So Many Races!

Hey there sports fans!

Been busy training and racing, feeling pretty good right now! My first 'big' event is this Sunday, the Bastion Square crit, i'm pretty excited for this! Lots of good events the last week+, let's do a quick recap:

Wed, May 12th - BMX!

First time riding a BMX course on an actual BMX bike for the Kid's Club day! Super fun, got a wee bit of air, but moved through pretty quick. Legs fried from the Tue 1min efforts the day before, but hey. I put my Garmin Edge 500 on it, hilarious map:



The kids just rode around doing their own thing...most don't seem too eager to actually race, so kept it casual.

Fri, May 14th - Capital City Cycles Street Sprints

Another night of drag races thanks to CCC! This was day 4 in-a-row for me. The 1mins on Tue, BMX (sprinting) on Wed, and a 2.5hr EM ride on the Thu...

First one felt alright, but second one against Mitch and Jordon (Mitch was previously the overall champ, and Jordon raced me in the final last time, tough match!!) i had no 'overdrive', and was eliminated. Made them work for it tho! Final match was trackie Marcus and Pro City Jamie, and i told Marcus 'don't underestimate him, just GO.' He didn't listen, and Jamie kicked it in the last 100m and took it - nice!!

Anyway, here's the wattage from my two efforts, both in the 50t x 15t:


#1 - ?? (Only 200m)
Duration: 16.4
Ave Spd: 40.1
Max Spd: 49.4
Ave Cad: 112
Max Cad: 124
Ave Wts: 890
Max Wts: 1212


#2 - Mitch & Jordon (Full 300m, i stopped pedalling ~20m to go)
Duration: 27.7
Ave Spd: 38.8
Max Spd: 51.1
Ave Cad: 115
Max Cad: 128
Ave Wts: 808
Max Wts: 1184

For comparison, here's the best effort from last time:

#2 - 3-up Mitch & ?
Duration: 26.46
Ave Spd: 43.7
Max Spd: 51.6
Ave Cad: 111
Max Cad: 122
Ave Wts: 828
Max Wts: 1177

Pretty similar!

Sunday, May 16th - Island Cup MTB Race: Cobble Hill

Day 6 of 6 riding...did a shorter OBB ride the day before.

Race went surprisingly well, i'm getting rather 'tough'. I'm very surprised that after 6 days of pretty solid riding, i had *any* motivation. Well, i had quite a bit!

Got a lift out with Halldor (thanks!!) and we pre-rode the course together. An improvement from last year which was basically up and up and up, then a wee bit of singletrack, and a quick fireroad drop to the bottom, and repeat!!

There was a lot more singletrack at the top, and much more on the descent. Still, not quite enough to really allow for too much make-up on the descent...ahh well.

We finished our pre-ride just in time to get in line, not a prob, nice and warm!

We started off, and i was in the top 5 off the top. It went pretty much straight into a steep climb... Scott Mitchel(Pro City) launched and flew up the hill, never to be seen again. Jamie Emery(Pro City) lead the chase (well, i wondered if he was blocking/defending, but i wouldn't have wanted to go much harder.)

I sat on his wheel and we climbed and climbed and climbed... About 2/3rds of the way up, Roland made a move and i let him by (i'm such a sporting fellow. ;) There was a small group of about 4 that pursued. Roland thought he had the front, and was going for the King of the Mountain prize...sucker! =P

With 3/4 of the climbing done, i was pretty fried, and had to ease off...our small group, including Halldor(Capital City Cycles) eased by. I cheered him on. =)

Kept climbing, i think another rider passed...then hit the top, and kept the speed up, dropping a wheel that was getting too close for comfort behind me. On the way down near the bottom i saw Jamie Emery off his bike, turns out he busted his collarbone. =(

Started my second lap, not quite as peppy as the first, but i put in a good effort. A few more bikes eased by, and my climb was a fair bit slower...by about 2mins. I actually shaved a few seconds off on the descent.

Finished 10th (out of ~30) in Intermediate, pretty happy with that on a course that did NOT suit me.. With the exception of Scott, the Top 12 or so were all within' a few minutes of each other, so it was actually a pretty well matched race.

