So I rode with one of my favorite biking buddies today, Jeff - he's one of the first people I started to ride with on a regular basis many years ago - and is a constant source of support, always ready to go for a ride.
We used to ride all the time a few years ago - and today was a reminder of just how much fun it is to go for a ride with someone you connect with - we always tell fun stories, catch up on the latest gossip at our respective companies, chit-chat about life, etc.
Today's ride was not exactly one of our epic ones - just a short, simple ride - I did all of 7 miles today - and didn't feel quite as bad as I did on my first ride a couple of days ago - we rode for just over 1/2 hour (actual moving time, since I've setup my Garmin Edge 500 to auto-stop when my bike stops - cool feature!) - and I even "attacked" a few small hills. Well, perhaps "attack" is stretching the truth - a bit - but you get the idea - it felt like I was attacking those small hills. I'm sure an impartial observer would be asking why the old guy on the bike was moving so damn slow up that little itty-bitty bump in the road. But I was imagining it was more like climbing up Mt. Diablo or some other monster-sized mountain. Some day next year, I won't have to imagine anything - it'll be all too real!
When I talked to Jeff last night, he asked the usual - "Are you riding - or hiding?" - and for the last couple of years, it's been "I'm hiding!" - but this morning, he showed up promptly at 9:00 a.m. - and there I was, ready to ride! So we rode - and now I'm feeling better that I've done 2 rides in the last 3 days - exactly as planned.
Now I just gotta keep moving - or, to paraphrase the end of a great speech that Tom Hanks gave at the end of Castaway (one of my favorite movies):
"And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing (and riding). Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide (or bike ride) could bring?"
:)
Friday, December 3, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Did I Just Do A Century Ride Today?
Nope. It just FELT like a century ride, unfortunately - my first ride in a long, long time. Too long, as it turns out. I thought that getting onto the Comeback Trail would be tough - but it's going to be even tougher, as I found out today.
The ACTUAL ride was only about 30 minutes long - and wasn't even 10 miles long (more like 6.5 miles) - and it wasn't even hilly - it was FLAT! And I still died... :(
I guess something happens once you get past 55 (the last time I did a real ride, I wasn't even a Senior Citizen) - I'm 56 now - so THIS is what's it's like to be an old-timer, I guess. Ugh! I have a feeling it's going to be a tad harder to pull off those extra pounds, too.
But here's the good news - my new Garmin Edge 500 worked really, really well - I love it - and will be posting all my rides up on the GarminConnect website, with my handle (polarlight) - so everyone can watch me go from "Mr. Slow" to "Mr. Go"... :)
But it's gonna take awhile - I figure about 6 months before I can point with any pride to any rides I do - but it looks like I'll get some help along the way - I've already heard from a bunch of my riding buddies - Chimene, Andy, Jeff, and Jason - and I'm sure they'll help drag my butt around, firmly attached to the saddle of my bike - and hopefully get strong enough to cause them some anxiety when we hit some hill (like I did at one time - a very long time ago!)...
So today's initial ride was nothing to write home about - but at least it's a start - and that's all it was meant to be. It would have been closer to an hour, but I got started late (work crap!) and then spent a bunch of time getting my new Garmin Edge 500 configured just right - I mean, they now give you 3 (count 'em!) different displays to toggle through - and you can even have the toggling through the different screens done automatically while you ride! - and each screen can have up to 8 programmable fields - and you can choose from about a zillion (well, maybe closer to 42) different fields - nice! It'll be fun to get home tonight and upload the data to my PC - or maybe I'll just upload to the GarminConnect website, since it has all my older rides (used to be called MotionBased.com) - I'll decide later...
So it wasn't a century ride - but in about 6 months, I plan on doing a *real* century ride - and hopefully, get in good enough shape to tackle the Santa Cruz Mtn Challenge next summer - but that's just dreaming right now...first you crawl, then you walk, then you run, then you get on your bike (and die) - and then repeat as needed... :)
The ACTUAL ride was only about 30 minutes long - and wasn't even 10 miles long (more like 6.5 miles) - and it wasn't even hilly - it was FLAT! And I still died... :(
I guess something happens once you get past 55 (the last time I did a real ride, I wasn't even a Senior Citizen) - I'm 56 now - so THIS is what's it's like to be an old-timer, I guess. Ugh! I have a feeling it's going to be a tad harder to pull off those extra pounds, too.
But here's the good news - my new Garmin Edge 500 worked really, really well - I love it - and will be posting all my rides up on the GarminConnect website, with my handle (polarlight) - so everyone can watch me go from "Mr. Slow" to "Mr. Go"... :)
But it's gonna take awhile - I figure about 6 months before I can point with any pride to any rides I do - but it looks like I'll get some help along the way - I've already heard from a bunch of my riding buddies - Chimene, Andy, Jeff, and Jason - and I'm sure they'll help drag my butt around, firmly attached to the saddle of my bike - and hopefully get strong enough to cause them some anxiety when we hit some hill (like I did at one time - a very long time ago!)...
So today's initial ride was nothing to write home about - but at least it's a start - and that's all it was meant to be. It would have been closer to an hour, but I got started late (work crap!) and then spent a bunch of time getting my new Garmin Edge 500 configured just right - I mean, they now give you 3 (count 'em!) different displays to toggle through - and you can even have the toggling through the different screens done automatically while you ride! - and each screen can have up to 8 programmable fields - and you can choose from about a zillion (well, maybe closer to 42) different fields - nice! It'll be fun to get home tonight and upload the data to my PC - or maybe I'll just upload to the GarminConnect website, since it has all my older rides (used to be called MotionBased.com) - I'll decide later...
So it wasn't a century ride - but in about 6 months, I plan on doing a *real* century ride - and hopefully, get in good enough shape to tackle the Santa Cruz Mtn Challenge next summer - but that's just dreaming right now...first you crawl, then you walk, then you run, then you get on your bike (and die) - and then repeat as needed... :)
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
The Comeback Kid
Unbelievable. I was doing so good - and was in such good shape. Then, I stopped riding. Why? Well, it certainly started innocently enough (heard that one before, I'm sure!) - I simply got burned out when trying to desperately train for the Death Ride with a couple of my riding buddies - actually, it was just one main riding buddy - Ed. He's a great guy - and a really strong rider - especially considering he's actually a few years older than me. Ed was able to retire - I'm still a working stiff - and he had time to ride as much as he wanted - and he really wanted to ride a LOT, to see how well he could do on the 2008 Death Ride (he ended up doing quite well, btw!) - and since I had done the Death Ride a few times, I was trying to get psyched up for that really hard ride - but I was working at a new company (SeaChange) - and I had been put onto a really hot project - lots of fun - but also lots of work...
So I tried to meet up with Ed as often as possible - and tried to play "catch up" on the miles (and the elevation gain) that you need to put into your legs to ride a successful Death Ride (in this case, "successful" means just finishing it before it gets dark!) - but alas, I was trying to ride too much in too short of a time period - and I simply burned out.
Yep - I just burned out. I was on a ride with Ed - starting in Palo Alto (right near where the Noon Ride takes off most days during the week - a racer's training ride) - and we were going to ride up and over to the coast and back - I don't even remember the exact climb we did to get over to the coast - all I remember is that I struggled immensely to get up the climb that took us to the coast - and then *really* struggled to get back from the coast - all I remember was stopping about 1/2 way up this one climb we were on - and I just said, "Screw it! I'm NOT doing the Death Ride this year - no way, no how! I'm DONE!". And that was it - I crawled my way up to the top of the climb, then drifted back down to Palo Alto to our start point - put my bike back in my car and told Ed he wasn't going to do the Death Ride with me - I was done.
