27.6.11

RACE: T-Town Masters & Rookies 6/27

I have finally gotten the chance to race at trexlertown. The track is just how I expected it to be. Fast, smooth, short. The facilities are great with showers, warm up areas, great officials and employees. The riders weren't what I expected though. I guess it makes sense as this track is really one of two world class venues in the US, but it still surprised me a bit. A lot of the guys just seemed very "roadie". By this I mean the guys at kissena are like a big family. Everybody talks to each other and is friendly to each other. We'll help each other bring their stuff to the track and back to the parking lot. This is one of the main reasons I love track racing and really don't care much for road racing. At road races everyone is out for themselves and that's it. Nobody talks to each other, nobody helps each other. That's how it seemed at T-town with a good handful of the guys. Don't get me wrong, I still talked to a few guys and we had a great time. Bottom line, you can't take this shit too seriously. Also, a lot of the guys rolled their bikes around instead of carrying them. Really, that's just not track.

Anyhow. So the weather forecast said 30% chance of rain from 7am until the next day so I really wasn't even sure if there would be racing, but this was basically my only chance to get out on a saturday before my track upgrade goes through. I went in to NYC on friday to stay with my brother. Helped him clean his apartment and drink his beers. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. I got only a couple of hours sleep before it was suddenly 7am. Time for business. Quick breakfast at George's would be the only food all day until I got home. Met up with Andy, headed to jersey city to pick up the others and off we went.

We got to T-town around 11:30 I would say. Registered, got number 432 which I think is my easiest-to-remember number thus far. Got changed in the locker room (a locker room!), then got warmed up.

The first race was a 15 lap (5k) scratch race. As usual, I found myself near the back and began to filter up through the pack. I found myself at the front pretty quick and decided to jam. Off the front I go, with nobody else bridging or coming with. around and around and around. Maybe I should just sit up? I set the burner to simmer and just keep on turning the pedals. Finally another guy bridges up to me, gets to the front and just slows down. Obviously has a teammate back in the group but I really didn't care. I was just tired of being by myself on the front. Nothing else to say about the rest of that race. Rolled in with the pack. I definitely felt like I was spinning out in my 90" when the heat was on.

Next was a Super Sprint Elimination. I think that's what they called it at least. A Devil's Scratch is what we call it at kissena. Miss and out until 10 guys left, then a 5 lap scratch. I alternated between staying up at the front uptrack a little and hanging near the back almost playing the devil. I just made sure there were less than 10 riders in front of me when we got to the start/finish line. I didn't get eliminated, which is always a good thing. I might have even placed in this one. I don't really remember. at around this point in the day the sky cleared up a little and it just became a hot, humid mess. I think I lost some of my brain cells to heat damage and that's why I have no clue what even happened in most of these races.

The third race was a 15 lap (5k) points race with 3 sprints. I think I was just about the last guy on the rail starting, so it took me beyond the first sprint to get in a good position. Nothing exciting for the first sprint, I think I got 1st in the second sprint and got pipped at the line for 3rd in the last. I don't really know if the placing went more than 3 places deep or not, so I might have gotten points for 4th, might not have.

This concluded the omnium and I ended in 4th overall. This meant I could do the A feature - A 36 lap scratch! Fortunately for me, they decided to shorten it by 2k to just a 30 lap scratch. The race started out casual as most longer races do. I think a couple of breakaway attempts. Nothing stuck. Finally two got away and it looked good. I got to the front to try to start bringing them back and next thing I know I look back and I have a gap between me and the rest of the field. So now there's 2 ahead, me in no man's land and the pack behind. I accept my fate and just get aero. Full steam ahead, trying to bridge. I finally get there with about two or three to go. Rest up a little, bell lap, look back and there's the pack. ffffuuuuuck. I sprint around the other two hoping to keep up some momentum to pull myself to the line, but it's no good. Soon after the pack just blows by me and I roll in.

All in all it was a fun time. looong day though. I finally got home around 9pm. The guys I was with said some of the other racers were talking behind my back about my skinsuit and helmet. I just don't see where that has any place in racing. Whatever.

23.6.11

2011.30: 6/20-6/26 - Build 1/2 Week 3

Sunday: Got pretty sunburned on my neck yesterday. Sat around without a shirt on all day today instead of doing something productive like riding.

Saturday: Raced at t-town. see the race report.

Friday: nothing. rain, then headed to Kreb (the Poulidor of bike shops) to ask many questions about track racing and pick up some new non-grip keo cleats.