Thanks to the folks at Cobble Hill for organizing it, i love the Island Cups. =)

Here's my power data:

MTB Race:
    Duration:      1:05:44
    Work:          878 kJ
    TSS:           109.3 (intensity factor 0.999)
    Norm Power:    267
    VI:            1.2
    Distance:      13.459 km
    Elevation Gain:        474 m
    Elevation Loss:        481 m
                     Min   Max    Avg
    Power:           0     825    223     watts
    Heart Rate:      127   191    182     bpm
    Cadence:         42    201    81      rpm
    Speed:           0     42.2   12.2    kph
    Altitude:        97    291    202     m

Yep, held threshold (NP) for over an hour. Not bad after 6 days. I managed to average 294w (actual power) for 16.5mins, up the first lap. Can't complain. Fun day, anyway. Enjoyed the day off on Monday. Here's the Garmin data:



Tuesday - OA TT

Okay, time for ANOTHER race. The third instalment of the OA-TT (email if interested in joining us!)

Warmest night so far, but just as windy as the first session, and same direction. Don Gillmore (The Immortal!) made it out. He flew by me, set a new course record of 19' flat!

I managed to shake off a few more seconds, down to 22'28. Unfortunately my wattage data is screwy, i zero'd it before i went, but the bike had been sitting in the sun, and i think it warmed up and that threw everything off, cutting the actual wattage by quite a bit. The times are accurate, and i'll include estimates of what i think i did. I'm guessing i averaged 286w (rather than 274w), one more watt than last time...a fair guesstimate. (Weird, spellcheck isn't complaining about 'guesstimate', but it is about spellcheck...haha)

Here it is, broken into the three portions of the course, at each corner:

Effort #3, May 18th

Section:  #1    #2    #3    TOT

Time:     8:36  8:57  4:56  22:28

Watts:    281w  270w  268w  274w

Est.Wts:  292w  281w  279w  286w

HR:       175   185   187   182

RPM:      101   102   103   102

Spd:      33.8  37.1  42.1  36.9
So the Est. Wts are bumped up about 4.2% (ie, 274w to 286w.) It looks about right compared to the other efforts... Note that i kept my cadence a lot higher! For comparison, here's the last two times i did this:

Effort #1, Apr 20th

Section:  #1    #2    #3    TOT

Time:     8:30  9:10  4:56  22:36

Watts:    305w  267w  274w  283w

HR:       174   182   184   180

RPM:      97    97    99    97

Spd:      34.4  36.4  41.5  36.8

Effort #2, May 4th

Section:  #1    #2    #3    TOT

Time:     8:24  9:01  5:08  22:32

Watts:    291w  278w  286w  285w

HR:       174   184   186   181

RPM:      99    99    102   100

Spd:      34.7  36.7  40.7  36.8
That's the fastest 'middle' portion and closing i've done. I felt better this time too, esp. with the higher cadence. I felt like i was holding the pace with a bit of comfort, instead of struggling to maintain the watts...i like that better. ;)

Sunday - Masters TT & Crit (in Nanaimo)

So i took Thu & Fri off, did a short OBB ride on Sat, and headed up to Nanaimo for the Master's TT & Crit.

The River Road TT was pretty tough, similar rolling course to the OA-TT. It was 20km, and i was hoping for a 30min time. Checked my wattage PB for 30min, and it was 274w, so i decided to aim to average 280w.

Went out, did it! Actually managed 284w, new 30min PB! Here's the #s:

TT:
    Duration:      31:19
    Work:          532 kJ
    TSS:           62.1 (intensity factor 1.091)
    Norm Power:    291
    VI:            1.03
    Distance:      20.392 km
                     Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0      793    283     watts
    Heart Rate:      124    189    183     bpm
    Cadence:         33     131    104     rpm
    Speed:           13.4   61.4   39.1    kph

Pretty happy with that. The time recorded was 31:23. Managed a nice high cadence as well. Finished a fair bit down in the 'overall' (fast old guys!), but i got a gold medal in my age group (30-34).

The crit later in the day was really much more up my alley! We rode a few laps and i was a bit concerned with the elevation on the back side...something like 6 or 8m per lap, with two little pitches. This is the new Boxwood crit course in Nanaimo.

