Race (Buck Hill #3)

Buck Hill #3

I use the Thursday night series to try new things out. Tonight I went back to the hardtail after racing the FS last time. I have it in my head that I am faster on the HT but I am just not sure. I made a few last minute adjustments to the seat to get the set up more consistent to the FS and let it go.

The race was back to the "correct" direction after the mayhem from last time, but they were kind enough to add a couple of climbs. This was fine by me because I typically climb fairly well and at only 136# I should have an advantage over some. The start was fast as usual and as time goes on I am realizing that my poor starts have allot to do with my lack of "killer instinct". That along with the fact that there are a good number of people that are just plain faster than I am. Tonight we got there early enough to do a lap pre ride and I think it help me push a little harder on the start. The gravel service road was fairly soft, however, so I was a little cautious and lost a few positions. I held a decent pace up the hill, passing a few and getting passed by a few. The next added climb I passed a couple more, but at the top there was a tight right hand turn over a burm that I didn't take wide enough and went down allowing a couple of riders to pass and killing any momentum. The remainder of the race I felt good, but was loosing a fair amount of time on the flat sections that cross the sky trails because I was getting bounced around so much. This is where the FS really shines, it allows you to push hard on the bumpy flat sections and keep your speed and momentum. The FS also hookes up better on the climbs and there is less chance of spinning out due to rocks and bumps.

Overall the race went fairly well, but my entire body was more tired after the race. I am now almost convinced that the FS is a faster race bike, especially if the course is rough.

Race Results

E2 (Endurance Ride)

Finnally I got to bed early enough so I could actually get out of bed by 5:00 AM to go for a decent length ride. As usual Andrea was up and ready to go for her ride by 5 hoping to be back by 6:30. My ride was scheduled for 2 hours, but since I wasn't able to get on the bike until 15 min past 5 it was going to be a little short, Oh well! The legs felt really good and even on the warm-up I was cruzing along at nearly 18 mph. I decided to head north on Hwy 15 because that is the way Andrea typically rides and I thought I could catch her before she turns around. Unfortunately, she rides too fast and about 35 minutes into my ride she passed me heading south on her way home. I quickly turned around to ride with her for a while, but it took a good effort to catch back up with her. Heading back into the wind up a decent hill she was clipping along at nearly 18 mph, impressive! We rode together for the next 10 minutes or so until we hit CR 18 when I turned right to complete my typical 1.5 hour loop. Heading west on 18 I was pushing a slight cross wind, but by the time I turned onto 22 the wind had shifted slightly and I was pushing less of a headwind, nice for a change. As I headed back on 7 towards Hutchinson I was cruzing along at nearly 21 mph.

Ride Details
Time: 1:43:00
Distance: 34.?
Ave Speed: 17.7
Ave HR: 150

E2 (Endurance Ride)

This is the first time I have ridden the FS on the road for a training ride. It was fairly comfortable but the fit is different than the HT. The bike feels alot bigger than the HT, but according to the measurements, the dimensions are not that much different. Anyway, I would like to get comfortable on both bikes, because I intend on racing both of them depending on the course.

I wasn't able to wake up early, so I went out mid afternoon. The ride went well, but an interesting/scary thing happened while going down a hill with my hands off the bars. I am not sure how to explain it, but the front end has a nasty "shimmy" at about 16-18 mph with the hands off the bars. I need to check and see if the same thing happens with the other wheelset. I quickly checked the headset and it appears to be fine. The weather was beautiful, but a little windy.

Ride Details

Time:

Distance:

Ave Speed:

Ave HR:

Group Ride

I had a chance to go out on a local group ride tonight. A relatively small group gathered at Outdo0r Motion a little before 6:00 PM. A few might have been scared away by the ominous weather which looked like it could dump buckets of rain at any moment. The typical heavy hitters were absent and I could tell by the bikes that the intensity would be much lower than normal.

