands for Long, Slow Distance. It's a type of training ride, and just as the name indicates, you are riding for endurance-- a lot of endurance-- without regard to your pace, and you are usually riding in HR zone 1 and zone 2 (aerobic zones).
[An aside: Ralph, a fellow SJBCer, and I had been chatting about the road conditions on Skyline. My last message to him contained the question, "whatcha got planned for Skyline?"]
Last Wednesday, I did my lsd ride for the week. I rode about 60 miles, around 3 1/2 hours. I felt good. I thought to myself how people aren't riding that much this time of year and how this would help me improve come spring. It was the longest ride I'd done for months.
I got home, updated my training log, and checked my email. First message I see is from Ralph, responding to my Skyline question that had been pending. His answer: "I rode it today! [ride description clipped] 95 miles and 7500' of climbing!"
The only response I could come up with was, "Ralph, you make me feel lazy!"
95 miles. That's a distance someone rides if a century is no big deal to them. You've done it before. It it were a big deal, you'd go on and add an extra 5 miles just to reach 100. I've never done a century; the most I've ever ridden in a single outing was around 65 miles. I decided I should do a century, just to get it out of the way.
You're probably expecting that the next ride description will be my century. Well, not quite. Gotta get that mileage up a little higher first!
So, today after my uneventful office hours ("Hello? (hello... hello...) Echo! (echo... echo...)"), I headed to the coast.
I parked at Another Bike Shop where first I checked for some winter riding gear. Gloves? Shoe covers? Ear warmer thingies? Uh, haven't arrived yet. OK, it's not too cold. That was bad news #1. Bad news #2 was when I went to gear up and found one of my leg warmers missing. It wasn't too cold... but it was'nt exactly balmy either. But I had to ride anyway, or my whole week's training would be shot.
It was a suffer-fest! Not because of the pace, but because of the wind. I rode for 2 1/2 hours up highway one, past Pomponio Beach, about 35.5 miles, into the wind. I tried it for 90 minutes without my windbreaker on, so I'd have it in reserve if fog or clouds rolled in, but I gave up and ended up putting it on anyway. (It keeps the wind out, but it doesn't breathe so you end up soaked underneath.) My feet were going numb, especially my left toes (which do that anyway-- I need to figure that out), so I used a tip from a recent Bicycling magazine: I put some saran wrap over my toes inside my shoes to keep the wind out (first, I had to eat the sandwich that was in the saran wrap, though). That helped a little bit.
The coast was beautiful, but I was worried about keeping my resolve of doing such a long ride solo, so I spent some time calculating exactly when I should turn around to give myself as close to a 4:10 ride as possible. (That's just the number I had picked earlier.) I ended up using for my calculation 4:12 because that's easier to express as a decimal.
I assumed constant wind (of speed w), and I estimated that my speed on the road without wind (vr) would have been around 17.5 mph. I also assumed that my actual road speed into the wind v1 would be vr - w, and with the wind v2-vr+w. I went through some equations in my head and came up with the time into the ride to turn around would be:
T is the total ride time, 4.2 hours. Using that and vr=17.5 mph, this reduces to:
The only data I was missing was v1, which I got from my cyclometer. Varying between 14.4 and 14.7 mph, it ended up around 14.4 mph. Plug it in and you get t1 = 2:28:32.
I turned around a few seconds early, at the top of a hill because, honestly, I didn't really want to ride down it and back up one more hill. In other words, yeah, I wussed out.
It always goes faster on the way back, and with the wind was an added bonus. I was slightly warmer, and the miles ticked off faster. I got into a rythym, i didn't notice every mile like I did on the way out. I didn't feel a 'high' like a runner's high, but I definitely felt like I could keep it up for a while. I arrived back at ABS without incident, a ride time of 4:15. My calculations were not too bad, eh?
I was so hungry, and so tired, that I went into Carpo's (the newer one, on Mission) and ordered my food while still in my gear, a soaking, stinking mess. I didn't care. Burger and a side of pasta! Iced-tea and powerade! Then I changed, went back in and tried not to wolf down my meal. Later, I had second dinner with Naomi. 4:15 on a bike, I can eat whatever I want!