Thursday: AE intervals today. Tried to maintain 250W. Looking at the data in hindsight, my HR seems low. Maybe I should have tried for a higher power. Only did two intervals at 6 minutes each. 4 minutes rest between to make the math easier.
Time: 00:25:02
NP/IF: 208/0.789

Wednesday: rainy looking, but I had to get to Roadworx (the shop that all other shops aspire to become). Felt good and strong. No pain. Was fast. Always a good thing. Got new cleats, new stem for the track bike and some tubes. The usual.
Time: 01:58:26
Distance: 40.82mi
Speed: 20.7/39.5mph
Cadence: 97/235?? that one seems wrong...
HR: 173/191bpm
NP/IF: 218W/0.826

Tuesday: rested today instead. Kinda rainy and stuff I think. still pain in the right hip and left knee.

Monday: Rest day. Rode instead. My left knee and right hip were hurting. not much else to say. Took it pretty easy. I think some Rocky Point cycles guy tried to race me coming back from old field. Those guys are ridiculous. what a bunch of nubs.
Time: 01:30:09
Distance: 25.85mi
Speed: 17.2/36.0mph
Cadence: 85/117rpm
HR: 149/186bpm
NP/IF: 205/0.777

17.6.11

RACE: Kissena Twilight Series 6/15

Legs felt a little tired from doing squats the day before. Karl was tired, too, I think. One way or another we figured there would be a good turnout and as such, some upgrade points. Karl was all for me trying to win in order to upgrade. There in fact were a bunch of new people who showed up, some of which fast. Weather was warm and dry. started off with no wind, small gusts from time to time though. I put on a 90" gear this time around just to see how it would go. Comparing to last week's race doesn't really show any noticeable difference. slightly slower average cadence, slightly higher average speed.

The first race was a 6 lap tempo. I started off a bit back, so spent the first few laps catching up. At that point I just kept on going and attacked off the front. Stayed ahead for two laps, then came in 3rd in the final sprint to get one more point. This left me in second. I had a mean track hack after that one. I don't know what that was all about.

Next was a win and out. The first one I haven't won first on. Must be losing my touch. I got second place pretty easy though, so no worries there. I think Steve got first, so that's all good. Karl won the final sprint for 3rd.

Finally, a 4 lap point-a-lap, I started out in the right place for once, missed the first two sprints, but got the last two. This got me the win and the omnium. hooray.

The A feature consisted of a devil's scratch. I decided to try my luck at setting tempo at the front until all the riders to get pulled were pulled. Eventually however, alan and colin went around me and took over. I sat on the back trying to out-edge anyone else and this worked until the last person to get pulled. There was a mixup as to who got pulled at second to last and I sat up, but then found out it was someone else. I sprinted back on, but got pulled the final lap anyhow. I wasn't really feeling it at this point, so it was all good. I forgot how Karl did in the feature. I think he sat up because he was just as confused as me.

I think this might be my worst race report to date. I just don't really know what to write. I did get enough points to upgrade. That's probably worth mentioning.

14.6.11

2011.29: 6/13-6/19 - Build 1/2 Week 2

Sunday: Rode to syosset with a little extra loop to go down snake hill road. Missed the turn and went a little further, but whatever. A note: the road around to Caumsett state park sucks. Massive random holes in the shoulder. I felt like I was having knee tracking issues while I was riding. I think it's from my cleats being horribly worn. I guess it's time to bite the bullet and change them.
Time: 02:57:52
Distance: 57.35mi
Speed: 19.3/38.2mph
Cadence: 91/162rpm
HR: 165/191bpm
NP/IF: 202W/0.764

Saturday: nada. legs hurt.

Friday: Did some intervals. 2x6min with 3 min rest. Tried for a third, but couldn't handle it.
Time: 00:27:01
NP/IF: 210W/0.790

Thursday: nada. forgot that I was supposed to do stuff.

Wednesday: Track racing, see the post for that. I was going to ride to syosset beforehand, but my shoes were still soaking wet from the rain yesterday.

Tuesday: Woke up early to ride with Ron on the YGTBK series. The weather had said we wouldn't get rained on until 11am, but suprise suprise, around 6ish the rains began. All in all, it was still a fun (yet wet) ride. Also, riding down 347 in the rain without a shoulder is scary. very scary.

Time: 00:59:20
Distance: 18.66 mi
Speed: 18.9/34.5 mph
Cadence: 98/175 rpm
HR: 153/178 bpm
NP/IF: 176W/0.661

Also! I did some squats today. The usual 3x10reps at X amount of weight. I don't know, look it up. 85lbs or something? In addition, I did some calf raises.

Monday: rest day. rested.

RACE: Kreb Friday Night #1 6/10

I'm not really in a race report writing mood, which probably was pretty obvious as this is five days overdue. So let's just get to it.

