Race at the Lakes #1

This morning started with Nicholas waking up earlier than normal to watch his favorite TV show, Grossology. This gave me the opportunity to spend a few minutes with him before heading over to Munroe Metro Park to race the first week of the Race at the Lakes Series. The only reason I bother to bring this up is because on the way out the door, he says to me, have fun, make sure you win a trophy and that if I win a trophy, he'll be very proud of me. Where does a four year old learn this stuff? Must be from his mother! Time to have a little talk with him about sportsmanship and the thrill of competition.

Riding in the Cat 4's today for Stark Velo were Tim House, Marshall Leininger, Darrin Kert, Matt Turi and of course myself. The plan for today was to let Summit drive the pace as they came to the start line with about a bazillion riders and they are always very ambitious at their home race. This year, Summit made a change in the start finish lines and moved the finish to the hill on the backside of the course. This was done to try to eliminate some of the nasty crashes that have happened on the course. I have to admit that at first, I was a little sceptical of the new layout but after racing today, I will admit that I think this was a good move. (Note that for a truly safe race, I thought it would be better to just eliminate the parking lot section all together and just ride on the park roads).

So back to the race. The race was typical for the Cat 4's at RATL, sit, chase down everything and wait until the final for the sprint. Today's race played out exactly like this with several people trying to get off the front, it coming back, and then waiting until someone would try it again. One of those times was on one lap to go when Noah (Allied Decals) and one of his teammates got off the front. A chase was of course underway which was led by Tim. Coming into the parking lot Tim brought him back and I decided that I wasn't going to let his effort go in vain so at the moment we caught the first rider in the breakaway, I launched off the front. My hopes were to bridge up to Noah and work with him but I shot right past and before I knew it I had a healthy little gap on my hands. Maybe today would be the day I would bring that first place trophy home for Nicholas but at that very moment, all I could do was concentrate on getting to the finish line first. All that stood between me and certain glory, at least in my own mind, was two small little rises in the pavement (After Boone, I can no longer classify this as a climb). With the first rise finished, I was on the false flat section; suffering of course and just as I began the second little climb, I heard and then saw the pack catch me. I was that breakaway rider you always see getting swept up by the field in the final few meters before the finish.

Here's the data from today's race:
Duration: 51:53
Work: 712 kJ
TSS: 89.7 (intensity factor 1.019)
Norm Power: 296
VI: 1.29
Distance: 20.405 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 974 229 watts
Heart rate: 128 189 167 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 99 rpm
Speed: 4.7 34.5 23.6 mph
Pace 1:44 12:52 2:32 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 298 66 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1259 191 lb-in













brian