VO2

Mark talked me into doing some VO2 intervals. I started at 220 watts and edged toward 230 watts. 5x5 minutes with 6 minutes rest. It was a sweat fest but I felt good after.

Walla Walla Stage Race

The Walla Walla stage race was last weekend - three races, a time trial, a criterium, and a road race in Walla Walla. The picture is from our team meeting between the time trial and the crit at Cheryl's mom's house. They made us lunch too!

Walla Walla was lots of fun and having the host housing made it great. We stayed with our teammate Cheryl's sister. We rode from our host housing to the time trial and the crit. The road race was further away and we had to use the cars. The weather was spectacular all weekend.

The time trial was tough because I don't have a very arrow position due to a weak shoulder. The course screamed downhill and was windy so you really paid for not having all the aero gear. I lost a couple of minutes just on that.

Next was the crit. 70 women in the 1-2-3's! It was a huge group. I sprinted out of the saddle for the first corner but was hit hard on the side by another rider. I hadn't even made it to the first corner yet! I ended up near the back behind the riders who were heavy on the breaks and couldn't get around before the group separated and gapped off. We formed a chase group and started working together. I was confused by all the corners in the group and couldn't tell which way we were supposed to be turning. In retrospect I should have memorized the turns. We had driven the course but I saw it from the back of the car and didn't get a good look. So I made an effort to memorize the turns and just in time. By the time I was sure which way we were going they called a chase prime. I waited until the three left corners and dove hard into the first one and kept going. When I came around the last corner I had about 200 meters on the group. I won $30! Unfortunately the fun was over as they pulled us with two laps to go.

The road race had a crazy start. It was a neutral roll out but the lead car kept slowing down and speeding up leading to many near collisions. I saw one of the girls fishtail in front of me just barely staying up. They also had us neutral on half of the downhill which was insane. My fingers were cramping from so much emergency braking. We finally got going and things were either all out or very slow. I got dropped after the first loop and it seemed that most of the riders behind me quit so I didn't have anybody to work with until 10 miles to go I finally hooked up with someone. So I lost a lot of time doing about 30 miles solo. I ended up last in the 1-2's but I finished instead of quitting so I wasn't really last. It was a beautiful course and I was happy to be riding in the sun and getting some good training. It was so warm that I drank all three of the water bottles I took.

Volunteer Park Criterium

Yesterday was the Volunteer Park criterium. I had an OK race. I stayed in the group but didn't do much to help out teammates. We had a large women's field which is great but now I have to get used to moving around in a big field. I had three teammates in the race, Heather, Heidi, and Annette. Heidi got a flat early on. Heather was racing in her first Washington race since she just moved here from Colorado. Annette did great getting 4th over all and picking up a $20 prime. I have a picture of her below with the "loot".

I need to get better at moving to the front of the group. I wasn't having a problem moving up but I would get 1/2 way up and then loose my position before the next lap. Annette gave me some hints and stuff to work on for the next race. After Annette got the prime she was briefly on the back and I thought, perfect, I will just follow her back up to the front. But as I watched her glide up to the front I was not able to do the same. It is deceptively easy when someone else does it.

I hung in until the finish but on the very last corner there was a bad crash and four riders went down. I think they are all OK but they did have to take two away in the ambulance. I hope they recover quickly.

Mark's race was the one after mine but just as he got to the race one of his brakes broke. His race was delayed by the ambulance so we switched the pedals on our bikes and he raced my bike! Good thing we are the same size! Except he changed the seat height and I forgot to mark it first - oops. He had no problem at all racing on a different bike and made it look easy as usual. No crashes in his race I think they were all being extra careful.


There were some good pictures of us both on Wheels in Focus:
http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2009/Volunteer/W123/pages/94AD0677vp.htm
http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2009/Volunteer/W123/pages/94AD0730vp.htm

http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2009/Volunteer/3/pages/94AD0846vp.htm
http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2009/Volunteer/3/pages/94AD0932vp.htm

Track Class at Marymoor

I helped teach the track class at Marymoor with Bilko yesterday. It was really fun! My goal was to pass on my enthusiasm for racing to the new riders and get them excited about track racing. It was a good experience.

I took the track class so long ago that I didn't remember what I learned or even who taught the course. When I went out to the track two years ago I didn't remember how to get off the track!

Bilko did a great job of deconstructing the process of getting on a fixed gear bike and riding it safely around the track. The class was an all women's class and none of them had ridden a fixed gear bike before so we had to start with just getting on the bike and stopping safely. Soon we had them comfortable and taking flyers around the track. Then we got to play follow the leader. I had one group and Bilko had the other group. I took them up and down the track and dove down the steep part. I hope they had as much fun as I did! It will be nice to see them at the races. I hope I get another chance to help out with future classes. It was super nice weather too which made it even more exciting because I know that track racing is coming soon.

Today I did more intervals - 10 minute efforts again but this time with 15 seconds hard every two minutes. I would hit 350-400 watts on the hard parts and then drop down to 200 watts until the next 15 seconds effort. This was Mark's idea and it was one of the hardest sessions I've done! Afterwards I took a recovery ride around Greenlake. It was a mob scene because of the nice weather but a fun place too cool down when you aren't in a hurry. Very entertaining!

Intervals

I did some intervals last tuesday. I've been taking a French class but now it's over and I can work on training during the week again. I did 3x10 minute power intervals pushing a big gear at a fairly low cadence. I held them all at about 190 watts. On thursday I did my first hill repeats. Just three to get the legs used to climbing again.