When you push yourself further than you have before, you learn things about your bike, your body, your riding ability. I learned that you don't warm up when it's in the 50s with wind, even if your legs are hairy and you ride for several hours. I learned that you can break through and get into a rythym after you thought you were too tired to finish. I learned that the last few miles of a long ride like that get a little dreamy... which doesn't do a lot for your driving ability once you're back in the car. And I really need to address that numb-toe problem. (I think I need to move the cleat on my left shoe, so I guess I'll just keep tweaking.)
I'm still planning a century soon. Naomi doesn't want me to ride it alone, which suits me fine. I could use some company anyway. I've been thinking about a course from SJ to Gilroy to Watsonville to SC and back to SJ. I think you can make a century out of that. Lots of climbing, too. Anyone who has read this far and is interested in joining me, drop me a note!
[An aside: Ralph, a fellow SJBCer, and I had been chatting about the road conditions on Skyline. My last message to him contained the question, "whatcha got planned for Skyline?"]
Last Wednesday, I did my lsd ride for the week. I rode about 60 miles, around 3 1/2 hours. I felt good. I thought to myself how people aren't riding that much this time of year and how this would help me improve come spring. It was the longest ride I'd done for months.
I got home, updated my training log, and checked my email. First message I see is from Ralph, responding to my Skyline question that had been pending. His answer: "I rode it today! [ride description clipped] 95 miles and 7500' of climbing!"
The only response I could come up with was, "Ralph, you make me feel lazy!"
95 miles. That's a distance someone rides if a century is no big deal to them. You've done it before. It it were a big deal, you'd go on and add an extra 5 miles just to reach 100. I've never done a century; the most I've ever ridden in a single outing was around 65 miles. I decided I should do a century, just to get it out of the way.
You're probably expecting that the next ride description will be my century. Well, not quite. Gotta get that mileage up a little higher first!
So, today after my uneventful office hours ("Hello? (hello... hello...) Echo! (echo... echo...)"), I headed to the coast.
I parked at Another Bike Shop where first I checked for some winter riding gear. Gloves? Shoe covers? Ear warmer thingies? Uh, haven't arrived yet. OK, it's not too cold. That was bad news #1. Bad news #2 was when I went to gear up and found one of my leg warmers missing. It wasn't too cold... but it was'nt exactly balmy either. But I had to ride anyway, or my whole week's training would be shot.
It was a suffer-fest! Not because of the pace, but because of the wind. I rode for 2 1/2 hours up highway one, past Pomponio Beach, about 35.5 miles, into the wind. I tried it for 90 minutes without my windbreaker on, so I'd have it in reserve if fog or clouds rolled in, but I gave up and ended up putting it on anyway. (It keeps the wind out, but it doesn't breathe so you end up soaked underneath.) My feet were going numb, especially my left toes (which do that anyway-- I need to figure that out), so I used a tip from a recent Bicycling magazine: I put some saran wrap over my toes inside my shoes to keep the wind out (first, I had to eat the sandwich that was in the saran wrap, though). That helped a little bit.
The coast was beautiful, but I was worried about keeping my resolve of doing such a long ride solo, so I spent some time calculating exactly when I should turn around to give myself as close to a 4:10 ride as possible. (That's just the number I had picked earlier.) I ended up using for my calculation 4:12 because that's easier to express as a decimal.
I assumed constant wind (of speed w), and I estimated that my speed on the road without wind (vr) would have been around 17.5 mph. I also assumed that my actual road speed into the wind v1 would be vr - w, and with the wind v2-vr+w. I went through some equations in my head and came up with the time into the ride to turn around would be:
t1 = T * (2*vr - v1) / (2 * vr)
T is the total ride time, 4.2 hours. Using that and vr=17.5 mph, this reduces to:
t1=4.2 hrs - (4.2/35)*v1
The only data I was missing was v1, which I got from my cyclometer. Varying between 14.4 and 14.7 mph, it ended up around 14.4 mph. Plug it in and you get t1 = 2:28:32.
I turned around a few seconds early, at the top of a hill because, honestly, I didn't really want to ride down it and back up one more hill. In other words, yeah, I wussed out.
It always goes faster on the way back, and with the wind was an added bonus. I was slightly warmer, and the miles ticked off faster. I got into a rythym, i didn't notice every mile like I did on the way out. I didn't feel a 'high' like a runner's high, but I definitely felt like I could keep it up for a while. I arrived back at ABS without incident, a ride time of 4:15. My calculations were not too bad, eh?
