Well my second road race of the season is over and I wish I could say it was a good one. My spirits were very low for this race primarily because of the weather we had been having. Winds had been consistently around 20 mph for the week and I have become a victim of trying to do too much to soon. In my recent posts I had talked about the importance of weight loss in my current situation. Well I worked very hard and have already dropped about 7 pounds. BUT to do that I had to hit the pavement a little harder than I should have with a race coming up.
My week of training consisted of Monday on the trainer for an hour and a half, Tuesdays Criterium training, Wednesday an hour and a half of hill repeats, Thursday a hard, windy hilly Cincinnati route with the team, and a Saturday of just spinning to stay loose.
I had taken enough time off that I was starting to feel back to normal the day of the race, forecast showed it was going to be 30 mph wind and a 60 percent chance of rain (it eventually dropped to a 10 percent chance) but I knew it was going to be a tough one going into it.
I felt great going into the race, and by that I mean my stomach felt great and my body felt loose and full of energy. This was the first race I was going to be able to race with my team since there weren't over 50 people in the field they wouldn't be splitting by age.
The race started fast and I quickly realized I should have scouted the course much better because it was downhill and full of turns, the racer in front of me locked his brakes completely up a few times about causing an accident. The field slightly broke apart coming up to the first of 2 large climbs in the race, just before the climb there was a gradual incline and I would say this is where I made my biggest mistake. I tried to bridge the short gap between my part of the field and the front group and my heart rate went crazy, by the time I actually got into the main (cat4) climb I was already in trouble. I got passed by about 10 people on the climb and by the time I finally got up it I was exactly in the middle of the 2 groups. After I recovered I really hammered it hard for the next 10 miles and I was actually gaining ground on a group of about 10 people when I noticed there were a few people that were dropped from the main field, I tried to get with them and regroup but they were so tired they had no intention of working with me to get there so after about 3 miles of riding with them I had to leave. The main field had broken up into two groups by that time and one of those groups contained a few of my teammates that I normally ride with and actually push very hard while training. As I approached the last large climb I made a shifting mistake and dropped my chain while switching from big ring to small ring. I tried to shift back up and get the chain back but It would not work, I had to stop put my chain back on and loose all my momentum. This actually gave one of the guys I had passed the opportunity to pass me back. I got back on my bike caught up and passed him but was too far behind the group to catch up and have the oppurtunity to advance. I ended up 27th out of 40 something... After the race was over I was very frustrated as I know I could have done much better as I basically kept the same pace as the main field by myself. I HAVE TO GET BETTER AT CLIMBING. The racing schedule doesn’t look like much fun as far as racing for the next few weeks and I am not sure what my next road race will be. This week I plan on recovering from my tough rides and not pushing it quite so hard but still getting some good time in the saddle. Until next time…
See ya tonight?
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