The ride started fairly slow as we headed south out of town into a stiff headwind. A couple of miles into the ride a group of 4 broke off the front into the wind. I settled in behind the lead two for a couple of minutes before pulling at the front. I kept a moderate pace for the next couple of miles before dropping the hammer. I kept a pace of 18.5 mph into a 30 mph headwind for the next 5-10 minutes and near the end the last rider fell behind. I backed down the pace to allow Mike to catch back up with me and could see the trailing two not too far back so we allowed them to catch back up. After a short recovery spin I pulled again at the front with Mike holding my wheel. We pushed the pace fairly hard as it started to rain fairly hard, which felt good. I looked back and saw the two trailing riders turn around and head back home. We turned west into a cross-wind and cruised easily at nearly 19 mph. As we turned north with the wind our pace picked up considerably easily holding 25 mph. At one point I sprinted up to 36 mph and was able to hold that pace for a couple of minutes before backing back down to allow Mike to catch back up. A couple of miles from home a couple of the A-guys passed heading south into the wind. I hesitated for a couple of seconds and then made the decision to turn around and try to catch up to the group. I was never able to catch the group because they were working effectively as a group. I gave up and turned around heading back home at an easy pace with a few sprints thrown in for good measure.

Ride Details

Time 1:30

Ave Speed: 17.7

Ave HR: 155

Simulated Starts

Despite the windy conditions, I went out over lunch to practice some starts. As stated in an earlier post there is a gradual hill about a 10-15 minute ride from work that I use to practice on. I rode at a measly 12 mph into the 30 mph headwind and arrived almost 20 minutes later, a good warm-up. I lined up at the base of the hill and put the chain into the large ring in front. After a short rest, I simulated a count down from 30 seconds and sprinted off the line standing. On the first attempt I got about 1/3rd of the way up the hill before I completely gave up. I don't know if it was the wind playing with my mind or the legs still being dead from Sunday's race. Either way I was very disappointed, so after a short spin I kicked it again and managed to push fairly hard until the top of the hill and onto the flat section. I turned around and spun back to the bottom of the hill. The second attempt went better than the first, I probably needed to open up the legs and lungs a little for the high effort. This time I managed to sprint longer while standing and maintain a higher pace after I settled back onto the saddle. I think my HR reached 184 this time (not as high as I would like). I was running short on time so on the final attempt I just sprinted halfway up the hill and finished by pushing hard in the saddle to the top before turning around.

Not a bad workout but definitely an indication that my anaerobic abilities are not there yet. I will continue to work on these and track my progress. On a more positive note; my overall endurance is quite good as I am able to sustain reasonable race speeds in the expert class.

Preride

Not much to say from the training front. Today I will pre ride the Spring Cup course and get a feel of the lines and loosen up the legs for tomorrows race.

Andrea went out with Jordan for her pre ride and turned an easy lap with her. Jordan was fairly tired from the soccer game in the morning so she ended her ride after riding the south loop. Andreas second lap was at near race pace and she felt more confidant afterwards.

After Andrea got back I went out with Taylor to run her through the Kids Comp course which was supposed to be part of the south loop and the entire north loop. The sections were not marked, however, and we ended up doing the entire south loop and skipping the north. Anyway she handled the conditions very well, but was a little tired when she got finished. After I dropped off Taylor I went out at about 75% effort to see how the turns and course was holding up (it has been very dry). I had a lot of trouble in the turns and it felt like the front end was on the verge of sliding out on every turn. I was a little worried because I knew tomorrow the speeds would be considerable higher and I needed to carry speed through the corners to hold a respectable pace. After the lap I went back to see how the family was doing and decided not to go out for another lap. I knew I would have plenty of practice time during the race tomorrow.

Race (Buck Hill #2)

Not quite what I expected.