Drove to the race. Driving is really boring. Wasn't allowed to do the A race, so I stuck with the B's. I had put in for my 5>4 upgrade, but it hadn't been approved yet. In fact it got denied the other day. How stupid. I mean really, do the 10 races really need to be verified? It's not like 5>4 is really a major upgrade or anything. Like has been said by better bloggers than me, a cat 4 is just a cat 5 who's done 10 races. But I digress.

My plan then, since this race was another cat 5 waste of time was to just go hard often and always. I was able to toe the line at the very front, so as soon as the race started I went straight into go fast mode. 28mph on the front stretch, less on the back thanks to wind and that hill type thing. I don't think too many people appreciated the hot start to the race, but hey, "hell is the rhythm of others".

There was a prime. I attacked early, one guy bridged and attacked me. I couldn't respond so I sat up. No point in getting spit out the back after having missed the prime. Found out in the end that the other guy got dq'd, so that prime would have went to me had I not sat up. What a bunch of crap. Instead it went to one of the Rocky Point guys, of which there were 3. Their team tactics basically consisted of "hey, let's all attack at the same time, with nobody blocking". You know, cat 5 stuff. they'll figure it out eventually. The Kreb womens' team were making good moves though. Nice tactics and all. Unfortunately, this didn't fit in with my tactics, which were to bring back every attack, and then counter attack.

Eventually the race neared an end. It couldn't have come soon enough. I forgot how long non-track racing is. Makes you wonder why anyone would do it. So with 2 to go, the A field passes us. Then as usual, they slow down and we're stuck trying to figure out if we should pass them or not. We eventually give up on being nice and pass them again. Being ego filled A's, they bitch and then try to pass us again. Nevermind that we're nearing the bell lap at this point and they still have 6 to go. What a joke. Most likely if the B field had just been started earlier, we wouldn't have seen each other.

Final lap, I find myself at the front. oh well. Rocky point winds up their train and i believe gets 1,2,3. Someone else at 4, i'm sitting pretty for 5 with a good gap to the rest of the field so i cool it down. Some CRCA guy sprints around me taking 5th, i get 6th. I don't know how to feel about that. On one hand I should have been paying more attention. On the other hand, pipping me at the line for 5th is pretty amateur.

That's the race. I'm starting to think fast Alan has a good point that you could get just as good training without paying $10. We'll see if I do any others this season. Maybe this is why it took me 5 years to put in my upgrade.

Time: 01:02:55
Distance: 25.72 mi
Speed: 24.5/37.7 mph
Cadence: 94/127 rpm
HR: 180/196 bpm
NP/IF: 246W/0.946

11.6.11

2011.28: 6/6- 6/12 Build 1&2 Week 1

Alright. So. I feel like I start most of my blog entries with that. I'll have to work on my post introductions. Anyhow, what's important here is that State Championships are actually a month earlier than I thought they were. As such, my plan is to do a stupid 5 week Build 1/2 combo madness thing. Then some peaking. Then some racing. Hopefully with some winning involved.

Sunday: Nope. nothing.

Saturday: Not a thing.

Friday: Kreb race. See race report. No other riding or training was done.

Thursday: Decided on hill repeats for today. Only 3 repeats, as it was starting to look very stormy. First repeat was seated on the hoods, next standing on the hoods, finally standing in the drops. Just to see what the difference would be. Were I smart however, I would have made separate lap splits for each one so I could actually analyze the data quickly.
Time: 00:43:29
Distance: 12.44 mi
Speed: 17.2/33.4 mph
Cadence: 80/125 rpm
HR: 161/188 bpm
NP/IF: 224W/0.841

Wednesday: Did not do any track racing. Felt kinda tired. and it was getting hot.

Tuesday: Rode twice today. First did Ron's you got to be kidding me ride, then rode to Art's ride to Cedar Beach. Despite having not eaten breakfast and only having one bottle of water, I felt strong through both rides. To be fair, I did have a small snack, espresso, and coke between rides at the local bakery.
Time: 03:21:54
Distance: 63.99 mi
Speed: 19.0 / 40.5 mph
Cadence: 91/143 rpm
HR: 157/193 bpm
NP/IF: 206W/0.774

Monday: I could have sworn I rode, but I don't see any evidence of it. Shrug. In that case, rest day. rested.

2.6.11

RACE: Kissena Twilight Series 6/1

So as you might have read from the main weekly synopsis, my preparation for tonight's racing was less than ideal. Or at least you would think so. Lots of beer and lots of steak combined with lots of rushing to meet with Karl leads to a not very clear mind going into your first race for the night.

The first race, by the way was a Win and Out. Probably one of my favorite races. Karl was still tired from destroying lesser cyclists out at Somerville, so he was all for leading me out for the win. It worked flawlessly, with me taking the win and karl winning the sprint for second.