Really done. I then decided to stay off my bike for a month or so, to just get away from all the training and racing I had been doing. But that one month turned into two months. Then three months. Then the legs began to really atrophy - and I started thinking about how painful it was going to be to start riding again. So the three months turned to four months - and so on, until today - two years and six months later - 30 months off the bike!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
So now I'm motivated again - I've gained a BUNCH of weight (probably 30 or 40 pounds - I'm actually afraid to find out!) - and it will be really, really hard to ride again. But ride I will. I know I will. How do I know? Well, I'm going to use my blog to keep all my dedicated followers informed (all one of us!) - and someday, maybe one of my kids will read this - and use it as inspiration to get themselves onto some kind of exercise track - and make it a a permanent part of their life!
To be truthful, I know that one of them is already on the right road - our middle son, Mitchell. He is in good shape and is on a really good diet, too (vegetarian - well, actually, he's a pescetarian, since he'll eat fish for protein) - and I'm confident he'll maintain those healthy habits all his life - because I'm going to really BUG HIM BIG TIME if I see him start to wander away (like I have - a few times in my life, unfortunately).
And our youngest son, Grant, is really into surfing - which involves a lot of exercise, too - although he doesn't do it often enough - you need to find something to gives you some kind of good aerobic exercise at least 3 or 4 times a week. I plan on starting out with 3 to 4 - and then slowly increasing it to 5 or 6 times a week, like I used to do when I was in the very best shape of my life.
But our oldest son, Jake, is kind of like me when I was in my early college career - after a couple of years just studying for classes (like Jake) - and totally stopping any kind of exercise routine (in high school, you HAVE to exercise!) - I had gained about 20 or 25 pounds (just like Jake has now) - and one day, I decided to get myself back into shape - so I looked around and decided to choose biking - what a great choice! I hope that Jake (soon!) finds something, too - and then sticks with it all his life, to keep himself as healthy as possible. Because after all is said and done (are you listening carefully, Jake?), your health is the only thing that really matters, along with your relationships - but you can't have any relationships with people unless you are able to visit them - and do things with them - so if you're bound to some hospital bed and in the poorest of poor health, you can't enjoy the fruits of all your hard labor - or enjoy your family and friends, either - so get in shape, then STAY in shape - and have fun, living life to the fullest. Okay, time to jump off my soapbox... :)
But THIS time around, it will be a little different. Rather than try to keep on pushing myself to ride faster and faster - and harder and harder - and get back into racing - I'm going to keep it light - and fun. With the emphasis on "fun". Oh, I'll do my fair share of huffing and puffing (especially in these first few months that I ride again) - but I'll keep things "fun" - I'll only ride harder when I feel like it - and it won't be to try and set some new record (although I'm sure I'll occasionally test myself, just to see how far I've come in my comeback).
To get started on the right foot, I've just had my trusty Trek Madone 5.2 bike all cleaned up and tuned up at my favorite bike shop, Chain Reaction (in Los Altos) - I bought my bike at the Chain Reaction store up in Redwood City, since I used to work up there (at SeaChange) - but now I'm at a new company (Panasonic in Cupertino) - and the other Chain Reaction store is now the closest to me - and I'll be starting on the comeback trail tomorrow, December 1, 2010 - and my first ride will be really nice and easy.
Oh - and I will be recording my rides, as usual - and I just purchased a new Garmin Edge 500 cyclometer to assist me in my comeback endeavor - and I'm really looking forward to recording a lot of FUN rides - and getting myself back in shape. I'm now 56 years old - and I know what I have to do.
So here we go...again... :)
So I tried to meet up with Ed as often as possible - and tried to play "catch up" on the miles (and the elevation gain) that you need to put into your legs to ride a successful Death Ride (in this case, "successful" means just finishing it before it gets dark!) - but alas, I was trying to ride too much in too short of a time period - and I simply burned out.
Yep - I just burned out. I was on a ride with Ed - starting in Palo Alto (right near where the Noon Ride takes off most days during the week - a racer's training ride) - and we were going to ride up and over to the coast and back - I don't even remember the exact climb we did to get over to the coast - all I remember is that I struggled immensely to get up the climb that took us to the coast - and then *really* struggled to get back from the coast - all I remember was stopping about 1/2 way up this one climb we were on - and I just said, "Screw it! I'm NOT doing the Death Ride this year - no way, no how! I'm DONE!". And that was it - I crawled my way up to the top of the climb, then drifted back down to Palo Alto to our start point - put my bike back in my car and told Ed he wasn't going to do the Death Ride with me - I was done.
Really done. I then decided to stay off my bike for a month or so, to just get away from all the training and racing I had been doing. But that one month turned into two months. Then three months. Then the legs began to really atrophy - and I started thinking about how painful it was going to be to start riding again. So the three months turned to four months - and so on, until today - two years and six months later - 30 months off the bike!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
So now I'm motivated again - I've gained a BUNCH of weight (probably 30 or 40 pounds - I'm actually afraid to find out!) - and it will be really, really hard to ride again. But ride I will. I know I will. How do I know? Well, I'm going to use my blog to keep all my dedicated followers informed (all one of us!) - and someday, maybe one of my kids will read this - and use it as inspiration to get themselves onto some kind of exercise track - and make it a a permanent part of their life!
To be truthful, I know that one of them is already on the right road - our middle son, Mitchell. He is in good shape and is on a really good diet, too (vegetarian - well, actually, he's a pescetarian, since he'll eat fish for protein) - and I'm confident he'll maintain those healthy habits all his life - because I'm going to really BUG HIM BIG TIME if I see him start to wander away (like I have - a few times in my life, unfortunately).
And our youngest son, Grant, is really into surfing - which involves a lot of exercise, too - although he doesn't do it often enough - you need to find something to gives you some kind of good aerobic exercise at least 3 or 4 times a week. I plan on starting out with 3 to 4 - and then slowly increasing it to 5 or 6 times a week, like I used to do when I was in the very best shape of my life.
But our oldest son, Jake, is kind of like me when I was in my early college career - after a couple of years just studying for classes (like Jake) - and totally stopping any kind of exercise routine (in high school, you HAVE to exercise!) - I had gained about 20 or 25 pounds (just like Jake has now) - and one day, I decided to get myself back into shape - so I looked around and decided to choose biking - what a great choice! I hope that Jake (soon!) finds something, too - and then sticks with it all his life, to keep himself as healthy as possible. Because after all is said and done (are you listening carefully, Jake?), your health is the only thing that really matters, along with your relationships - but you can't have any relationships with people unless you are able to visit them - and do things with them - so if you're bound to some hospital bed and in the poorest of poor health, you can't enjoy the fruits of all your hard labor - or enjoy your family and friends, either - so get in shape, then STAY in shape - and have fun, living life to the fullest. Okay, time to jump off my soapbox... :)
But THIS time around, it will be a little different. Rather than try to keep on pushing myself to ride faster and faster - and harder and harder - and get back into racing - I'm going to keep it light - and fun. With the emphasis on "fun". Oh, I'll do my fair share of huffing and puffing (especially in these first few months that I ride again) - but I'll keep things "fun" - I'll only ride harder when I feel like it - and it won't be to try and set some new record (although I'm sure I'll occasionally test myself, just to see how far I've come in my comeback).