I was so hungry, and so tired, that I went into Carpo's (the newer one, on Mission) and ordered my food while still in my gear, a soaking, stinking mess. I didn't care. Burger and a side of pasta! Iced-tea and powerade! Then I changed, went back in and tried not to wolf down my meal. Later, I had second dinner with Naomi. 4:15 on a bike, I can eat whatever I want!
When you push yourself further than you have before, you learn things about your bike, your body, your riding ability. I learned that you don't warm up when it's in the 50s with wind, even if your legs are hairy and you ride for several hours. I learned that you can break through and get into a rythym after you thought you were too tired to finish. I learned that the last few miles of a long ride like that get a little dreamy... which doesn't do a lot for your driving ability once you're back in the car. And I really need to address that numb-toe problem. (I think I need to move the cleat on my left shoe, so I guess I'll just keep tweaking.)
I'm still planning a century soon. Naomi doesn't want me to ride it alone, which suits me fine. I could use some company anyway. I've been thinking about a course from SJ to Gilroy to Watsonville to SC and back to SJ. I think you can make a century out of that. Lots of climbing, too. Anyone who has read this far and is interested in joining me, drop me a note!
Monday, November 03, 2003
So... Cold...
Seriously... it's time to go shopping for cold-weather gear. If the pain during the ride doesn't convince you, then trying to code with numb fingers will. Tops on my list: full-finger gloves and neoprene shoe-covers. Oh, and something for my ears.
This shopping will have the added benefit that the weather will probably warm up as soon as I get properly outfitted. Either that or it will sleet.
This shopping will have the added benefit that the weather will probably warm up as soon as I get properly outfitted. Either that or it will sleet.
This week-- the Track
Ed and Li invited me out to check out Hellyer Velodrome. I've always wanted to check it out. For one thing, I'm really lucky to live so close to one of only two velodromes in CA. I think there are only something like 19 in the country.
It was early (for me)-- 8:30. And kinda cold, for California (like, 50s). I showed up with my pedals, listened to Terry give an opening talk which explained to us the basics of track riding, and then I got a loaner track bike. After attaching my pedals, I joined the group of about 8 riders on a 40-lap warm-up. Each rider would spend one lap (about 1/5 mile) in front before pulling off and jumping on the back.
First impressions: it's harder than I thought to ride a straight line, and I was more nervous getting on a wheel on the track than I am on the road (since you have no brakes on the track). Psychologically, it's just harder, even though there isn't as much to worry about because *no one* has brakes.
We ran through a series of practice races. There were a lot of them, so I may forget one, but they were: 9 lap scratch race, team pursuit, Italian pursuit, & Australian pursuit. We also did a drill with some jumps and sprints, where I learned that when sprinting, you pull back on the bars (parallel to the ground), rather than pulling up on the bars. This is great! Now I don't have to worry about my front wheel flying off the ground when I sprint!
The Australian pursuit was the most strategically intriguing. Basically, all the riders start spread out around the track and you all start on the whistle. If someone passes you, you're out. Race goes on until one person is left, or until Terry invokes the mercy rule & declares a winner. To pass or to draft? Drafting saves you energy, but allows the person behind you to catch up... passing eliminates a foe, but potentially wastes energy. Hmmm.
In this particular race, I was lined up behind Li and ahead of Ed. Both are strong. I thought I might be able catch Li with a really fast start, but I didn't think I could hold off Ed for very long. However, Li got an incredible start and had caught the two riders ahead of him before I even made up any ground on him. I checked back and Ed was making a little progress behind me. I rode hard to catch Li, but caught him right about when Ed caught me. Li shouted, "I'm gonna make you work for it, Ed!" and Ed replied, "I'm not workin', Arik's doing all the work!" It's true, I was gettin' hosed.
In the few moments I had to decide, I decided to pass Li. Mostly because I figured I was toast, and Ed would pass me any second, and I wanted to pass *someone* before I got taken out. I passed Li, and Ed drafted me for about a lap before I'd had enough, and pulled off. "Thanks!" he said, smiling. In retrospect #1, I should have drafted behind Li for longer, so that maybe I would have save a little strength and try to surprise Ed and get away. But, he's so much stronger than I am, that probably wouldn't have had a prayer. In retrospect #2, Li, Ed and I should have worked together, Li holding a high pace as long as he could, then me, before I launched Ed to try to catch whomever else was left. In hindsight, maybe that's what Terry had in mind, since he put all 3 google riders together at the start. Hmmm again.
