Saturday - 27 March 2004
| Hrs. Sleeping: | 6 |
| Weight: | |
| Pulse/Waking: | |
| Rising: | |
| Difference: | |
| Distance Ridden: | just a couple to warm up the race was 55 miles (5x11) |
| Total Time: | |
| Time of Day: | 9:30 am |
| Weather: | Low 50s to start, upper 50s at the finish. |
| Workout Type: | race |
| Breakfast: | fruit smoothie, some liquid food about one hour prior to the start |
| Lunch: | |
| Dinner: | |
| Ride Food: | one small bottle of food - it seemed like it was enough |
| Course: | 11 mile loop or twisty, turny, rolling road with one hill of note|
| Results: | 3rd. I bridged to the winning break at about 10 miles into the race and got tailed off with about 2 or 3 to go. |
| Comments: | I figured my only chance was to go early as I suck in a sprint so I stayed near the front the whole time (the pace was pretty relaxed) and looked for an opportunity. this Vision Tech guy kept riding off the front and after about 5 miles another rider joined them. they got about 20 seconds and all of a sudden I was at the front with two teammates right behind me so I went figuring they would do an excellent job of blocking for me. And they did. I bridged pretty quickly and we upped the speed of the break right away by just a bit. About two laps later, Clint shows up and on the next hill we drop one guy. I had been feeling good doing a single paceline and just taking turns but when Clint showed up he suggested we rotate and right away it seemed harder - less time to rest. With one lap to go I could tell I was tired (I had been off the front since mile 10) but our gap was over 1:30 by now so I was confident that we were away for good and it was just a matter of who was getting what place. with 3 or 4 miles to go, Clint taps me on the shoulder signaling that we should do something... I was behind the Vision Tech guy so I waited for him to finish pulling and then tried to attack. Right as I stood and jumped, one leg cramped! I had to sit down and try to accelerate again. Vision Tech chased me and caught me in about 500 yards and then Clint went. But this time he caught on even faster. And I got dropped. Clint won the sprint (really just a drag race up the big hill - it was not close) and I nursed my cramp in for 3rd. 4th was a couple of minutes behind me. It's obvious that I need to: - lose some weight for the hills - ride more - do more hard hills to get stronger [sigh] The training season is really just starting for me, time to catch up... And none of the big guys were here today, I doubt I'd have been so lucky if they were. But it felt GREAT to make something happen and to help a teammate to the finish. I'm not going to stick around in the pack and wait for the finish, that's for sure; no matter how fit/unfit I am. |
| Equipment: | race bike - finally...! It seems that my bars are a bit higher on my race bike than on my commuter. I think it would be good to lower them on the race bike rather than raise them on my commuter but my stem won't let me. Gotta think about that. |
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Here I am approaching the finish which was near the top of the biggest hill on the course. |
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And here I am crossing the finish line about to cramp and exhausted after being off the front in a break for 45 miles. |