To get started on the right foot, I've just had my trusty Trek Madone 5.2 bike all cleaned up and tuned up at my favorite bike shop, Chain Reaction (in Los Altos) - I bought my bike at the Chain Reaction store up in Redwood City, since I used to work up there (at SeaChange) - but now I'm at a new company (Panasonic in Cupertino) - and the other Chain Reaction store is now the closest to me - and I'll be starting on the comeback trail tomorrow, December 1, 2010 - and my first ride will be really nice and easy.
Oh - and I will be recording my rides, as usual - and I just purchased a new Garmin Edge 500 cyclometer to assist me in my comeback endeavor - and I'm really looking forward to recording a lot of FUN rides - and getting myself back in shape. I'm now 56 years old - and I know what I have to do.
So here we go...again... :)
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
So How Am I Doing So Far?
It's early in the season and I've done several road races (no crits - at least, not yet!), with some mixed results, which is to be expected. And, this is probably a good time to assess how my climbing program is going, since *that* is certainly my greatest weakness as a cyclist.
Well, my very first road race, the Cantua Creek RR, was a resounding success, IMHO - I didn't quite make the top 10 (the current results show 22nd, but they made a mistake that has not yet been corrected - I will ultimately end up with 13th, and my friend, Gary Griffin, will be placed 14th instead of 13th, since I beat him by half a tire width - see my full race report right here). I was especially pleased with this first road race of the season, as I fully expected to finish AFTER Gary, who is a much better climber than me, by far - and yet, I somehow managed to actually beat him, albeit by the slightest of margins - and it wasn't on a course that really favored hill climbers, like Gary - it favored people like me, who can sprint pretty good up a relatively short climb - if that race had continued on for another 1/2 mile uphill or more, I'm sure Gary would have easily beaten me into submission at the end... :)
Then, my second road race, the Snelling RR, was a full-blown disaster - and to make things even worse, it was my very first race with my new team, Bicycle Trip! Not exactly how I hoped to start out my racing career with them! You can see the gory details of this disaster here, assuming you like to read stories that make you feel a whole lot better about yourself, as you compare your life to the sorry life of the story's author! However, in my defense for that particular race, it was a really nasty day, with horrendous headwinds - and I had been snookered (is that a word?) into doing the Masters 45+ open race with my new teammate, Dennis Pedersen... :)
Well, I didn't really get snookered - I actually thought that a Masters 45+ open road race would unfold like all the other road races I had done this year and last year - but *those* road races were with the Masters 45+ 4/5 group - and it turns out that the 45+ open category for Masters is a totally different beast than the 45+ 4/5 races - so now I know! Needless to say, I was completely unprepared for what happened at Snelling, so I suppose you can say I'm allowed to make one terrible mistake this year - you really have to choose your races wisely, which is pretty obvious, really!
My third road race this year, the Merco Credit Union Foothills RR, was interesting - I was actually racing the regular Cat 4 race with another new teammate on Bicycle Trip, Bryan King. It turns out this was the only race I could get into - the category I might have normally signed up for (Masters 35+ 4/5) was all filled up, unfortunately. I was a little bit leary about this race, since the regular Cat 4 group is primarily a bunch of kids - like Bryan - guys in their 20s and 30s, mostly - so I was about twice as old as the average kid (and I *do* mean "kid") in that race.
But - unlike the Masters 45+ open group, the regular Cat 4 group has *only* Cat 4 racers - no Cat 1, 2, and 3 guys, like you see in the Masters 45+ open races. So, I thought I had a fighting chance in the Merco race, and the distance was only about 50 miles, much like the road races I normally do with the Masters 45+ 4/5 group.
And, it turns out I was doing just fine in that race - except Bryan and I *both* got caught behind a crash just 2 miles from the end of the race - darn! - and ended up finishing the race, but way down towards the bottom of the list - and we both thought we had excellent chances of placing in the top 10 in that race - Bryan for sure, and me, quite likely - I guess we won't get a chance to find out until next year! If you need to see the longer story, check out my race report here.
My last race for this year, at this point, was just an unsanctioned time trial - the first Swanton Road TT, where I was doing okay for the first half, but got a terrible cramp in my right calf muscle after I did the turnaround, and had to pedal relatively easily for the return leg of that TT - ending up with an okay time, especially considering the strong winds we had to deal with, but at least 1.5 minutes slower than I might have done if I had been able to push as hard coming back as I did going out. My average heartrate going out was about 161 bpm, but it dropped down into the 152 bpm range for its average coming back on the course - and we had a nice tailwind coming back, too! Oh, well - I take solace in the fact that my "adjusted" time would have been reasonable for this time of year!
So how does it all add up? Overall, I'm relatively pleased - my climbing is not quite where I'd like it to be - but it's much better than a few months ago - and my weight has barely dropped down (I was supposed to have lost 20 pounds by now, but it's been more like 2 pounds!) - I figure if I can lose the weight I should have lost by now, my climbing would be good enough to entertain new PBs, left and right!
So my new short-term goal for the next 60 days is to get that weight down while I continue to improve my climbing. Working with Team Bicycle Trip, doing their weekly hill repeats (every Saturday morning and again on Wednesday afternoon) has certainly paid off for me - and I haven't even been as diligent as I could be! Imagine where I'd be if I was more consistent!
Okay - it's time to stop and start now, as in STOP blogging, STOP eating, and START riding more and START doing more hill repeats... :)
Well, my very first road race, the Cantua Creek RR, was a resounding success, IMHO - I didn't quite make the top 10 (the current results show 22nd, but they made a mistake that has not yet been corrected - I will ultimately end up with 13th, and my friend, Gary Griffin, will be placed 14th instead of 13th, since I beat him by half a tire width - see my full race report right here). I was especially pleased with this first road race of the season, as I fully expected to finish AFTER Gary, who is a much better climber than me, by far - and yet, I somehow managed to actually beat him, albeit by the slightest of margins - and it wasn't on a course that really favored hill climbers, like Gary - it favored people like me, who can sprint pretty good up a relatively short climb - if that race had continued on for another 1/2 mile uphill or more, I'm sure Gary would have easily beaten me into submission at the end... :)
Then, my second road race, the Snelling RR, was a full-blown disaster - and to make things even worse, it was my very first race with my new team, Bicycle Trip! Not exactly how I hoped to start out my racing career with them! You can see the gory details of this disaster here, assuming you like to read stories that make you feel a whole lot better about yourself, as you compare your life to the sorry life of the story's author! However, in my defense for that particular race, it was a really nasty day, with horrendous headwinds - and I had been snookered (is that a word?) into doing the Masters 45+ open race with my new teammate, Dennis Pedersen... :)
Well, I didn't really get snookered - I actually thought that a Masters 45+ open road race would unfold like all the other road races I had done this year and last year - but *those* road races were with the Masters 45+ 4/5 group - and it turns out that the 45+ open category for Masters is a totally different beast than the 45+ 4/5 races - so now I know! Needless to say, I was completely unprepared for what happened at Snelling, so I suppose you can say I'm allowed to make one terrible mistake this year - you really have to choose your races wisely, which is pretty obvious, really!