Shortly after arriving at Buck Hill we were told that they had decide to run the course in reverse. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I knew that there would be some short sandy/rocky uphill sections that would be very difficult to negotiate. At the start I got a little better position near the outside of row two, but was forced to the outside after the gun because Heith was squeezed out and went down. For some reason I still am not able to push into the pack during the starts and it forces me to ride at the pace of slower riders. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of fast riders, but I think with better starts I have the speed to stay much closer to the top. After the start I settled into a good pace and passed a few riders on the climbs before entering into the single track. I could see a group in front of me and was gaining on them on certain sections. I was having a lot of trouble with the short sandy switchbacks and lost a lot of momentum. There were times when I was slowed down behind a group of riders but there are few places to pass and as soon as they hit the double track they would kick it hard enough so you could not get around.

For some reason there was a tight section between two trees that I just could not get through. On lap one, I hit my right shoulder against one tree. On lap two, I decided to bounce off the tree on the left (again with the shoulder). One the third lap, I hit the tree on the left again so hard that my left knee smashed into my stem. It took me a good 5 minutes before I was able to push with my left leg. On the forth lap, I was so freaked out that I basically tried walking through the section and got stuck between the trees for a few seconds. After that point I just put it in cruise and tried to maintain a decent pace.

Towards the end of the race I made an effort to pick up a few positions, but that was thwarted by a beginner rider going down in front of me (I am glad the kid is OK). It was actually fairly funny. I was charging hard on the downhill single track near the end of lap 3 when our group approached a lapped rider. He was about 20 yards in front of me when he got crossed up and went down in the middle of the trail. I hit the breaks and leaned back as far as I could not wanting to go over the bars, but it wasn't enough to stop in time. I rode on the front wheel for about 20 feet and about 10 feet before I T-boned the kid, I slammed on the breaks. I purposely veered to the right to avoid hitting him and I flipped over the bars and landed about 10 feet down the hill. The guy behind me must have had a good view because he stopped me after the race to say "that crash was awesome".

Race Results

A6 Race Simulation

I came to the conclusion that I need more intensity in my riding diet. I need to mentally prepare myself for the pain and discomfort of race conditions, pushing harder than I think I can for a long period of time. Therefore, last night I went out to lake for a race simulation. I created a course using the outer XC ski trail (1.2 miles) and the single track (3.1 miles) to make a 4.4 mile loop that will take about 22 minutes to complete.

After a 10 minute warm-up on the ski trail, I performed a simulated start down the outer loop of xc ski trail and hit the lap timer each time I came around from each section. I think the first double track time was a little over 4 minutes, but I don't remember the rest. The single track times, however, were extremely consistent. Even though my average HR went down slightly each lap with a fairly large drop on lap 4.

Summary

Lap 1 16:04 HR Ave

Lap 2 16:04 HR Ave

Lap 3 16:06 HR Ave

Lap 4 16:07 HR Ave

The first lap I felt as though I would not be able to keep up the pace for the entire lap not to mention the 4 laps. Therefore, I backed it down slightly for the double track starting lap 2. Lap 2 felt better and I was getting into a good rhythm; timing the turns and maximizing momentum. The remainder of the ride was generally a high intensity cruse through the woods. My lower back was really sore, but I was able to stretch during the ride and work through it.

I was very happy with the ride and I feel I could still push it a little harder. I am sure that I am still a little tired from Sundays Expert race.

Race evaluation (Things to work on)

After the Spring Opener at Maplelag and the first Thursday night ride at Buck Hill I knew what I needed to focus on for training, starts and intensity. The same thing happened last year in the sport class. I would be blown out in the starts and wasn't able to get my self to push it as hard as necessary in the race. It wasn't until race #8 @ Spirit Mountain that I finally discovered what I needed to do. Last year after race #7 @ Welch I made a concerted effort to practice my starts. There is a fairly long gradual hill about 5 miles from home that I use for simulating starts. I takes about 20 minutes to bike out there which is a good warm-up. I then go to the bottom of the hill and line up as if it were a real start. I give a count-down from 30 and when I hit 0, I hammer. I stay standing for 20-30 seconds and then transition to a seated position continuing to push to the top of the hill. The road gradually levels off but I continue to push above LT until the road stops. I then turn around and push it as hard as I can to the top of the hill going back. The round trip is 5-8 minutes.

