me on a bike

Overtrained?  En forme?  It's so hard to tell.

I took a week very easy between last Tuesdays schellacking and this Tuesday's circuit race. I rode with the B's.  It was slower than I remembered it, but as it turned out, the main part of the A's never caught us (although breakaway Bendy Man did).  Anyway, I stayed with the pack, stayed mostly near the front, made one half-hearted attack that stayed away for a lap and a quarter (a new high!), then sat it for the finish. 

With 2 to go, Bob told me to stay on his wheel on the last lap and he'd lead me out.  He kept us around 26-27 mph into the wind on the backstretch, and delivered me around the corner.  I easily jumped and came around him and was well clear of the field for the win.  I only went up to 35.8 mph, but I think if I'd been pushed I might have been able to go harder.

So, i get a little confidence for Saturday, although I know I'm not even going to be the strongest rider on our team, let alone in the race.  I will likely work either for Steve D. or Mike H., although there's an outside chance I could get a good result.

After two weeks of not feeling "springy", and another early exit from Tuesday night's A-race, I think I may be overtraining.  I had several really heavy weeks since coming back from Italy, and it could be that I just need to back off for a while.  When I'm riding, my legs feel tired, and I can't put in enough effort to get my heart rate up where it usually is.

The only problem is that there is a race on 7/31 that I was really looking forward to.  So, how much time do I take off?  A week?  Two?  I guess I'll go week-to-week and see how it goes.  Gotta try to remember not to eat too much if I'm not riding.

Date: 7/13/04
Race: SJBC Circuit Race
Length: 16 laps
Place: DNF (14 laps)

Went out with Ed again intending to ride with the B's, but I had a feeling they'd 'make' us ride in the A group, and they did, saying "everyone in the break last week has to ride with the A's!" So Ed and I moved up, and Ozzie was there, too. I didn't see David or Alex, and Dana stayed in the B's.

In the past I've lasted 5 laps and 8 laps before getting dropped, and I was determined to do better. I actually wasn't feeling very frisky at all, and suffered every time the hill came around. For a while I set up a good rhythm, starting the climb at the front, slowly drifting back, closing a small gap on the descent, then moving slowly forward through the field on the backstretch (as guys pulled through) to end up back near the front again in time for the tailwind stretch.

However, on lap 10, there was some traffic at the bottom of the hill, and I got gapped on the corner and had to chase pretty hard just to get back on. I started thinking in the back of my mind that this would be it for me, and that's a self-fulfilling thought. I hung on to finish 10 laps with the group, and then my legs finally just switched off on the hill. They were gone in no time.

After a brief recovery, I rode hard for about 1.5 laps, then shut it down completely. I actually was caught again by the A/B group on my 14th lap, and when the bell rang for the final lap, I pulled out so as to stay out of the way.

With the Bs and As mixed again, it was pretty chaotic. Mike H. won the A-race, and right behind him was Steve on his logo-less Seven bike. Ed ended up fourth overall, 3rd in the As.

Feeling as poorly as I did today, I suppose it is a good result to hang on for 10 laps. The difference between the A's and the B's is about 20-25 seconds per 1.9 mile lap, or average speeds of 24.8 mph vs. 23.3 mph. My heart rate never went above about 167, whereas it's been near 180 in past weeks, so I guess I was still tired from the weekend of hiking and no biking. Still, I hope next week to finally finish with the A group.

I mean that tongue-in-cheek, of course.

Date: 7/6/04
Race: SJBC Circuit Race (B)
Length: 16 laps (about 28.8 mi.)
Finish: 2

I had invited Ed to come race with me at the weekly race, and finally he was able to come down and join me. I decided one more week in the B's was appropriate, as I didn't want to throw Ed to the wolves his first time.

The race was fairly typical, nothing got away for a while, although I did get into a group of 6 early on, and we had a gap, but someone trying to bridge ended up pulling the field back up to us. It might have been Ed, even.

However, with about 10 to go, Dana, Alex, and Ozzie were about 50m off the front going up the hill. Alex does a lot of pulls during the race, and Ozzie usually races with the A's, and Dana is fairly strong, too, so I quickly did the calculation that this might be a good move to get into. Furthermore, Ed and David P., two of the strongest riders in the race, were with me right at the front. I'd already told Ed to keep an eye on David, and so I figured that they'd go with me.

I surged up the hill, and just as I'd hoped, we created a break of 6, all of us strong riders. We quickly got into a pace line, and doubled our gap by the next time up the hill. Still, we had to keep working to stay away and that's what we did. I reminded myself that they the peloton had been chasing hard to stay near us, and if we stayed away any longer they'd probably give up (especially with a couple of the guys who usually pull the group in our breakaway).

After another lap, I didn't see them behind us, and a few laps later they were nowhere at all to be seen.

We were still working well together, although with no one in sight behind us, we did start to let up a little bit. On the backstretch with 1.5 laps to go, Ed took that as his cue to get off the front. It's tough to do in the headwind section. When he went, someone asked me, "does he have it?" I answered honestly, "I don't know." What I meant was, normally I'd think he could stay away, but he'd been off the bike for a long time after his crash, so I wasn't sure how his top end form was.

Anyway, I guess they didn't like that level of uncertainly, so they chased him down.

On the final descent before the back stretch, 3 of us got a little gap: me, Ed, and David. Dana, Ozzie, and Alex were not far behind, and we all came back together by the final turn.

Ed took off and David marked him, but this is with at least 600m to go, so it was a little far out. Alex led Ozzie, followed by me in the chase.

Alex burned out and pulled off, and Ozzie's chase was not too spirited, so I quickly made the decision to charge ahead. I was making good progress closing the 50m or so, but my shadow gave me away. David saw me and jumped, and Ed was in the process of jumping anyway, so just as I was catching up, Ed surged away. He lead me to the line, and I never did close down those last few bike lengths and ended up with second.

It was really cool to be in a break that stayed away for so long. I am always attacking the B's seeing what will stick, but as it turns out, it's not much fun to be in the winning break (at least while you're in it) because it's really hard work! A lot harder than sitting in and waiting for the finish. It was really cool to go 1-2 with Ed. Now all that's left is to beat him.

Interesting fact from Ed's powertap data: in the uphill sprint, we hit about 30mph and his power peaked at around 1100W.