My third road race this year, the Merco Credit Union Foothills RR, was interesting - I was actually racing the regular Cat 4 race with another new teammate on Bicycle Trip, Bryan King. It turns out this was the only race I could get into - the category I might have normally signed up for (Masters 35+ 4/5) was all filled up, unfortunately. I was a little bit leary about this race, since the regular Cat 4 group is primarily a bunch of kids - like Bryan - guys in their 20s and 30s, mostly - so I was about twice as old as the average kid (and I *do* mean "kid") in that race.
But - unlike the Masters 45+ open group, the regular Cat 4 group has *only* Cat 4 racers - no Cat 1, 2, and 3 guys, like you see in the Masters 45+ open races. So, I thought I had a fighting chance in the Merco race, and the distance was only about 50 miles, much like the road races I normally do with the Masters 45+ 4/5 group.
And, it turns out I was doing just fine in that race - except Bryan and I *both* got caught behind a crash just 2 miles from the end of the race - darn! - and ended up finishing the race, but way down towards the bottom of the list - and we both thought we had excellent chances of placing in the top 10 in that race - Bryan for sure, and me, quite likely - I guess we won't get a chance to find out until next year! If you need to see the longer story, check out my race report here.
My last race for this year, at this point, was just an unsanctioned time trial - the first Swanton Road TT, where I was doing okay for the first half, but got a terrible cramp in my right calf muscle after I did the turnaround, and had to pedal relatively easily for the return leg of that TT - ending up with an okay time, especially considering the strong winds we had to deal with, but at least 1.5 minutes slower than I might have done if I had been able to push as hard coming back as I did going out. My average heartrate going out was about 161 bpm, but it dropped down into the 152 bpm range for its average coming back on the course - and we had a nice tailwind coming back, too! Oh, well - I take solace in the fact that my "adjusted" time would have been reasonable for this time of year!
So how does it all add up? Overall, I'm relatively pleased - my climbing is not quite where I'd like it to be - but it's much better than a few months ago - and my weight has barely dropped down (I was supposed to have lost 20 pounds by now, but it's been more like 2 pounds!) - I figure if I can lose the weight I should have lost by now, my climbing would be good enough to entertain new PBs, left and right!
So my new short-term goal for the next 60 days is to get that weight down while I continue to improve my climbing. Working with Team Bicycle Trip, doing their weekly hill repeats (every Saturday morning and again on Wednesday afternoon) has certainly paid off for me - and I haven't even been as diligent as I could be! Imagine where I'd be if I was more consistent!
Okay - it's time to stop and start now, as in STOP blogging, STOP eating, and START riding more and START doing more hill repeats... :)
Monday, March 17, 2008
Memorial Ride for Kristy and Matt
Last Saturday afternoon (March 15), I decided to go out to do the memorial ride for Kristy Gough and Matt Pederson, who were the 2 cyclists killed on Sunday (March 9) on Stevens Canyon Rd.
It was amazing - there were hundreds of cyclists - maybe even more than a thousand - that all congregated at Foothill College on El Monte Rd today, starting about 2:30 pm. The ride was scheduled to leave at 3:00 pm, heading down El Monte to Foothill, then following Foothill until it became Stevens Canyon, then end up at the memorial site where the accident happened. After the memorial, the entire group of cyclists would then return on the same route back to Foothill College.
The Channel 7 News team was there (maybe Channel 2, also - but I only saw Channel 7) - they were filming everything and doing some interviews with different cyclists. I also saw a helicopter hovering above - I'm not sure, but it might have been a news helicopter, just getting some aerial shots.
The Third Pillar Racing and Roaring Mouse Cycling teams left promptly at 3:00 pm, leading out a very slow procession of cyclists, with the Sheriff's office helping to providing traffic control all the way to the memorial site on Stevens Canyon Rd. You could see that all the people from the Sheriff's office that were present were very respectful and truly felt bad about what had happened last Sunday.
It was an amazing site seeing the hundreds of cyclists covering half of Foothill Blvd and then Stevens Canyon Rd as we headed out to the memorial site. We were allowed to totally take over the slow lane all along the route. When we got to the top of the small hill on Stevens Canyon Rd (just a short distance before the place where the accident happened), they had closed the road completely to allow all the cyclists to come to a stop at the memorial site.
Most of us were wearing small patches that had been handed out to us in the parking lot of Foothill College before the ride started.
Also, a lot of people were handed roses, including myself - and those with flowers - or anything else they might have brought with them - were allowed to come up to the memorial site and place their flower (or whatever memento they had) down on the site. It was a very moving experience - and it was generally very quiet as people moved slowly past the memorial site.
The saddest part was hearing Kristy's mom, who was crying uncontrollably for quite a long time. I only knew it was her because someone that knew Kristy's mom pointed her out to me.
Ride safe, everyone...
It was amazing - there were hundreds of cyclists - maybe even more than a thousand - that all congregated at Foothill College on El Monte Rd today, starting about 2:30 pm. The ride was scheduled to leave at 3:00 pm, heading down El Monte to Foothill, then following Foothill until it became Stevens Canyon, then end up at the memorial site where the accident happened. After the memorial, the entire group of cyclists would then return on the same route back to Foothill College.
The Channel 7 News team was there (maybe Channel 2, also - but I only saw Channel 7) - they were filming everything and doing some interviews with different cyclists. I also saw a helicopter hovering above - I'm not sure, but it might have been a news helicopter, just getting some aerial shots.
The Third Pillar Racing and Roaring Mouse Cycling teams left promptly at 3:00 pm, leading out a very slow procession of cyclists, with the Sheriff's office helping to providing traffic control all the way to the memorial site on Stevens Canyon Rd. You could see that all the people from the Sheriff's office that were present were very respectful and truly felt bad about what had happened last Sunday.
It was an amazing site seeing the hundreds of cyclists covering half of Foothill Blvd and then Stevens Canyon Rd as we headed out to the memorial site. We were allowed to totally take over the slow lane all along the route. When we got to the top of the small hill on Stevens Canyon Rd (just a short distance before the place where the accident happened), they had closed the road completely to allow all the cyclists to come to a stop at the memorial site.
Most of us were wearing small patches that had been handed out to us in the parking lot of Foothill College before the ride started.
Also, a lot of people were handed roses, including myself - and those with flowers - or anything else they might have brought with them - were allowed to come up to the memorial site and place their flower (or whatever memento they had) down on the site. It was a very moving experience - and it was generally very quiet as people moved slowly past the memorial site.
The saddest part was hearing Kristy's mom, who was crying uncontrollably for quite a long time. I only knew it was her because someone that knew Kristy's mom pointed her out to me.
Ride safe, everyone...
Monday, February 18, 2008
Cantua Creek Road Race, Masters 45+ 4/5, 2/16/2008
One word - Wooohooo!! - or, is that 2 words: Woooo-Hoooo? - it doesn't really matter, as I survived long enough to write this report!
In my previous post, I was wondering if I was ready for this first road race of the 2008 season. My post suggested I was basically ready (except for the fact that I had not lost nearly enough weight!) - but secretly, I was a little worried. I had analyzed the data for this race very carefully, and figured out the race would probably boil down to 2 critical points:
1) The climbs up the 3 stair steps at the mid-way point of the race...
2) Those same climbs of the 3 stair steps at the end of the race!
My big fear was that I would get popped off the back at the first critical point - and if that happened, it was going to be a very long second lap, doing the solo thing - and with a pretty good headwind on the "out" part of the out-and-back (heading towards the north), it would be 12 long miles by myself into that headwind, then a very lonely 12 miles back to the end of the race, and dragging myself up those 3 climbs all by myself, with only the cows over at Harris Ranch cheering me on... :)
However, that's NOT what happened during my race, I'm quite happy to report!