The next part of the puzzle is intensity. During the first two races I mentally was not able to push my body as fast or as hard as it need to go. I confirmed this by looking at the results for my average HR for the races. Last year during the "good" races my average HR for entire race were 181+. The first two races this year were 176 and 174. Part of this might be the fact that I am trying to pace myself for the significantly longer expert races. Either way, I must find a way to get the intensity necessary to compete with the leaders and maintain it for the race duration. One way to do this is by doing more race simulations. For example last night I went out to the local trail (Stahl's Lake) and turned 4 consecutive laps at race pace. I set up a course utilizing the ski trail and single track (1.2 miles double track 3.1 miles single track). For the area it is a very good place to train despite the fact that there are no sustained climbs. Last year my fastest time on the single track portion was around 18 minutes. Last night I turned laps of 16:04, 16:04, 16:06, and 16:08. These are real times and I was surprised by how consistent the times were. I know have a good baseline for training and I will measure my progress by these times.

E2 (Endurance Ride)

Today's ride was nothing short of ridiculous. I could see that it was windy outside because the flags were stretched strait out and even angled slightly upward. I think the weather report indicated 15 - 20 mph with gusts of 25. Typically when it is windy I ride into the wind on the way out so if I run out of gas I can let the wind push me back home. So I headed east towards Silver Lake strait into the wind. What a workout. I was pushing hard to maintain an average speed of 15.1 mph. I knew I would make much better time when I turned around so I pushed steadily onward into the wind for 1 hour. At the 1 hour mark I turned around and allowed the wind to push me back home. It is amazing how much of an effect the wind has on your speed. for the first 3 -4 minutes I was averaging 28 mph at the same heart rate as heading into the wind. I made the return trip in slightly over 34 minutes. The details of the trip are listed below.

Summary
Duration: 1:34:00
Average Speed: 18.6 mph
Average Power: ?

Average Heart Rate: 156 bpm

Detailed Results
0:00:00 - 1:00:00: E2 Into Wind (15,1 mph, 156 bpm)
1:00:00 - 1:34:00: E2 With Wind (24.3 mph,157 bpm)

A6 Race Simulation

Since we have a race coming up this weekend I thought it would be a good idea to get on the dirt. I have done a lot of training on the road and indoor trainer, but relatively little time on the dirt. The last time was over a week back at Salem Hills and a short lap this past Sunday. Because of work meeting schedules I wasn't able to go out during lunch so I bailed at 9:00 to ride for about an hour.

The recent trail work that Andrea and I did left the trail in near perfect condition; slightly tacky and clean of all debris. Without a warm up I completed the first lap in 16:27 and took a 5 minute break to get some water. The second lap I pushed a little harder and turned a 15:57 lap time easily my fastest two laps at Stahl's Lake. The final lap I started to feel a little tired and backed it down a little bit finishing in 16:32. I think my best time last year was around 17-18 minutes so I am faster than last year. In addition as the trail dries out the time should drop. My goal is to turn sub 15 minute laps by mid season. In fact I think if I really pushed it I could do it now, but probably for only a lap or two. I would like to go out and turn 6-8 consecutive laps at a 16 minute pace.

Another day getting up early to perform an E2 (endurance) ride. The night before I was up until nearly 12:00 and the body did not want to get out of bed. Andrea, however, was already up and had all of her biking clothes on ready for her ride outside making it difficult to lay in bed. I decided I didn't want to be cold so I chose to ride on the trainer in front of the bike screen TV (not that it mattered at 5:00 am, nothing on). I had limited time on the bike over the weekend and last week was a R&R week so the legs were really fresh. The ride went well except for a 30 minute period in the middle of the ride where the legs felt a little heavy. I managed to finished strong, however, with an 8 minute section at over 20 mph.

Summary
Duration: 1:42

Average Speed: 18.7 mph
Average Power: 227 watts
Average Heart Rate: 156 bpm

Detailed Results

0:00:00 - 0:10:00: Warm up

0:10:00 - 1:42:00: E2 (18.9 mph, 232 watts ,158 bpm)