I had a great time! The races were fun, and the workout was good, though it was higher intensity that I'm really riding this time of year. Riding on the track will help me work on several things that I need more practice at: holding a wheel, riding at high cadence, and reading a sprint finish. It should also help my race tactics in general, and help me smooth out my pedal stroke.
You need to attend four introductory sessions before you can race on the track on Wed & Fri evenings during the summer. So, I'll be back there. Maybe not right away, since it conflicts with my club group ride, but I will take the opportunity during the weeks when I don't need to fit a longer ride in on a Saturday. I should have plenty of chances to do that before next summer.
Here are a few types of races and a link to others:
Some additional track terminology can be found here.
It was early (for me)-- 8:30. And kinda cold, for California (like, 50s). I showed up with my pedals, listened to Terry give an opening talk which explained to us the basics of track riding, and then I got a loaner track bike. After attaching my pedals, I joined the group of about 8 riders on a 40-lap warm-up. Each rider would spend one lap (about 1/5 mile) in front before pulling off and jumping on the back.
First impressions: it's harder than I thought to ride a straight line, and I was more nervous getting on a wheel on the track than I am on the road (since you have no brakes on the track). Psychologically, it's just harder, even though there isn't as much to worry about because *no one* has brakes.
We ran through a series of practice races. There were a lot of them, so I may forget one, but they were: 9 lap scratch race, team pursuit, Italian pursuit, & Australian pursuit. We also did a drill with some jumps and sprints, where I learned that when sprinting, you pull back on the bars (parallel to the ground), rather than pulling up on the bars. This is great! Now I don't have to worry about my front wheel flying off the ground when I sprint!
The Australian pursuit was the most strategically intriguing. Basically, all the riders start spread out around the track and you all start on the whistle. If someone passes you, you're out. Race goes on until one person is left, or until Terry invokes the mercy rule & declares a winner. To pass or to draft? Drafting saves you energy, but allows the person behind you to catch up... passing eliminates a foe, but potentially wastes energy. Hmmm.
In this particular race, I was lined up behind Li and ahead of Ed. Both are strong. I thought I might be able catch Li with a really fast start, but I didn't think I could hold off Ed for very long. However, Li got an incredible start and had caught the two riders ahead of him before I even made up any ground on him. I checked back and Ed was making a little progress behind me. I rode hard to catch Li, but caught him right about when Ed caught me. Li shouted, "I'm gonna make you work for it, Ed!" and Ed replied, "I'm not workin', Arik's doing all the work!" It's true, I was gettin' hosed.
In the few moments I had to decide, I decided to pass Li. Mostly because I figured I was toast, and Ed would pass me any second, and I wanted to pass *someone* before I got taken out. I passed Li, and Ed drafted me for about a lap before I'd had enough, and pulled off. "Thanks!" he said, smiling. In retrospect #1, I should have drafted behind Li for longer, so that maybe I would have save a little strength and try to surprise Ed and get away. But, he's so much stronger than I am, that probably wouldn't have had a prayer. In retrospect #2, Li, Ed and I should have worked together, Li holding a high pace as long as he could, then me, before I launched Ed to try to catch whomever else was left. In hindsight, maybe that's what Terry had in mind, since he put all 3 google riders together at the start. Hmmm again.
I had a great time! The races were fun, and the workout was good, though it was higher intensity that I'm really riding this time of year. Riding on the track will help me work on several things that I need more practice at: holding a wheel, riding at high cadence, and reading a sprint finish. It should also help my race tactics in general, and help me smooth out my pedal stroke.
You need to attend four introductory sessions before you can race on the track on Wed & Fri evenings during the summer. So, I'll be back there. Maybe not right away, since it conflicts with my club group ride, but I will take the opportunity during the weeks when I don't need to fit a longer ride in on a Saturday. I should have plenty of chances to do that before next summer.
Here are a few types of races and a link to others:
individual pursuit - A type of race in which the two riders start on opposite sides of the track and chase each other for a distance ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 meters. If one rider catches up to the other, the race is over. If not, the rider with the fastest time wins. team pursuit
This is similar to the individual pursuit race, except that there are two teams of four riders each. The teams ride in pace lines and the leader changes every half-lap or every lap. Standard distance is 4,000 meters. The team's time is taken when the third rider crosses the finish line, so the fourth rider doesn't have to finish.
Some additional track terminology can be found here.
