Back from San Francisco

We spent 4 days walking around the town and eating sushi, just as anticipated. There is a great sushi place in Japantown called Isobune where plates of sushi are placed on little boats that are floating in front of customers.



Take all you want! We ate there twice.

All the walking justified all the eating so luckily my weight is the same as it was before the trip. Walking up Lombard street felt like it burned 1,000 calories by itself!


My first ride back was the Team Dayton Tuesday crit. Unfortunately for me the grass at the park was just mowed. Last year just after the mowing, I couldn't breathe and had to leave the park asap. Same thing happened last night as I lasted 10 minutes of racing until I felt like my chest was going to explode. Ouch.

Next up is a 4 am drive to the other side of Indianapolis on Saturday for the Monrovia time trial. This is my last (and only!) shot at a 40k prior to the state championships.

#17 Tuesday crit #4

Due to it being a really nice day in the area, there was probably the best turnout I've seen in three years at the Tuesday training crit. There were 25 or so people in the A race, and probably that many in the B race. Team mate Dave showed up and was the instigator the whole time. Dude is strong, taking off constantly. I spent time all over the peloton, covering, chasing, recovering, bridging. Probably the best I've felt all year.

I had a couple of near misses where I nearly hit a kid walking on the course. I swerved only to nearly take out another team mate. On the final lap, some knucklehead dove corner number 1 on me to nearly take ME out. After killing myself to catch back up with the group, I had nothing for the sprint. All in all, it was a good effort and I finished mid field.

22.02mi
55:36
TSS 86.5 (0.966)
Norm PWR 271
Pwr 0 1028 234
HR 109 188 173
Sp 7.8 33.7 23.8

No more updates for a few days as we're off to San Francisco to eat sushi over the holiday weekend!

Next up - Monrovia TT on June 2nd.

#16 Lancaster

Going in with hopes high after a couple of good weeks at the training crit, I end up OTB in relative short order. Within about a minute of the start of the race, I had 2 efforts over 900 watts.

31:36 minutes that I was in it
12.47mi
Norm Pwr 288
TSS 55.7 (1.028 if)
Power 0 927 267
Hr 110 184 173
Sp 9.2 30.3 23.7

Leaving the race with relative depression, I'm grasping at straws to find something positive out of the experience. At least it was a nice day out.

The Powertap/cycling peaks software combo has been a humbling experience so far. Of the four watts/kg (1 sec, 1 min, 5 min, ft) entries on the power profile, I "all the way up" to cat 4 on just one of them (5 minute). That means I need to get stronger and lose weight!

Race #15 - AKA training crit #3

The wind out of the south took it's toll on the fastest part of the course, hence my top speed of 30.0mph. A two man break went early - 2nd lap early. I was getting ready to bridge up and thought "nah, it's way too early to waste that kind of energy'. D'oh - they stayed out the whole race.

Distance - 21.29m
Time - 56:09
Power 0 940 246
HR - stopped working after my warm up...?
Speed 8.7 30 22.7
TSS 90.6 (0.984)
Normalized Power 275

Yesterday I had my 2nd highest 20 minute power reading since I've had the Powertap.

Next up - Lancaster Grand Prix, my first real crit of the season. I'll be in the 3/4 race.

Race #14 Tuesday Crit #2

This week's crit was much nicer than last week. Just a slight breeze and warm temperatures. The A group had about 20 people at the start. This week I fell OTB a few times but was able to make my way back to the field each time. I tried for a prime not realizing that a guy way ahead of me was in my race (two races are run at the same time). The pack came flying by and I thought that was the end of my day but I was able to make it back. Finished in 6th as I mistakenly led the 2nd to last lap and ended up cramping on the last lap a little.

55:21
power 0 1041 238
HR 101 191 172
Sp 8.7 35.6 24.8 (now that's more like it)
TSS 89 (0983)
Norm power 275

Race #13 Wilkesville to Wilkesville

When I got home, thanks to the Powertap and Cycling Peaks software, I was able to pinpoint exactly what was going on when I got dropped. I spent 5 minutes averaging too high of a wattage and that jacked my heart rate to LT and my legs blew up. I was blaming bad finishes on this and or that, but the simple fact is that I'm not fit enough to hang.

Pictures from the last time trial

Warm up

Hurting!

Spoils!

Credit goes to Noah Hutson
Other pictures at the address below.
http://s205.photobucket.com/albums/bb150/colavitaohiocycling/

Race #12 Tuesday crit

Last night was the first Tuesday crit of the season put on by Team Dayton. Although there were only about 8-10 guys in the 1/2/3 race it didn't mean it wasn't a good workout. There was a strong wind from the south that made half of the 0.8mi course pretty rough.

50 minutes +2 laps

56:09
Power 0 943 228
HR 103 187 173
Sp 7.4 30.9 20.8 (low!)
TSS 81.7 (0.934)
Norm PWR 261

Now I need to figure out what this all means.