Done.

I’m done. I had planned to do 2 more road races this season but I’m on the edge of burning out. I’ve decided that my season is over and it’s time to give my body (and brain) a rest. I feel like doing anything else would just get me closer to burning out.

Next year will be my final collegiate racing season and all of my current focus is on preparing for it. I’ve got lofty goals for next season that will require me to step up the volume and intensity of my training. The preparation begins with recovery from the past season and I’d rather come into training next season with a little too much rest than too little.

To wrap things up, here’s how I feel about my progress:

Time Trialing: I’ve gotten much better. I’ve been practicing on the TT bike and steadily improving my times, but this is still my most significant weakness.

Climbing: My climbing has improved as well, but I don’t feel like I am doing my capabilities justice. My body type favors climbing and I really need to start capitalizing on this advantage.

Sprinting: Sprinting was always a strength for me and it continues to be one. My climbing definitely needs to improve before I’ll have a good chance to use this ability.

Descending: In the past, descending was a serious weakness and on at least one occasion it cost me dearly. I am happy to say that this is no longer true. I am not great at going downhill, but I won’t lose ground anymore.

Race Report: Patterson Pass Road Race

This thing was absolutely brutal.  We did three laps, I hung on for two.  The main climb came very soon after the start and was completely exposed to the heavy winds.  Near the top of this climb the road kicked up and so did the wind.  It was difficult just turning over the pedals, let alone trying to maintain pace with the pack.  I made it over the climb with the pack on the first two laps but was gapped off on a minor climb.  After a few minutes of hard work I caught back on and sat in for the ride.

Near the base of the climb on the last lap I had nothing left in the tank and was quickly dropped.  I rode the rest of the lap by myself — had a little chat with teammates in the women’s field and stopped for a crash in another field.  By the end of the race I was completely exhausted.  That’s about it.

Time Off

I decided not to train at all while sick.  I’ve spent the past 3 days just sitting around eating, drinking, and sleeping.  It seems like yesterday was the worst of it, since I woke up feeling significantly better this morning.  If I’m feeling even better after work then I will consider going for an easy ride this evening.

Getting sick is really disappointing when training is going so well and you’re feeling stronger than ever.  I had big plans for this week and it takes a good deal of restraint to hold back and stay off the bike.  I can definitely see what motivates people to dig themselves deeper by pushing hard when their body is already suffering, but I’m confident that taking time off was the right decision.

I will be sticking with my training plan; next week will be mostly a rest week.  I think I’ll do a 10mi TT and attempt to set a PR and achieve this month’s TT goal.

Sick

I had two good hard weeks and was about to go into my last one before a recovery week… and now I’m sick.  I had a pretty bad sore throat but now it seems like it’s just going to be a typical cold — hopefully a mild one.

I’m still not quite sure how I feel about training when sick.  A lot of folks say “if it’s above the neck, you can ride,” but I still tend toward believing that more rest is better.  I guess if I’m feeling significantly better after work I will consider riding tonight.

Besides the cold, training is going very well.  I’m increasing my weekly hours and still feeling relatively fresh and I think I’m getting consistently stronger.  I’ve got a crit coming up, a few more road races, and that will be the end of the season.

Race Report: Leesville Gap Road Race

The awful… I mean absolutely TERRIBLE… roads made this race fun.  I tried to stay near the front through all the bad pavement before the climb.  I stayed safe aside from having my front derailleur come out of adjustment (I couldn’t get into the big ring until I found time to make some adjustments).  I blew up on the big climb and found myself in a group of about 20 with another 20 riders up the road.  Without a real chance of bringing the front group back, we took it pretty easy on the way into the finish.

I guess a lot of folks don’t like the bad pavement, but I thought it made things interesting.  Fun race — climbing was the weakness that got me this time.