First, let's describe the race course: You start out at the top of a 2.5-mile climb that is really 3 smaller climbs, each separated by a (very) small downhill section. Then you have a relatively flat 9.5-mile section into a headwind that pretty much parallels Hwy 5. In fact, you cross over Hwy 5 at one point, then just before the next overpass that would take you back over Hwy 5, there is a 180-degree turnaround just as the overpass starts to pitch up slightly. Now you head back on that 9.5-mile section, but this time you have a tailwind - and, of course, those last 2.5 miles of the course are those 3 fun stair-step climbs - the first 2 are each about 1/2-mile long, and the last one is the "big" one - about 3/4-mile long. The gradient of each climb is fairly mild - only about 5% to 6%, I'd say. However, even though the gradient is not too steep, when your speed never drops below 15 mph, it can still hurt - a lot! Don't kid yourself...racing, even on "flat" roads, can be hard when the speed is high enough.
But high speeds were not really the order of the day for our race. In fact, my average heartrate for the race was only 135 bpm, a new record low for me (at both the San Ardo RR and Henleyville RR last year, my heartrate averaged about 140 bpm).
I had decided as a pre-race strategy to just sit in the pack, close to the front, for the first lap, and conserve my energy. I had one teammate with me, Gary Griffin - and when we briefly discussed race strategy before the race, it was clear we both had the same exact strategy - just sit in and pray that we are still around at the end of the race to contest the uphill sprint! Gary is a stronger climber than me, so I figured that strategy would work especially well for him, and less so for me. However, I had one advantage for this race - I had been doing a lot of hill repeats in the last month or two - I became a convert to that training technique as I watched the members of Team Bicycle Trip almost winning the Low-Key Hill Climb series at the end of last year - and they do very regular Saturday morning hill repeats.
The concept is pretty simple - try to get one hour's worth of hard climbing in, done as 3 sets of 20 minutes, or 4 sets of 15 minutes, etc. I had the, uh, pleasure of joining Mark Edwards and his band of Merry Climbers for the first time a couple of months ago, when they did 5 sets of 12 minute hill intervals on Rodeo Gulch, one of my favorite places to ride. I had never tried to ride up Rodeo Gulch twice in one day, much less 5 times! Needless to say, I was complete toast at the end of that workout session - but I also noticed that my climbing started to improve considerably after that. Mark encouraged me to start working hill repeats into my training regime, and I took his advice to heart.
In fact, I started working my own set of mini hill repeats into my training rides during the week. Where I work in San Mateo, there are dozens of these short, steep hills - typically about 1/2-mile long, but with gradients averaging anywhere from 9% to 14% - steep! I developed these small courses where I'd do small loops that forced me to climb up various short steep climbs like this - doing anywhere from 3 to 6 of them on any particular day. I wanted to do the steeper hills for two reasons: 1) To help improve my raw leg strength; and 2) As a psychological trick, to make the hills in my races seem easier by comparison - pretty clever, huh?
So the 3 stair-step climbs of Cantua Creek, which were similar in length to the short hills I had been training on, were not nearly as steep - in fact, they were only about half as steep. I think all those mini hill repeats (as well as the Saturday morning longer hill repeats with Mark Edwards and Team Bicycle Trip) really paid off for Cantua Creek - a special "Thank you!" to Mark and all the great climbers on his team...it's quite motivating to be surrounded by all these really good climbers - it helps to make you work just a little harder than you might otherwise do by yourself...
Now for the race itself: We started out on the 2.5-mile downhill section, with the 2 minor climbs between each of the stair-step sections. Then we hit the flatter section with the headwind from the north. The pace of the pack was pretty tame - I think a lot of people wanted to catch up and chit-chat with each other - since this was probably the first road race of the new season for most of us, it seemed that old acquaintances were just exchanging pleasantries, finding out what they all got for Christmas, how little they had trained during the winter, etc.
Or, in my case, new acquaintances were being formed: Here we are, motoring along at this very pleasant pace early in the race, when this guy rolls up next to me and says, "Hi! I'm William! What's your name?" - of course, I told him who I was - and then he launches into his life story - pretty funny! But he was a nice guy - he had last raced about 10 years ago, and this was his first race in 10 years! But he had raced at Cantua Creek for its first 3 years, from 1996 to 1998 - and he patiently explained to me I shouldn't worry about the first 44.5 miles - the race will only happen in the last 3 miles, he assured me. Of course, I knew that relatively easy courses like Cantua Creek often boil down to a bunch sprint at the end, so I wasn't really surprised - but since he was the voice of experience, I thanked him for his reconnaissance info. He also reminded me not to try and go too hard too soon on the hill, which I had heard about from various race reports I had read earlier.
But I was thinking to myself that I'd be delighted to just be present for the final surge up the 3 hills at the end of the race - I was really concerned about the surge that I knew would happen the first time up those 3 hills, at the midpoint of the race.
On the way out to the first 180-degree turnaround, there were a couple of minor attacks, but I had no trouble keeping my good position in that top third of the 50-person pack. I think I generally hovered between 10th and 15th place the whole time. Every once in awhile, someone would take a solo flyer, but the pack would just let them dangle out there for a mile or two, then reel them back in with no problem. It was clear this was going to probably be a bunch sprint at the end of the race.
I thought our pack was exceptionally well-mannered - there were constant shouts of "Slowing!" or "Gravel!" or "Car Up!", etc. - everyone (at least around me) handled their bikes just fine and didn't do anything dangerous or stupid - maybe it's due to the fact that all of us are over 45 - and nobody wants to go to the hospital at our age, if at all possible... :)
When we did the 180-degree turnaround on that first lap and headed back to the start/finish area of the race, there were one or two attacks with that nice tailwind, and I again had no problem staying right where I wanted to be - near the front. I had not seen Gary more than once or twice for brief moments, so I assumed he was generally positioned just behind me in the pack.
As we approached the 3 climbs near the end of the first lap, my apprehension really grew - this would be THE BIG TEST - either I'd sink or swim with the pack at this point. I had visions of watching the pack disappear up the climb, as I looked across Hwy 5 and took comfort that the cows at Harris Ranch were secretly cheering me on, all alone in my quest to catch back onto the pack again...
But that's not what happened! In fact, as we started up the first of those 3 climbs, I thought there was something wrong with the pack - it felt like we were going very slow - I saw my heartrate rise up close to my time-trial rate (160 bpm), but that was it! The pack wasn't disappearing up the climb in front of me! In fact, I had actually moved up closer to the front - huh? Then, we hit the first small downhill section after that first climb, my heartrate dropped a bit, of course, and we started up the next climb. And the same thing happened - again! My heartrate climbed up to just 159 bpm this time, so it was ever-so-slightly easier than the first climb - and suddenly, we were descending down the second small downhill section. Wow! Two down and just one more to go - I was almost feeling giddy, as I realized I was probably going to be able to hang on to the turnaround spot at the finish line of the race.
But that third climb was THE BIG ONE - a massive, 3/4-mile long hill that gained about 100 feet, instead of those "puny" 1/2-mile bumps in the road we had just negotiated. And of course, the top of a climb is where there is always a strong surge - nobody just coasts their way to the top of a climb - in a race, they always try to sprint over the top, just to shake off all the newbies and 90-pound weaklings - but in this case, you don't go over the top - you go around the cones, doing a 180-degree turn right there at the finish line area of the race.