Anyway, the group of 8 of us took off. Emile was the known 'threat', i didn't really know anyone else in the bunch... We kept together for a few laps, and then Emile began to pick up the pace, and attacked on the front. I 'chased' up the back and around the corner, and let him get away.

Andrew Brown (riding for the new Eatmore team! He raced the BC Cup MTB race earlier too) lead the chase after that, and tried to get the troops going. Took them a few laps to realize that i wasn't going to do any pulling, and that the other guy in green was my teammate. ;)

It was pretty disorganized tho, and no one besides Andrew really felt like doing any work.. I just sat in, enjoying the draft.. I let a bunch of laps go by, and at about 25min in, during a lull on the fast front section, i sprinted away!

Hit my peak watts there (1198w), and for nearly 3mins i powered away at 360w, trying to drop the pack. There was one rider who sort of bridged up (didn't quite make contact) - i kept looking back hoping he'd be able to help...but no dice... When the chasing pack was ~30m away, i eased off and sat back in. 3mins later, Emile turned up! He lapped us, woot!

So we played at the front a few laps, doing a few small attacks, to see how the field would respond. And a few mins later we broke away. Emile started it, and i took a turn or two. One other rider came with us. Unfortunately, he didn't do any work, so i was splitting the effort with Emile to enlarge the gap....and when Emile picked it up a bit, i got dropped! Gah!! I didn't really have time to recover fully from my previous big effort!

I watched them ride away, but put my head down and continued to chase. Who knows, maybe i'd be able to stay away...or more likely, the other rider would get dropped. (Well, you'd think Emile would drop him on purpose to allow me to catch him!)

I settled into a nice rhythm, i'd ease up a bit on the front/fast section, and then power up around 325-350w up the back/hilly side. It was about 35mins in, and the race was 40min plus 3 laps. Hmmmm.... I'm not really much of a solo artist....but was curious to see what i could do.

Each lap i would look back as i turned onto the front straight...but never saw the pack.. Kept it going... 3 laps to go... Oh boy! I'd lapped Andrew Brown somewhere in there...poor guy...doing an MTB race before must not have been very fun! Brutal course too from what i hear, well over 1000m of climbing.

Anyway, final lap, i powered up the back straight, completed the final corner, looked back...still no one to be seen! Finally, i relaxed and cruised across the line. 3rd place - yay! Again, Gold Medal for my age group.

Turns out the other rider stuck with Emile, who didn't bother trying to drop him....some team mate!! =P

Hugh Trenchard was out as well, but slowed-up when it started to rain (yes, another rainy race!) Turns out we nearly lapped him! But he rallied, and he actually caught the group (while i was off the front) and was in the process of chasing me down..! Eeeep! Emile also caught and passed the group a 2nd time. I remained only one lap down...heh..

Some pretty decent wattage numbers.. While i was soloing, i averaged 281w for 14mins. Certainly not a record for me, but pretty solid after a longish TT, and not really having recovered a previous hard attack, and that was also 'recovering' from getting dropped by Emile. Here are the numbers from the whole effort:

Crit:
    Duration:      47:33
    Work:          771 kJ
    TSS:           97.7 (intensity factor 1.11)
    Norm Power:    296
    VI:            1.1
    Pw:HR:          -7.18%
    Pa:HR:          2.4%
    Distance:      31.106 km
                     Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0     1198    270     watts
    Heart Rate:      111    192    178     bpm
    Cadence:         n/a    n/a    n/a     rpm
    Speed:           17.5  59.2    39.4     kph

Pretty surprised with the NP, 296w! Not sure if it was the rain after the TT, but my cadence crapped out..gotta figure out what's up there.

Crazy that my TSS was 97 for 48mins of riding... I felt really good in the crit tho. My position on the bike is PERFECT. (I'd say about 90% for TT's). I'm super-comfortable, and the bike handles amazingly. Super-happy with the Noah for crits. The corners were a breeze.

Okay, it's late, and this is very long!

I'm quite excited for Bastion next Sunday, come check it out if you're in town, my Cat3 race begins at 9:45am!

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