Race for Alex

This was the first opportunity I have had to participate in the Race for Alex held by MVC. Not knowing much about the race, I asked everyone I knew what their thoughts were. I kept hearing good things like good roads, lots of rollers, decent sized fields and well marshaled corners; everything I like to hear about a race I'm going to jump into. After a rainy, story drive over to Crestwood, the skies settled down as we drove into the parking lot in time to register, change and get a few moments start up. Normally when you have a chance for bad weather, the race attendance drops off significantly (I’m guilty of hitting the snooze button when I see its raining outside as well) but not today. Today’s Cat4/Cat 5 field had around 60 riders in it, by far the largest race I’ve been in for the year. Racing for Stark Velo this morning was Tim House, Marshall Leininger, Chris Smith and our honorary Velo from Chicago, Patrick Papczun.

Between work, vacation and family the past few weeks or maybe even month now has been crazy in terms of getting enough training in. With the exception of the team's Tuesday night training rides, I haven't done any high intensity training and I've noticed that my legs haven't been responding the way they have in the past so with no great expectations for what I could do, I went into this race just wanting to put in a good test for where my current fitness level stands and work on my positioning in the field. Someone once told me “If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving back.” I’ve been trying to keep those words in my mind recently as I’ve been racing because I’ve been guilty more than once of finding myself quickly in the back of the group and then not being able to get myself back up to where I should really be racing. So with those words in my mind again this morning, I worked hard to keep myself within the top 10 positions for the majority of the race and was for the most part, successful. Only at one point mid-race did I get squeezed to the back and with wanting to obey the “yellow line” rule, it took me nearly an entire lap to get myself back up to the front.

So enough about my strategy thoughts and more to the race. Thankfully the race started off slowly this morning as I didn’t nearly have enough warm up time. It was Joel from Orrville who threw down the first glove as we made the right hand turn onto Kelly Park Rd. and started climbing back up the small succession of rollers halfway through the first lap. My legs responded nicely in the chase effort and in no time, we were all back together. After two trips around the course, it became apparent that the breakaway attempts would play out like this: at the one spot where Joel previously tried to and also on Crestview Road just after you pass over the railroad tracks and start climbing back up towards Fairfield School Road. I know that this is bike racing, but I’m not sure how I feel about attacking at railroad tracks. Maybe if they were as smooth as butter it would be one thing, but tracks where it’s safer to bunny hop over than ride because they’re in such bad condition is another. In any case, I don’t think we had any incidents other than a few lost water bottles in the effort. Safely in the race and maintaining my position well, I decided that if the opportunity arose, I’d try and make a move of my own. My decision however was not to try it where everyone else was going, but instead to try it over on the climb on Middleton Road. I liked this location was because it was gradual it was one of the longest climbs. I also liked that at the top of the hill there was an immediate right hand turn onto Kirk Rd. and then another right hand turn shortly after onto Crestview Road. I figured if you could get enough of a gap on the hill, the momentum going into the turns along with the fact that the group would slow down there might be enough to get away. Unfortunately, I never found myself in the right place at that point of the race to try it, usually I was back around 8th or 9th or I was leading the chase, two of the places that aren’t really all that ideal for attacking as I’d be blowing too much energy to get away. So, with me not making an attempt it came to sitting in until the finishing sprint. (This is somewhat out of order, but there was a nice breakaway attempt by a rider and team that I’m unfamiliar with. He lasted out there for just over a lap but with a lot of effort by mostly Stark Velo riders, he came back). Going into the right hand turn onto Kirk Road, I heard Tim behind me saying drill it on the inside of the corner and lets move a little further up, which is what we did. Only one more turn left. I tried the same tactic and was somewhat successful but I found myself somewhat trapped as I approached a rider who didn’t have enough left in his legs to contest the win. By the time I got around him, I found myself once at 5th or 6th now back around 13th place. I was able to pull a few of those guys back to finish in 11th place.

It was a good day for Stark Velo riders. We worked really well as a team and were active near the front for a lot of the race. Chris took another win for the year, Patrick took third place in only his second race Tim took sixth place and of course I took 11th. I achieved my goals for the day, worked hard to keep good positioning and tested my fitness. Although I’m still a little off from where I’d like to be at this time of year, I’m happy in knowing that my fitness isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was. I guess I have no more excuses but to just get out and ride more.

Here are the stats for the day. Once again my normalized power is getting close to 300 watts. I will start to throw in much more intensity now into my training to push that up to try and get ready for some key races this month.

Duration: 56:29
Work: 789 kJ
TSS: 99.2 (intensity factor 1.027)
Norm Power: 298
VI: 1.28
Distance: 21.962 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1175 233 watts
Heart rate: 80 188 167 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 98 rpm
Speed: 2.7 39.3 23.3 mph
Pace 1:32 22:27 2:34 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 350 71 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1091 201 lb-in

brian