To get ready for the upcoming weekend stage races, I just finished a quality two-day training block. Yesterday morning I went to the gym and lifted and did a Pilates class, and in the afternoon I did some threshold work on my TT bike. Then today, I did a long ride in the morning, and then tonight I raced the fourth Nampa criterium.
The weather was finally springlike today, with blue skies and temps around 60°. For the first time this year, I went out in shorts without leg-warmers! It was still a bit chilly when I started at 9:45 AM, but it felt so nice to do a long ride and not feel cold most of the time. I went out on my usual 80-mile loop, taking me through Middleton, Hamilton Corners and then through Emmett and back down to Eagle. The ride felt good and I tried to keep the pressure on the pedals to keep my average wattage up. By the time I got home, my average wattage was great for that length of ride and I never bonked. These are both good signs that my training is going well.
I ducked into my house to get some food and a backpack and then headed to the airport to get our car. Heather flew down to Utah today since her sister is having a baby, so she left the car in long-term parking. By the time I got to the car and was done riding, I had ridden for 4:45. A definite “long” ride. I drove back home and then tried to refuel so I’d be ready for the second workout, the fourth and final Nampa criterium.
I drove out to the race and registered then helped sweep the course. As my raced approached I got on the trainer to warm-up. My legs immediately reminded me of my 90-mile ride I completed just a few hours ago. They felt heavy and fatigued. At that point I knew this would be a hard race. Ted was feeling good so I told him he should be the one to go for it tonight.
The crit started out fairly fast and my legs came around after a few laps. I was surprised I could put out the power I needed for this type of intense race. As usual, I just tried to stay near the front. At some point, I could see Andre getting ready to wind it up on the start/finish stretch so I got on his wheel. This strung out the pack big-time and finally, the elastic broke. We got a group of seven off the front. At the time, I was in second or third wheel, so I didn’t know we had seven. It wasn’t until much later that I realized we did, and that my teammate Ted was with us! I was too busy focusing on staying on a wheel that I never looked back!
Even though I could hang with this group, going above threshold was another issue. I was afraid if I pulled that I’d blow, so I didn’t rotate through. I know this probably annoyed the others, but I had my reasons, like the 90-mile warm-up I did or the intervals I did last night! After a while, I did take a few turns at the front, but I took a long time to recover after each turn.
After lapping the field, the six of us immediately went to the front so it would be easier to mark each other. Things wound up with 5 laps to go, and it started to get strung-out. I attacked with two laps to go and I knew I was in trouble when I looked over at the riders I was overtaking and it looked like I was going in slow motion! Even though I attacked from 5th or 6th wheel, I barely got enough speed to get a gap…it was pathetic! I decided to continue, nonetheless and tried to take the fastest lines through the corners. That only lasted half a lap and then everyone that was in the break, passed me by the final corner. My attack didn’t even last a full lap!
By that point, my legs were toast and a few riders from the main pack passed me as well. I was just hoping Ted had enough of a sprint left to get a good result. A gap formed between the first three riders and Ted, so Ted had to sprint hard to try and make it up. He ended up 4th in the sprint. My legs were shot so I just limped in, realizing that even if I was last in the pack, I’d still get 7th (since I lapped the field). I still sprinted out of honor and made up a few places, but it didn’t matter, I think I still got 7th. All six of my breakaway companions were all ahead of me.
Even though the result wasn’t stellar, I was happy with my performance given the circumstance. Many of the weekend stage races have two events in a single day, so I’ll need to be able to race hard twice in one day. The fact that I was able to get in a break and hang with them after putting in a long hard ride in the morning, was a good sign of that ability. After all, was said and done, it was a 340 TSS day for me!