Non-Race Weekend

This weekend was the Wente weekend out in Livermore (East Bay). Road race on Saturday and crit on Sunday. I did the crit last year and had a lot of fun and had planned to do both races this year. That was before the new coach and he said no to racing and yes to a 3 hour ride on Saturday and a track workout plus 1.5-2 hour road ride on Sunday. So, change of plans to support at the road race and hand out bottle with teammate Ben.

Saturday dawned cold, sunny and windy and stayed that way all day. I drove out to Livermore and parked at the race site, saw a few guys I knew and wished them luck, rode part of the course and then went off to finish my ride. The riding out there is terrific--lots of rollers, not too much traffic, some good climbs if you want to (Mt. Diablo), wind. In the summer, blazing hot. I did most of my weekend long riding out there training for Kona since it is so hot and windy. But Saturday….. cold. The route I took on the way out was mostly a head wind, plus the roads are slow, sort of chip seal type. I did an out an back and had to get back to the race to go to the feed zone with Ben, so I only got 2:15 riding in. We were on the hill for the feed and I've ridden up that hill a million times over the past 20 years and yesterday was the first time I'd been up it in a car. Kind of steep! My teammate took 2nd and one of our Cat 5 guys took 3rd. Three other gals did their second ever road race and they all finished. Drove home and rode another 45 minutes on the rollers to get my 3 hours in.

 

Sunday was cold, sunny and windy. Do you see a pattern? I drove down to the track and got in a good warmup. I got at least 15 minutes in solo, then hopped in the paceline once the boys and Annabel got going. I lasted until about 15 laps to go and the speed had been ramped up a lot. Sunday advanced training at the track is just that—everyone does their own workout. Hopefully someone will be there doing something similar, so you can work together. If not, you just do your thing and everyone works around everyone else.

 

I got in about 30 minutes warm up but the cold and wind and allergy crap in the air made my eyes water a lot and I was NOT motivated to do anything. Plus, I was FREEZING (it was probably high 50s, but I really hate cold weather.) My coach gives me a specific workout to do and this one seemed kind of long. It seemed even longer when not motivated. But, I changed gears to the and got on the track and started the 15 laps rails. [15 laps riding around the very top of the track, ‘the rail’, riding hard through the curves and easing up on the straights, so really, 30 hard efforts.] Instead of counting laps, I counted curves and I got to 10 and thought, "Shit! I'm only 1/3 finished!!!!" The next 10 were hard and a few of the efforts weren't as "strong" as others, but they were at least efforts. The last 10, I got a second wind and just busted through them. But I was glad when I got finished with that! One of the guys was sitting there when I finished and I told him I might have to lay down right there on the cement!

 

After a rest, I got ready to do the next part (4x3-laps) and I told Tim--why don't you pace me through this? So he did. I told him to go out at 22 mph and try to increase it a little each lap. The first one we did just like that and I was able to stay on his wheel. The second one, we started out a little faster and ended up faster. Then, he was finished, so I had to do the last two solo. The third one I went out OK, but the second lap was way too fast and I really fell off on the third lap. So, the last one I took it out more moderate, then sped up the second lap and kept it the same on the third lap.

 

Next was 2x200 meters. Annabell had to so some fast spinning efforts and had on a small gear so she said we could do one 200 where I led it out and she'd talk me through the approach and then one where I sat on her wheel and see where she gets up to speed and how easy she goes at the beginning. She gets up to speed a lot later and stays standing later than I had been. On the second one, I wish we'd had a watch on it since she said we were probably at a time which is faster than my usual.

 

Then, it was time for the 3 standing starts. Tim was still there so he held me and the first two I did left foot forward and on the second one, I went left too much and down onto the blue band, so I tried the last one, right foot forward and did much better. Need to continue to work on these.

 

Over 3 hours later, finished! But, it was then time to do the road ride, so I changed to the other bike and headed out on the bike path and rode 1:45, feeling GOOD! I rode easy at the beginning where the path is curvy and more people, but worked the little rollers (standing up and powering up them and not shifting), then rode steady once I got out on the less busy part of the path. A great ride! I felt like I could have ridden forever.

 

Got back to the truck and the juniors were on the track so I stopped in to see what they were doing and ended up doing lap counts for their practice 7-lap scratch race. Changed, stopped for food, then hit the road. A great day!  Five hours of bike time for the day and lots of fun.

Comments

[beth]

holy crap cathy! that is a lot-- way to go!