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Comments: 30 seconds improvement over last year (26:50 vs 27:20) - was hoping for at least 60...a few thoughts... -in light of last year's very, very cold temps, I registered as soon as reg went live this year (earlier reg = later start) and ended up with an 11:06 start time...it was fairly warm by then...starting an hour earlier would've been perfect... -broke the cardinal rule "don't change your game plan" with 90 seconds to go prior to my start...the "out" is pretty much steady grade up; based upon my experience, I need to take the "out" in the small ring and whatever gear works for a given section of the course and turn a higher cadence - during the "back," i move to the big ring...well, a guy i know from the JJ's ride (big, strong guy) was at the start and asked why i was in my small ring...i told him my plan, but the seed of doubt was planted and i made a quick spin up the trail, shifted to the big ring, and hopped back in the queue with ~45 seconds to start...dumb move...i started out fine, but once i hit the false flat that became a steady rise, i started mashing and my HR shot to 175 (my LT is 168)...i wasn't going to try and shift to the small ring and potentially drop my chain, so i just sucked it up and kept going, knowing some relief would come if i could hang on...while my legs and especially my lungs were saying "just slow down, this is only for fun anyway" i kept pushing as hard as i could...and it hurt...once i hit the turn-around, i knew i'd get some relief once past the little climb from the Paulding line...sure enough, the flat-to-downhill section on the way back allowed me to hit the marks i was hoping to hit (and give my HR some needed recovery!) and when i hit the 200 meters to go sign i gave one final hard-as-i-can-go push... -my son was sick most of last week and though i didn't get sick, i did start feeling some congestion in my upper chest mid-week...yesterday's lung fest loosened up a fair amount of junk that i've been coughing out today (day after TTT)...did this play a part in the performance? perhaps, but don't think too much... -prior to this race, i need to do more hill interval work and more flat interval work...the JJ's ride definitely added some leg strength and i think this allowed me to hang on when my lungs/heart were ready to 'splode...the pre-race WU also helped get the buffering engine working...during the past several weeks, i did some flat interval work (via trainer), but no hill work...and hill ints are key to developing the leg strength needed to work the big ring/middle to small gear combos at a cadence that'll translate to more speed and keep HR at or below LT... What would you do differently?: not break the cardinal rule...and maybe next year I'll embrace hill repeats as part of my Dec/Jan training plan...  Post race
Warm down: Spin up the SCT to let the legs unwind, HR recover, and quick mental review of my race performance. What limited your ability to perform faster: breaking the cardinal rule...not being a hardcore roadie...genes...hmmmm...wish I could claim old age, but there were some fast old guys out there... Event comments: Jim and the folks at Surge Sports do a good job with this race and the warm temps brought out lots of racers this year. One thing I noticed this year, drafting - 2 packs of 3 racers while I was on the course. Unfortunately the drafters were going the opposite direction, so getting race #'s was impossible. I mentioned something to the Surge folks; hopefully they'll post a few marshalls on the course next year. Last updated: 2007-12-26 12:00 AM
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United States
Surge Sports
58F / 14C
Sunny
Overall Rank = /
Age Group = M45
Age Group Rank = 0/
Woke up @ 5:30AM, dressed, made a couple of PB&H english muffins, loaded my gear bag in the car, bike on the rack and was off by 6AM. Connected with Brett at the designated meeting place at SCT and set up "Camp NAMC/BT" and awaited others who'd be joining us.
A bit after 10AM, started warming up the legs on the trainer. After 10 minutes or so of light spinning, I made the decision to wear short-sleeve jersey so had to change my number from the long-sleeve one. At 10:30, started official WU - 10 minutes spin at steady cadence, 5 mins. hard effort, 5 mins spin, 1 min all-out, 1 min recover, 1 min all-out, 1 min recover. Glad I did this, because it saved me later...