Race Report: 4th of July Crit

The 4th of July Crit has lots of turns and only one real straightaway.  The race was not very demanding fitness-wise, but required a good deal of pack skills to stay near the front.  Of course, my pack skills aren’t so great so I ended up being filtered to the back.  I was tail-gunning for the first half of the race and decided I should move up, so I sprinted hard into the finishing straightaway and made up quite a few spots… until someone decided to crash right in front of me.  I avoided the downed rider and found myself right back where I started.  Later on, I tried a different technique and moved up a few spots at a time on the straights and corners until I was somewhere in the first third of the pack.  Following a prime, everything slowed down, the pack bunched, and I ended up at the back again.  I stayed where I was for the last few laps, avoided a big pileup on the bell lap, and rolled across somewhere in the bottom 10.

This race definitely highlighted one of my weaknesses: maintaining position in the pack.  In collegiate races, maintaining your position near the front of the pack isn’t as important because with the smaller fields, you can move up very quickly late in a race.  In these USCF races, you can’t expect to be able to do that.  I guess it’s a skill that will improve with time and experience.

Fun race!

Race Report: Elkhorn Stage 4

The final stage was a 105mi Road Race that finished in an 8 mile 5-6% climb.  The first 30 miles were mostly flat followed by 3 significant climbs and then a flat run up to the final climb.  After popping off early on day 1, my major goal for the day was just to make it to the base of the final climb in the main group.

I stayed near the front near the front for the beginning of the race and made sure to move up before the first climb of the day.  They drilled it hard up the first climb and I managed to stay with the front group for the majority of the hill.  I started to lag climb and fall back as we approached the top, but only lost a little bit of ground.  The group I ended up in chased back on the downhill quickly and it was time to start the second hill.  The second hill was milder and I didn’t lose contact with the front group.  The third hill was pretty much a repetition of the first one.

The rest of the day was pretty much just a flat ride to the base of the climb and then a matter of spinning up it.  My legs were cramping and I was pretty well drained of energy by the time the climb hit so I did not have a shot at hanging on to the group.  I’m just glad I made it to the climb with the pack.

Elkhorn was a great learning experience.  My poor tactics put me in a world of hurt on day 1 — I certainly wasn’t racing my strengths.  The race put into perspective how weak my weaknesses are and how not-very-strong my strengths are.  I need to work on time trialing/muscular endurance and I really need to think more about tactics.   It was an enjoyable race and I know exactly what I need to work on now — I’ll probably be back next year.

Race Report: Elkhorn Stages 2/3

Stage 2 Time Trial:

Losing 20 minutes on the first day made it very difficult to get motivated for the TT but I got out there, warmed up, and was pretty excited at the line. The first half was almost entirely downhill with a tailwind. I went much too hard and when I turned around to go back up I was pretty much toast. I had nothing left in the tank and ended up putting in a pretty dismal time.

Stage 3 Criterium:

Cancelled due to rain after a few laps.

Race Report: Elkhorn Stage 1

Stage 1 was a 75 mile road race with 6500 feet of climbing. The first 40miles were mostly flat — I stayed near the front and just made sure I was in a safe position. I drifted to the back at some point and a break of 10 got off the front and I didn’t even notice it.

The pace became unbearably slow (~16mph on flat ground) and when I heard about the break I began trying to move up. I was completely closed in with 50 riders in front of me so I moved up the right side on the dirt/gravel. No one wanted to work at all so I started doing some yelling and with the help of a Kovarus rider, the chase began. 10-15 riders were pulling through and I was feeling great until we started to hit the climb and I realized I’d done way too much work. I exploded.

I flew off the back never saw the peloton again. I worked with a few people to get home — ended up rolling through 82nd and 23 minutes and 36 seconds back. Ouch. It was definitely a learning experience.

We’ll see how the Time Trial and Crit go today.

Tapering

I am in the process of tapering for Elkhorn now, and things seem to be going pretty well.  After a month of feeling progressively more worn out, I am really feeling good now.  I did the race ride last night and while my lungs gave me a little bit of trouble at the beginning, I felt fine once I was warmed up.

My ability to recover from hard efforts seems to have improved a lot.  I usually end up testing this out on the race rides by attacking (knowing full well I’ll only be off for less than a minute) and then trying to get back in for the rest of the sprint.  Early on I usually just exploded and never managed to get back in but lately I’ve been able to stick a wheel and sit in long enough to recover.

I’m excited!