My heartrate climbed higher this time - up to 165 bpm as we surged to the top of that last climb - but I had managed to work my way to just about the front of the entire pack - in fact, I was about the 4th person to do the turnaround - now how cool is that? Here I was, worried about watching the pack pull away from me on the climb - but it was me who was pulling the pack up the hill - or, so I would like to believe. I suspect the truth is that the really clever guys were hiding their true strength, so they could catch you by surprise at the end of the race.
But I didn't care - we were at the halfway point of the race, heading back down the 3 stair-steps - and I was now in the lead group. I felt so good about my fortunate state of affairs, I decided to take a flyer off the front when we hit the first little uphill section after speeding down the first hill - I looked back and saw that one other guy decided to launch himself out of the pack and he hooked up with me. Then a third guy flew out of the bunch behind us and suddenly, there were 3 of us, in our own little breakaway!
Hey - this is pretty cool, I thought - but I had no intention of trying to make a break work at that point in the race. In retrospect, it might have been a good tactic to try, since there were 3 of us - but I quickly realized that the other 2 guys had no intention of trying to break away - they simply caught up to me, we exchanged smiles, and then they looked back and sat up. I imagined they were told to go neutralize my "attack" - ha! Little did they know I was doing nothing more than celebrating my good fortune of being with the main pack for the second of our 2 laps - wooohooo!!
So, we settled back into the pack and I reclaimed my spot near the front - about 8 or 9 positions from the front. I had no intention of trying to take any pulls at the front - I felt more than strong enough to do this, like I had done at the Henleyville RR back in September - but I was more than content to just sit in and watch the sparks fly at the end of the race.
We had a few more attacks on the way back out to the turnaround spot of the 2nd lap - and, in fact, there was one guy that actually broke away on a solo attack - he blasted off during that second lap and got a pretty good lead on the pack - maybe 30 seconds or so. But the pack didn't seem too worried about him - and we did reel him back in about a mile before the final attacks on the 3 climbs at the end of the race.
So now we're approaching the end of the race - and just as William had told me, the real race was about to start, just 3 miles from the top of the last hill. Not surprisingly, the first of the 3 climbs was done just a little harder than we had done on the first lap - but my heartrate was still in total control, not rising above 160 bpm. I remembered that no matter what happened, I had to resist from pushing too hard too soon - it's a long way to the top, as William had reminded me. Then, on the second hill, there was a ferocious attack by either 4 or 5 guys that just hammered their way out of the main pack, which was actually disintegrating in front of my eyes - there were guys getting spit out the back like they were old cows, ready to join their siblings across Hwy 5, over at Harris Ranch...
But I wasn't one of them, thankfully! No, I was bound and determined to stay as close to the leaders of our main group - those 4 or 5 mutants that blasted off were going way too fast for me to join them (at least, I think so) - I had visions of rolling past their cold, dead bodies somewhere before we got to the finish line - but, alas, this was not to be the case... :)
However, I was holding my own with the survivors of the main pack - and as what happens in so many road races like this, there were different groups all merging together for the finish - I know we got mixed in with other groups, because we all had numbers in the 700s - and there were other numbers (not in the 700s) floating around me as we buried ourselves in pain to get to the top of the last climb.
Now here's where it gets curious - I hadn't seen Gary for a long time - but I figured he'd just fly by me on one of the last climbs of the race - in fact, I started thinking that maybe he was one of those 4 or 5 mutants that had blasted out of the pack on the second climb...
But about 1/2 way up that last climb, Gary comes rolling by me - he didn't blast past me - just rolled quietly by - I was going to make a joke, but my eyeballs were hanging out of my head and my tongue was all twisted inside my mouth - no jokes today! I figured he'd just keep motoring past me and easily finish ahead of me, at least a few places. But we were both passing people, left and right, as various guys were blowing up on the climb. I felt like I was going to blow up, too - but as Gary got in front of me, he slowed ever so slightly for just a split moment - and I managed to grab onto his rear wheel. I just stared at his wheel and decided I would do whatever I could to hang on for dear life...
Then, after what seemed like several hours (but it was really more like a few seconds), I saw the 200-meter sign. 200 meters to go? That's it? Woohoo! Like a trained race horse that's just been let out of the gate, I knew it was time to 'sprint'. Of course, sprinting up a hill when you're totally maxed out is not an easy thing to do - I saw my heartrate was now essentially redlined - 172 bpm!! My max heartrate is only 175 bpm - so there wasn't much wiggle room left! But I let loose whatever was left in my legs for the sprint and I managed to pull up even with Gary just inches from the finish line - and with one last hard push, I actually nipped Gary at the line, beating him by about 1/2 a tire width! Is that possible? I guess so - and we had managed to come in just ahead of my new racing buddy, William, who thought he had sewn up 12th place - I have absolutely no idea how he could tell what place he had finished in - there was such chaos at the end, with several different groups finishing at about the same time.
We couldn't stick around to see the official results, but it looks like I might have snagged 10th place and Gary 11th place, since William finished just behind Gary.
A possible top-10 place - what a great way to start out the 2008 racing season!
In my previous post, I was wondering if I was ready for this first road race of the 2008 season. My post suggested I was basically ready (except for the fact that I had not lost nearly enough weight!) - but secretly, I was a little worried. I had analyzed the data for this race very carefully, and figured out the race would probably boil down to 2 critical points:
1) The climbs up the 3 stair steps at the mid-way point of the race...
2) Those same climbs of the 3 stair steps at the end of the race!
My big fear was that I would get popped off the back at the first critical point - and if that happened, it was going to be a very long second lap, doing the solo thing - and with a pretty good headwind on the "out" part of the out-and-back (heading towards the north), it would be 12 long miles by myself into that headwind, then a very lonely 12 miles back to the end of the race, and dragging myself up those 3 climbs all by myself, with only the cows over at Harris Ranch cheering me on... :)
However, that's NOT what happened during my race, I'm quite happy to report!
First, let's describe the race course: You start out at the top of a 2.5-mile climb that is really 3 smaller climbs, each separated by a (very) small downhill section. Then you have a relatively flat 9.5-mile section into a headwind that pretty much parallels Hwy 5. In fact, you cross over Hwy 5 at one point, then just before the next overpass that would take you back over Hwy 5, there is a 180-degree turnaround just as the overpass starts to pitch up slightly. Now you head back on that 9.5-mile section, but this time you have a tailwind - and, of course, those last 2.5 miles of the course are those 3 fun stair-step climbs - the first 2 are each about 1/2-mile long, and the last one is the "big" one - about 3/4-mile long. The gradient of each climb is fairly mild - only about 5% to 6%, I'd say. However, even though the gradient is not too steep, when your speed never drops below 15 mph, it can still hurt - a lot! Don't kid yourself...racing, even on "flat" roads, can be hard when the speed is high enough.
But high speeds were not really the order of the day for our race. In fact, my average heartrate for the race was only 135 bpm, a new record low for me (at both the San Ardo RR and Henleyville RR last year, my heartrate averaged about 140 bpm).
