Tour de Dung #2, Sequim RR

I beat myself again. But I'm not too disappointed. At the beginning of the season I tried to downgrade and I just got 4th in a Cat 1-2 race. I'll take it.

The race was pretty bizarre. It seems as if my image in the eyes of the other racers has gotten to be as big as the Stay-puft marshmallow man. So we had a strategy at the beginning of the race and part of the strategy was for me to watch Beth. I know that Beth likes to attack early so I was actually dreading an early attack. The refs told us we were neutral until the top of the first hill and Beth lets out a groan "are you sure? We didn't do that last time". This was a bad sign. So we go up the first hill and I lead just for fun. Then I rotate to the back where Beth is. I really like the back. A couple minutes later Beth is out of her saddle moving up the side. Here we go! I grabbed the wheel and we were off the front. I came around and took and a "good faith" pull and she let me pull a little and then came with a vicious counter attack. So much for Ms. Nice Guy. The next thing I knew Allison and Trish B had joined us. So now they are rotating and I'm cooked. Due to my reputation from the last Sequim I didn't get any grace period. They immediately started yelling at me for not pulling. I stayed silent for a while, mostly because I couldn't breathe.

So I'm not pulling because I really don't see any point. We have got almost the whole race to do and all of these riders are stronger than me. Not a good situation but probably a good strategy to use against sprinters. My teammate (another sprinter) was back in the pack but there was no hope of them catching because we had all of the strongest riders.

So I wasn't pulling because I really didn't trust the other riders not to attack me. Then they found out we had a 4 minute lead and they all sat up and we started going 10 mph and I agreed to pull. I took a few turns before I decided that maybe they weren't going to attack me. So then I took "regular" pulls which meant I pulled maybe 3-5 times and then took a break for a couple of turns. They did not like the breaks at all and I was cursed at and spit on. Welcome to bigtime racing I guess. I remember watching the Olympics and seeing one of the girls spit in the other girls lane before the competition. Wow I'm really flattered now. (heavy sarcasm)

It seemed odd that they were so obsessed with making me pull since I haven't won any races recently and I am not anywhere near as strong as them. I was barraged with insults - except from Allison who tried to get them to shut up.

So I thought things were going OK. Occasionally someone would try to escape but the other riders didn't seem to have much acceleration. I was getting tired which I'm sure they were too but they were also chatting so I knew they weren't that tired. A couple of times I stood up in the back to stretch and there was an immediate reaction. They actually though I was going to attack.
Unfortunately things didn't work out for me. I was drinking aggressively to extend my strength but I had mixed my drink bottles too strongly and had started throwing up on any extended efforts. I was doomed at that point. I couldn't pull through and I told them why so someone went for the attack. It didn't matter at that point for me though.

I rode the last lap alone and pretty miserable just pushing hard enough not to get sick and managed to take 4th. My best placing since the Kent Criterium a few years ago where there were only 4 riders to start with.

superstylin' hill intervals

My coach is crazy

It's Easter today and it is pouring rain. So I opted for a Computrainer workout. My coach suggested 5x2 minute intervals with 3 minutes rest followed immediately by a 10 minute tempo.

I was supposed to try for 300 watts on the 2 minutes, well that lasted about 15 seconds and I was struggling to hold 250. So on the next ones I aimed for 250. It got better as I went but on the last one I was just shy of 250 still on the second minute. The first minute was no problem at all. Coach says it is because your body has the energy systems for 1 minute but not for two. The workout is supposed to simulate bridging to a break and then riding with the break group. (Maybe I should just do one 2 min interval then? Right?) The tempo was much better but I was a sweaty mess. Maybe next time it will be easier.

Hill training

Yesterday I went on a nice 3-1/2 hour ride with Annette out to the Hollywood hill and through the neighborhood called Tuscany. I should have GPS'd the route because it was a good one. We did hill efforts which seemed hard even though I just got back from doing hills on vacation. I think the difference was the intensity. It was one of those rides that got better as I went. We started at 1pm which meant it was around 5 at the finish. I took the trail home and it was crazy with people. I found a nice wheel to follow home - an orange fixed gear Masi - very smooth. I asked if it was OK to draft. It made the ride home very quick and efficient. Thanks whoever. :)

Mt Lemmon Ride

The ride up Mt Lemmon is 25 miles with 6900 feet of elevation gain, going from 85 F (on the day we rode) to snow at the top and very cold. http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Mt-Lemmon-to-Summerhaven

Is anybody looking at all of these pictures?

Sequim #1

First road race of the year for me! Hooray! I knew there was nothing to be nervous about before the race but my body didn't seem to agree. Lots of trips to the restroom and no appetite at all. I forced down a scone on the drive out but it was hard to do. Our team strategy was to have the race stay together and have a pack finish. The other teams didn't seem to want this to happen at all and kept attacking. I chased down one strong attempt on a small rise. Things were under control until after one lap there was a big break. I saw it go and managed to jump across before it was too late. I heard the people from the other team on the front yelling "your not supposed to chase down your own team mates!" Well the problem was that every team was represented in the break so I knew the pack would be sitting up. I had a teammate in the break but unfortunately there was a hard attack and she lost the group. Then it was me and 5 others, two from two of the other teams so I was way out numbered. No work for me! The other girls didn't see things from my view and thought they could bully me into working. At one point two of the girls from one of the other teams got on either side of me and yelled at me at the same time. Man this was annoying. They are lucky I'm not the quick temper type. After a while with some helpful hints from me they figured out I wasn't going to work (really?) and they would have to use tactics against me. What was really weird is they weren't at all focused on winning the race - just getting rid of me. Thanks for the complement guys - but whatever. Finally after some targeted attempts to drop me and one underhanded attack while engaging me in an argument I was on my own to do the last lap solo. Just as I hit the line the group from behind caught me but it was my own teammates so this was fine with me. We'll have to refine our strategies but this gave us some good discussion material.

Ice Breaker

The Icebreaker Time Trial last Sunday went pretty good for me. It's great to get in the first race even if it is a time trial. I did pretty good except for a couple small problems. One was not leaving enough time to get to the race - well that was almost a big problem. The small problem was not seeing where there turn around was. I saw that I was there but I thought the actual turn was further up the road - but it turns out that was where the cars were stopped. So I went just a bit too far and lost some momentum. I was surprised when I turned around my legs were already feeling some of the hurt. The way back was fine though and I pushed a big gear. About 40 seconds faster than last year! I felt it was a respectable outing.

After I got back Jen and I went for a ride out to golden gardens. We knew the steep road down to the beach was closed since last fall but decided to check it out anyway. 3/4 of the road was completely gone and just a deep gouge left - a shear cliff. We walked around some fences and tiptoed down the 5' or so wide pavement that was left to get to the other side. I think it will be a while before that one is fixed. It was great weather for an easy spin. We took it easy and stopped to watch the little one person sailboats out on the bay.

Nice Easy Day

I thought for sure today would be a wet miserable ride. In fact I didn't even make definite ride plans until the morning and then I still thought we'd get soaked! But no rain at all just a lovely day. The ride felt great maybe because of the strong tailwind but my riding felt nice and smooth. Tomorrow is the Icebreaker time trial so hopefully the weather will be just as nice. I was heading back to the trail and I saw the old Armadillo BBQ in a new location. I don't know if they still serve meals but they had the "Sorry we're open" sign up. I have fond memories of that place. A standard favorite was the "trick" mustard bottle they would surprise new people with.

I stopped by the new Counter Balance Cycles on the way home and they were having an open house with coffee and top pot doughnuts! Yum. The shop looked really nice inside with new floors and the windows were uncovered so the place was light and airy.