#35

Race #35 for the year was my last time trial of the season and my 5th of the Colavita Greenville series. Even with my new 808, the headwind was a big pile of suck and averaged on 21mph for the 7 mile out trip. Only averaging 26 mph with a tailwind on the way back made for a bad overall day where I finished 3rd in my age group. All of us in our division finished within 2 minutes and 30 seconds of each other. I had my worst time of the year.

STILL...with the 5 required qualifying rides I locked up the season championship with 1 first place, 1 second place, 2 thirds and a fourth. I'm pretty happy about that at least.

Last night was "Fred's" Monday ride in Tipp. There were several good riders out there and I ended up with a 22.7 average for the 21.2 mile hilly ride. I did have to cut the ride a little short so I could ride home in what was left of the daylight, but overall I rode about an hour and 45 minutes.

A different kind of race

Saturday night was spent in the woods of Scioto Trails State Park as part of a 6 hour orienteering race. I've done this once before, but the last time there was daylight to work with! This time, we started at 8pm and it quickly became dark so it was on with the headlamps and flashlights to try and find the checkpoints. An hour before the race we were given maps with the locations of the checkpoints so we were able to come up with a game plan. The checkpoints are 12"x12" orange and white "things" with about a 1"x1" reflective piece of tape on it. Very hard to see when it's pitch black out!

The team of my wife and I finished 9th out of 15. We really had no expectations except to have fun. My legs are completely trashed from running through sticker bushes and I had long pants on. Ouch.


Link to race website...
http://nsfadventures.com/

The Wednesday ride

Only 5 people showed up to last night's "Fred's Ride" and that was quickly whittled to 3 then to 2 as Bruce is racing tonight and didn't want to push too hard. So it was me and a new guy (I'm still new myself) Eric. We swapped some pulls for about half of the ride and chatted a little so the pace and power were a little lower than usual.

30.65 miles
1:32
TSS 107.9 (0.84)
Norm Power 235
PWR 0 899 204
HR 70 174 148
SP 2.9 32 20.0

One thing I tried to do was shoot up the rollers as hard as possible as that's a definite weakness.

On Tuesday I rode the Green route because I missed Monday night's ride. Again, I tried to hit the rollers hard.

Sunday's ride was about 50 miles with team mates in the Beavercreek area. Terrain was rolling, again a good thing, and I hit them as best I could.


My Zipp came in yesterday as well! Stupid me forgot to buy rim tape so I put in an order for some. It will be all good to go by next Saturday's Greenville time trial which is probably my last race of the season.

Random thought

A while back I heard a quote by the great coach Scotty Bowman talking about Nicklas Lidstrom. Bowman said that Lidstrom "Shows up, shuts up, plays hard and goes home.". Re-arranging this quote for cycling can be "show up, shut up, ride hard, go home". I like this quote and I wished it happened more in our little cycling world.

#33 last Tuesday crit of the season

Hot hot hot. Very low attended race due to the heat (I guess). After yesterday's sad lunch I was sluggish and didn't ride well at all. Not the way I wanted to end crit season, but what can you do? Eat better I guess.

48:31 (race cut short because a Team Dayton guy was off the front solo?)
16.94 miles
TSS 59.6 (0.86)
Norm PWR 241
PWR 0 979 206 (low)
NO heart rate - forgot to "FIND" it after the warm up
SP 5.1 29.3 21.0

#32 PUR Tour

I like this race. This was my third time at this course and every time it's been 90+ degrees. Saturday was no exception. Two years ago it was a combined 3/4 group of around 80 riders. Last year was cat 4 only with maybe 40 (if memory serves). This year's cat 3 field had around 30. Directly after the first left hand turn I found myself on the front. My main goal was to pull back breaks so Alex could have a chance to sprint. Break aways usually work on this course. The other reason to be toward the front was so I could climb the little hill at my own speed and fall back through the pack without getting dropped. So I spent the whole of the race either at the very front or very back. On lap 9 (of 13) my left calf cramped hard. This was as I was working my way to the front for the climb. Needless to say I got dropped on the climb and called it a day with a bum leg. This was the best I've felt all year at a race, and the course doesn't really suit me.

32:24 minutes of racing
12.623 miles
TSS 53 (0.999)
Norm PWR 280
PWR 0 817 243
HR 101 189 176
SP 2.2 35.5 23.8

Peak 5 minute 330 - highest recorded since I bought the PowerTap

Days 2 and 3

The grass was cut at the Tuesday crit so I didn't make it far. Ugh. What a waste of two hours round trip driving.

31:27
11.06mi
TSS 38.3 (0.855)
Norm 239
P 0 940 206
HR 79 174 150
SP 5.2 33.8 21.1

Last night was the usual Wednesday red route. It ended up with 5 of us pulling hard. This marked the first time I didn't get dropped on the hill on Widener road! I worked hard on the climbs and tried to pull as much as possible. That being said, I had nothing left for the sprint, but it was a great day on the bike regardless.

1:24
30.76mi
TSS 114.9 (0.9)
Norm 252
P 0 771 219
HR 64 187 161
SP 2.4 37.1 21.8