I had decided as a pre-race strategy to just sit in the pack, close to the front, for the first lap, and conserve my energy. I had one teammate with me, Gary Griffin - and when we briefly discussed race strategy before the race, it was clear we both had the same exact strategy - just sit in and pray that we are still around at the end of the race to contest the uphill sprint! Gary is a stronger climber than me, so I figured that strategy would work especially well for him, and less so for me. However, I had one advantage for this race - I had been doing a lot of hill repeats in the last month or two - I became a convert to that training technique as I watched the members of Team Bicycle Trip almost winning the Low-Key Hill Climb series at the end of last year - and they do very regular Saturday morning hill repeats.
The concept is pretty simple - try to get one hour's worth of hard climbing in, done as 3 sets of 20 minutes, or 4 sets of 15 minutes, etc. I had the, uh, pleasure of joining Mark Edwards and his band of Merry Climbers for the first time a couple of months ago, when they did 5 sets of 12 minute hill intervals on Rodeo Gulch, one of my favorite places to ride. I had never tried to ride up Rodeo Gulch twice in one day, much less 5 times! Needless to say, I was complete toast at the end of that workout session - but I also noticed that my climbing started to improve considerably after that. Mark encouraged me to start working hill repeats into my training regime, and I took his advice to heart.
In fact, I started working my own set of mini hill repeats into my training rides during the week. Where I work in San Mateo, there are dozens of these short, steep hills - typically about 1/2-mile long, but with gradients averaging anywhere from 9% to 14% - steep! I developed these small courses where I'd do small loops that forced me to climb up various short steep climbs like this - doing anywhere from 3 to 6 of them on any particular day. I wanted to do the steeper hills for two reasons: 1) To help improve my raw leg strength; and 2) As a psychological trick, to make the hills in my races seem easier by comparison - pretty clever, huh?
So the 3 stair-step climbs of Cantua Creek, which were similar in length to the short hills I had been training on, were not nearly as steep - in fact, they were only about half as steep. I think all those mini hill repeats (as well as the Saturday morning longer hill repeats with Mark Edwards and Team Bicycle Trip) really paid off for Cantua Creek - a special "Thank you!" to Mark and all the great climbers on his team...it's quite motivating to be surrounded by all these really good climbers - it helps to make you work just a little harder than you might otherwise do by yourself...
Now for the race itself: We started out on the 2.5-mile downhill section, with the 2 minor climbs between each of the stair-step sections. Then we hit the flatter section with the headwind from the north. The pace of the pack was pretty tame - I think a lot of people wanted to catch up and chit-chat with each other - since this was probably the first road race of the new season for most of us, it seemed that old acquaintances were just exchanging pleasantries, finding out what they all got for Christmas, how little they had trained during the winter, etc.
Or, in my case, new acquaintances were being formed: Here we are, motoring along at this very pleasant pace early in the race, when this guy rolls up next to me and says, "Hi! I'm William! What's your name?" - of course, I told him who I was - and then he launches into his life story - pretty funny! But he was a nice guy - he had last raced about 10 years ago, and this was his first race in 10 years! But he had raced at Cantua Creek for its first 3 years, from 1996 to 1998 - and he patiently explained to me I shouldn't worry about the first 44.5 miles - the race will only happen in the last 3 miles, he assured me. Of course, I knew that relatively easy courses like Cantua Creek often boil down to a bunch sprint at the end, so I wasn't really surprised - but since he was the voice of experience, I thanked him for his reconnaissance info. He also reminded me not to try and go too hard too soon on the hill, which I had heard about from various race reports I had read earlier.
But I was thinking to myself that I'd be delighted to just be present for the final surge up the 3 hills at the end of the race - I was really concerned about the surge that I knew would happen the first time up those 3 hills, at the midpoint of the race.
On the way out to the first 180-degree turnaround, there were a couple of minor attacks, but I had no trouble keeping my good position in that top third of the 50-person pack. I think I generally hovered between 10th and 15th place the whole time. Every once in awhile, someone would take a solo flyer, but the pack would just let them dangle out there for a mile or two, then reel them back in with no problem. It was clear this was going to probably be a bunch sprint at the end of the race.
I thought our pack was exceptionally well-mannered - there were constant shouts of "Slowing!" or "Gravel!" or "Car Up!", etc. - everyone (at least around me) handled their bikes just fine and didn't do anything dangerous or stupid - maybe it's due to the fact that all of us are over 45 - and nobody wants to go to the hospital at our age, if at all possible... :)
When we did the 180-degree turnaround on that first lap and headed back to the start/finish area of the race, there were one or two attacks with that nice tailwind, and I again had no problem staying right where I wanted to be - near the front. I had not seen Gary more than once or twice for brief moments, so I assumed he was generally positioned just behind me in the pack.
As we approached the 3 climbs near the end of the first lap, my apprehension really grew - this would be THE BIG TEST - either I'd sink or swim with the pack at this point. I had visions of watching the pack disappear up the climb, as I looked across Hwy 5 and took comfort that the cows at Harris Ranch were secretly cheering me on, all alone in my quest to catch back onto the pack again...
But that's not what happened! In fact, as we started up the first of those 3 climbs, I thought there was something wrong with the pack - it felt like we were going very slow - I saw my heartrate rise up close to my time-trial rate (160 bpm), but that was it! The pack wasn't disappearing up the climb in front of me! In fact, I had actually moved up closer to the front - huh? Then, we hit the first small downhill section after that first climb, my heartrate dropped a bit, of course, and we started up the next climb. And the same thing happened - again! My heartrate climbed up to just 159 bpm this time, so it was ever-so-slightly easier than the first climb - and suddenly, we were descending down the second small downhill section. Wow! Two down and just one more to go - I was almost feeling giddy, as I realized I was probably going to be able to hang on to the turnaround spot at the finish line of the race.
But that third climb was THE BIG ONE - a massive, 3/4-mile long hill that gained about 100 feet, instead of those "puny" 1/2-mile bumps in the road we had just negotiated. And of course, the top of a climb is where there is always a strong surge - nobody just coasts their way to the top of a climb - in a race, they always try to sprint over the top, just to shake off all the newbies and 90-pound weaklings - but in this case, you don't go over the top - you go around the cones, doing a 180-degree turn right there at the finish line area of the race.
My heartrate climbed higher this time - up to 165 bpm as we surged to the top of that last climb - but I had managed to work my way to just about the front of the entire pack - in fact, I was about the 4th person to do the turnaround - now how cool is that? Here I was, worried about watching the pack pull away from me on the climb - but it was me who was pulling the pack up the hill - or, so I would like to believe. I suspect the truth is that the really clever guys were hiding their true strength, so they could catch you by surprise at the end of the race.
But I didn't care - we were at the halfway point of the race, heading back down the 3 stair-steps - and I was now in the lead group. I felt so good about my fortunate state of affairs, I decided to take a flyer off the front when we hit the first little uphill section after speeding down the first hill - I looked back and saw that one other guy decided to launch himself out of the pack and he hooked up with me. Then a third guy flew out of the bunch behind us and suddenly, there were 3 of us, in our own little breakaway!
Hey - this is pretty cool, I thought - but I had no intention of trying to make a break work at that point in the race. In retrospect, it might have been a good tactic to try, since there were 3 of us - but I quickly realized that the other 2 guys had no intention of trying to break away - they simply caught up to me, we exchanged smiles, and then they looked back and sat up. I imagined they were told to go neutralize my "attack" - ha! Little did they know I was doing nothing more than celebrating my good fortune of being with the main pack for the second of our 2 laps - wooohooo!!
