Malabar Farms Road Race

With the Boone Training camp only a week and a half away, I had debated on whether I wanted to race this weekend or not. On one hand, I haven't raced since last August at the Milk Race, but on the other hand I have yet to do anything longer than a two hour ride outdoors and with big days down south right around the corner, I was contemplating putting in a long training ride. In the end, it came down to a simple question from Scott Thor that settled my dilemma...."What's your power meter telling you?" Oh yea, I almost forgot about that thing. Scott said if I was within 10% of what I was producing last year, than he suggested going ahead and racing. Well, my power meter was telling me to race because I'm consistently producing more power on all of my workouts. So with that decision made, it was time to pack the bags and get ready to race!

This was my first time ever racing at Malabar but knowing that the State road race was going to be held on the same course, I figured what better way to preview it than during an actual race. All I knew was that there was supposedly one big hill that was the real killer. No one remembered to mention that there were a ton of little rollers scattered throughout the course, that was something that I found during a preview lap with John, Scott and Rick. Knowing that I was no where in the same league yet to race with those guys to race in the Cat 3/4 field, I opted to race with the Cat 4/5's. Joining me from Stark Velo were Matt Turi, Tim House, Marshall Leininger and newcomer to the team, Josh Troche. The Cat 4/5 field was big, I would have to guess somewhere between 40 and 50 people racing. That was a shocker for me to see so many people so early in the season but maybe that's because I don't typically race until mid April.

The race started off somewhat mellow, all taking the first climb as directed...neutral. After that, it picked up as we started making our way through the rollers. I was feeling fairly good but I remembered at this point that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and that was only one waffle. I guess this first race through me off schedule and I had forgotten to follow my usual pre-race routine. Time to down a little gel and drink to help me get through. The first two laps were fairly uneventful, I was hanging comfortably within the group but didn't feel comfortable to try anything, but neither did anyone else. The last time up the 'big' climb and I let a small gap open up between me and the main field. Time to chase and chase and chase. Unfortunately, all my chasing was in vain because I never caught the group. There were times where I could still see them, but there was no way that I was going to catch them. My only hope was to catch a few of the stragglers ahead of me and at least make it back to the finish a little sooner. First I picked up an Orville rider, I think it was Joel but I forgot to confirm...sorry. Next it was a Team Echelon rider and finally a team breakaway rider. That was actually the most fun part of the race just flying back with those guys to the finish in a nice working paceline. Made me wish we were working that well off the front of the group instead of at the back of the field.

At the end of the day, yes I didn't finish with the group but I did finish with both wheels upright which in my book is a good day. Check out my power stats below. I took a look at my race data from last year and there were only two races that had numbers higher than this. One was a time trial I did during the Summer Solstice stage race and the other was at Snitger's. Ouch, this was a tough day but I was happy to see that I was able to produce these types of numbers.

brian


Malabar Farms Race:
Duration: 1:31:30
Work: 1263 kJ
TSS: 152.1 (intensity factor 0.999)
Norm Power: 284
VI: 1.23
Distance: 31.192 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 819 230 watts
Heart rate: 78 203 163 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 89 rpm
Speed: 0 38 20.5 mph
Pace 1:35 0:00 2:56 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 409 95 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 925 221 lb-in