Next was a 5 lap point-a-lap. I don't think we really came up with much strategy for this one, but basically I took a flyer for 4 or so laps and then sat up for the final lap. Or maybe I took third in the sprint, I don't really remember. Regardless, the important thing to note here is that I won and Karl took second. Hooray us!

Oh look. A chariot. pfft. Karl won, I gave it a try, then rolled in with Brean for 6&7th place.

At this point Karl made sure to bring to my attention that even though I won two races, he ended up with more points than me and won the day's omnium. Well. I blame that damn chariot race.

Time for the A feature. 5 of us cat 4's were able to give it a go with the fast guys. On a quick side note, Brean did the B feature and really rocked it. For as much as he was complaining about being tired, he sure made that win look easy. Back to the A feature, it was a 12 lap scratch. I made a few digs trying to shake things up a bit. Nothing stuck and I ended up on the front with a lap to go. I figured since I was in bad position, I probably would get creamed, so I just hunkered down and set the legs to full steam ahead. I figured if they were going to outsprint me, I might as well make them work for it. Al and a Mengoni rider that I forgot the name of started winding up their sprint on the backstretch. I caught it out of the corner of my eye and dropped it into overdrive. Through I don't know what kind of motivation, I was able to catch up and outsprint Mengoni, but couldn't make it to Al. After that I took a lap around the track thinking I was about to faint and actually almost crying from the effort.

2011.27: 5/30-6/5 - Base 3 Week 2

Sunday: quit my job. As such I was able to ride.
Time: 01:18:47
Distance: 23.34 mi
Speed: 17.8/38.0 mph
Cadence: 87/124 rpm
HR: 151/180 bpm
NP/IF: 186W/0.699

Saturday: nothing. tired from work.

Friday: rode for a little with Danny before work. no data. probably around 12 miles, with espresso and pizza. very euro.

Thursday: Did I ride? I don't think so.

Wednesday: With a threat of rain for the evening, I wasn't sure what my cycling plans should be. I decided not to ride during the day, just in case I would race. I also was feeling lazy. Met up with dave, bought some beer and a nice ribeye and proceeded to pig out until it was time to head to the track. Met up with Karl and rocked the racing. See the race report above.

Tuesday: was going to go climbing with Dave and Ahmed, but Dave brought up the excellent point that it was too nice of a day to spend inside a hot gym. So I rode to Roadworx (bike shop of kings) to pick up some sweet new bits and bobs. All in all it was a decent ride. Took it easy. Certainly didn't set any new CP levels on this ride. Felt sluggish in the RPM department. I just couldn't tick the pedals over at more than 100ish rpm, spending most of the time around 93-95rpm. Time trial mode, I guess. Regardless, here's some data:
Time: 02:10:44
Distance: 41.20mi
Speed: 18.9/36.9mph
Cadence: 92/144rpm
HR: 168/191bpm
NP/IF:

Monday: Rest day. Continued to rest.

RACE: Kissena Twilight Series 5/25

So apparently I never wrote this race report...whoops. As this is a week late in being written, I'll have to delve deep into my memory to dredge up all the juicy details - which means most of it will probably be wrong.

If memory serves me well, the weather was possibly nice. Perhaps sunny, maybe warm. Who really knows. Not this guy, that's for sure.

Connect tells me the first race was an unknown distance snowball. I remember I didn't really feel too strong that day, so we were mostly gunning for Karl to kick ass. If looking at the results and my memory serve me correctly, the plan was for me to attack early, then Karl counter attack after me. I don't remember the early laps, but it went something like I won lap X, brean won X+1, then karl won X+2 through N-1, with steve winning lap N, where N is the last lap. sound sciencey enough for you? This left me in 4th with karl in 1st.

Next was a Chariot, still stupid, still hate 'em. Karl won. hooray for him. I got 5th.

At this point, I realized that since only the top 3 went on to the A feature, and I was sitting pretty tied for 4th, I needed to make some moves. The third race was a 5 lap tempo race. This time Karl and I tried opposite tactics, with him attacking early, then me countering. Somewhere along the way, I ended up with steve with a gap over the rest of the field. Being the poor teammate that I am, he pulled me around the track and I would pip him at the line each sprint. This got me the win, Steve 2nd, Karl 3rd and put me into the A feature.

By the time the A feature rolled around, I finally felt like I had found some legs. This was a 15 lap points race with 3? sprints. One way or another Karl, Colin and I ended up with a bit of a gap. Colin took the first sprint, he gave me the second and I don't know what happened at the last sprint. I feel like the results ended up being Colin, Thadeusz, myself. Really, I have no idea.

I think this race report is mostly factual. Hope you enjoyed reading it.