So, we settled back into the pack and I reclaimed my spot near the front - about 8 or 9 positions from the front. I had no intention of trying to take any pulls at the front - I felt more than strong enough to do this, like I had done at the Henleyville RR back in September - but I was more than content to just sit in and watch the sparks fly at the end of the race.
We had a few more attacks on the way back out to the turnaround spot of the 2nd lap - and, in fact, there was one guy that actually broke away on a solo attack - he blasted off during that second lap and got a pretty good lead on the pack - maybe 30 seconds or so. But the pack didn't seem too worried about him - and we did reel him back in about a mile before the final attacks on the 3 climbs at the end of the race.
So now we're approaching the end of the race - and just as William had told me, the real race was about to start, just 3 miles from the top of the last hill. Not surprisingly, the first of the 3 climbs was done just a little harder than we had done on the first lap - but my heartrate was still in total control, not rising above 160 bpm. I remembered that no matter what happened, I had to resist from pushing too hard too soon - it's a long way to the top, as William had reminded me. Then, on the second hill, there was a ferocious attack by either 4 or 5 guys that just hammered their way out of the main pack, which was actually disintegrating in front of my eyes - there were guys getting spit out the back like they were old cows, ready to join their siblings across Hwy 5, over at Harris Ranch...
But I wasn't one of them, thankfully! No, I was bound and determined to stay as close to the leaders of our main group - those 4 or 5 mutants that blasted off were going way too fast for me to join them (at least, I think so) - I had visions of rolling past their cold, dead bodies somewhere before we got to the finish line - but, alas, this was not to be the case... :)
However, I was holding my own with the survivors of the main pack - and as what happens in so many road races like this, there were different groups all merging together for the finish - I know we got mixed in with other groups, because we all had numbers in the 700s - and there were other numbers (not in the 700s) floating around me as we buried ourselves in pain to get to the top of the last climb.
Now here's where it gets curious - I hadn't seen Gary for a long time - but I figured he'd just fly by me on one of the last climbs of the race - in fact, I started thinking that maybe he was one of those 4 or 5 mutants that had blasted out of the pack on the second climb...
But about 1/2 way up that last climb, Gary comes rolling by me - he didn't blast past me - just rolled quietly by - I was going to make a joke, but my eyeballs were hanging out of my head and my tongue was all twisted inside my mouth - no jokes today! I figured he'd just keep motoring past me and easily finish ahead of me, at least a few places. But we were both passing people, left and right, as various guys were blowing up on the climb. I felt like I was going to blow up, too - but as Gary got in front of me, he slowed ever so slightly for just a split moment - and I managed to grab onto his rear wheel. I just stared at his wheel and decided I would do whatever I could to hang on for dear life...
Then, after what seemed like several hours (but it was really more like a few seconds), I saw the 200-meter sign. 200 meters to go? That's it? Woohoo! Like a trained race horse that's just been let out of the gate, I knew it was time to 'sprint'. Of course, sprinting up a hill when you're totally maxed out is not an easy thing to do - I saw my heartrate was now essentially redlined - 172 bpm!! My max heartrate is only 175 bpm - so there wasn't much wiggle room left! But I let loose whatever was left in my legs for the sprint and I managed to pull up even with Gary just inches from the finish line - and with one last hard push, I actually nipped Gary at the line, beating him by about 1/2 a tire width! Is that possible? I guess so - and we had managed to come in just ahead of my new racing buddy, William, who thought he had sewn up 12th place - I have absolutely no idea how he could tell what place he had finished in - there was such chaos at the end, with several different groups finishing at about the same time.
We couldn't stick around to see the official results, but it looks like I might have snagged 10th place and Gary 11th place, since William finished just behind Gary.
A possible top-10 place - what a great way to start out the 2008 racing season!
Friday, February 15, 2008
Am I Ready For My First Road Race of 2008 - Cantua Creek?
So, am I ready for the Cantua Creek Road Race tomorrow, my first road race of the season?
Let's see...
1. Create a "secret training" program to reclaim some lost climbing fitness from last year.
Check.
2. Join the Bicycle Trip team for some of their Saturday morning hill repeats, as another aid to reclaim that lost climbing fitness (man, those workouts are tough!).
Check.
3. Try to ride virtually every day, starting around last December 10, when I began my "secret training" program.
Check. (I've ridden 52 out of 67 possible days since last December 10 - I had a streak of 26 straight days from December 30 to January 24 - wow!)
4. Discover my own hill repeat courses near work and work them into my training schedule each week.
Check.
5. Achieve some new PBs on some of the shorter climbs that I do - the ones under 1 mile long.
Check. (I actually established 6 new PBs!)
6. Do a final test ride where I do about half the distance of the Cantua Creek RR (the race is about 48 miles) and about half the total climbing (the race is about 1600 feet) in about half the time (the race will be about 2:05 or so).
Check. (Today I did a 20 mile ride with 1100 feet of climbing at 17.6 mph while averaging only 122 bpm for my heartrate in a time of 1:08 - how cool is that? - and you can see my MotionBased.com recording of that ride right here)
7. Lose 20 pounds so I can keep the Bicycle Trip guys in my sights on their longer climbs.
Check. --- NOT!
Well, 6 out of 7 ain't too bad, right? Gotta lose that weight now... !
But, the good news is - I think I'll be able to hang with the main pack tomorrow for the whole race - and if I play it *real* smart, I'll try to go for a top 10 placing, assuming I'm still around at the end of the race. Stay tuned!
A special "Thank you!" goes to Dennis Pedersen, for all his help and encouragement during the last few months - it's been a pleasure, Dennis!
I guess my next blog entry will be something about tomorrow's big race - Cantua Creek, here I come!
Let's see...
1. Create a "secret training" program to reclaim some lost climbing fitness from last year.
Check.
2. Join the Bicycle Trip team for some of their Saturday morning hill repeats, as another aid to reclaim that lost climbing fitness (man, those workouts are tough!).
Check.
3. Try to ride virtually every day, starting around last December 10, when I began my "secret training" program.
Check. (I've ridden 52 out of 67 possible days since last December 10 - I had a streak of 26 straight days from December 30 to January 24 - wow!)
4. Discover my own hill repeat courses near work and work them into my training schedule each week.
Check.
5. Achieve some new PBs on some of the shorter climbs that I do - the ones under 1 mile long.
Check. (I actually established 6 new PBs!)
6. Do a final test ride where I do about half the distance of the Cantua Creek RR (the race is about 48 miles) and about half the total climbing (the race is about 1600 feet) in about half the time (the race will be about 2:05 or so).
Check. (Today I did a 20 mile ride with 1100 feet of climbing at 17.6 mph while averaging only 122 bpm for my heartrate in a time of 1:08 - how cool is that? - and you can see my MotionBased.com recording of that ride right here)
7. Lose 20 pounds so I can keep the Bicycle Trip guys in my sights on their longer climbs.
Check. --- NOT!
Well, 6 out of 7 ain't too bad, right? Gotta lose that weight now... !
But, the good news is - I think I'll be able to hang with the main pack tomorrow for the whole race - and if I play it *real* smart, I'll try to go for a top 10 placing, assuming I'm still around at the end of the race. Stay tuned!
A special "Thank you!" goes to Dennis Pedersen, for all his help and encouragement during the last few months - it's been a pleasure, Dennis!
I guess my next blog entry will be something about tomorrow's big race - Cantua Creek, here I come!
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