Went on my second speed ride of the year this wednesday (don't even want to talk about the first one), and despite being very stressed out about school, managed a pretty decent ride (for me).

There was a big attack at the beginning of the ride by some of the local fast folks (Joe Whitman, Sean Melcher, Chris Ruhl). Unfortunately, someone hopped in front of me as the attack went up the road. They then proceeded to sit up, and let a 10 second gap open up. Ouch - that hurt a bit, as I was pushing around 1,000 watts to catch back up. For me, that's pretty hard.

As the attack continued to go, I was forced to sit in the first 10 minutes or so, as I was more than a bit blown from the attack. Of our starting group of about 20-25, we only had about 9-12 left at the first turn. I started taking turns again at this point, until we hit the first sprint. I was particularly happy that I was able to pull for about 20-30 seconds up the steep hill to the first sprint.

After this, I was able to keep taking around 60-70% of my pulls until the steepest hill, at which point only Joe, Sean, Chris and myself were left, and I was able to pull through around 100% of the time. It's nice for me to be feeling better on these rides. I wish I could pull through the whole time, but it's more important for me to be going hard the whole time than it is for me to be going harder for a shorter amount of time right now (endurance is a weak spot of mine). At the same time, I think I'll try to pull more in the future, as I didn't ever really feel like I was in danger of getting dropped, just that I couldn't do any more.

I was even able to lead out the last two sprints for everybody, which I was happy about. Still need to work on sprinting speed, but I feel like a lamer when I sprint after having sat in for parts of the ride.

My power file for the ride is attached here. Considering my FTP is around 320, this was a pretty decent ride for me.
StClair_Luke_3_26_2008

Sadly, I missed the ECCC Easter weekend at Pittsburg. It's pretty disappointing, since it was one of the first hillier races of the year. It features some power climbs, which are right up my alley.

I left the house at 6:30AM, and tried to get to the race. Unfortunately, it was too snowy, and I just couldn't make it. I'm sick of the State College snow, for sure.

The weekend looked like it was going to be typical nasty Pennsylvania March weather. Sure enough, as we left Saturday morning, it started to pour. And pour. And pour.

So bad, in fact, that the 15 mile loop for the road race was shortened to a .8 mile crit in torrential rain. Words barely do the course justice, but I'll try.

It was a four corner crit. First corner was downhill, with standing water. Not bad, but worth watching carefully. Second corner was fine (slightly uphill, no standing water). There was a gradual uphill, then a medium, steep downhill, INTO HALF OF A ROAD. That's right - downhill 90 degree corner where we only had 2 lanes of a four lane road. There was only a soft mesh divider between traffic and racers.

Better yet was the unassuming 4th corner. With a manhole cover right at the apex of the turn, it was an unreal crash-fest. During the B race, my wife stood at this corner for about 1/2 the race. She counted 18 crashes, started to feel sick watching the carnage, and left. I have no idea how many people went down at this turn total over the course of the race. Some racers reported a crash in their small group each and every time they went into the turn.

Unfortunately, the race was dominated by the line-up for me. I lined up absolutely last in a field of more than 80 riders. It strung out very quickly, so I was never actually in the race.

This was probably the fastest race I've ever been in. I set all sorts of personal power records. My FTP is around 316, but my normalized power, over 20 minutes in this race, was 393! That's the most encouraging thing I've seen all year. If my FTP is anywhere around 393 * .95 now, I'm going to be really, really excited. Anyone have any idea how legitimate normalized power is?

For those who care, my power file is attached here.

StClair_Luke_3_8_2008

Sunday was a lot nicer. Sort of. It was 32 degrees, with a 25-35 mph wind.

As we got warmed up (sort of), I started to get really excited about the race. Time trials are my favorite part of cycling. Something about going as hard as you can and trying to hold it as long as you can appeals to me. Being a bigger guy, I get a natural advantage as well, which I appreciate. TTs are something I've spent the last 9 months working on, and its gone from being a serious, serious weakness to something I'm reasonably good at (say, midway through the A field). We got rolling down the first downhill, and I stupidly let about 3-4 bike length gap open up as we took a hard right hand turn at the bottom of the hill. Just not comfortable on the TT bike yet this year. I got back on quickly, and we proceeded to crank out what felt like a slow TTT. There was a lot of wind, and the pace kept slipping down. I'm sure that the complete and total lack of aero gear amongst the rest of the team didn't help here. At the end, I accidentally picked up the pace too quickly on the final hill, and dropped everyone off the back. Fortunately, two of the other B riders jumped back on, and we finished at least reasonably quickly. Turns out, we won, by around 15 seconds! By far, this was the best part of the weekend for me.

As for the circuit race: I rode at the front after the first 2 laps. John Gleaves got away with a small group that he was able to sit on for second. I stayed back and blocked well, for the first time ever (got to lead the field for about 3-5 minutes straight, doing 180 watts). I felt great, never really in trouble, even for a bit, and kept wishing someone else would up the pace. I'm glad it worked out the way it did though, since we put 3 people in points (2nd, 8th, 12th). Our best team showing so far, for sure.

More importantly, I hope that this will be a turnaround for me. Instead of hanging out at the back, I feel like I have the confidence to corner more aggressively and push myself forward in the pack. I know I'm strong enough to be at the front, and I'm slowing getting more confident in my ability to physically move up there.

Check out the photos here.

For those of you that care, here's a video of the infamous fourth corner of the crit. Notice the traffic between the third and fourth turns.

Power files for the TTT, circuit are here
lukestclair-phillycircuit2008
lukestclair-phillyttt2008

Well, the second day of the Rutgers weekend went okay...

I couldn't get to the front of the pack at all. With 60+ riders and a yellow line rule with narrow roads, I just didn't have much opportunity. And I'm a sissy.

Consequently, I did a lot of chasing back on, as riders got spit out of the apparently fast-moving pack. To be honest, I felt more bored than tired during this one. Perhaps some day I'll learn how to fight through a pack.

In any event, my planned sprint from back to front of the pack was quickly derailed when a couple riders went down in front of me in a very spectacular, bikes-flying sort of crash. While it was pretty impressive to watch, it totally ended my sprint.

Oh well.

All in all, a fun, but disappointing (for Men's B) weekend. Perhaps Philly will go better, but huge field sizes don't bode well for me.

Pictures here.

First ECCC weekend! And great weather. Getting into Piscataway, NJ, was terrible though.

A 4 hour drive turned into a fear-inducing 7.5 hour epic for me. I couldn't believe how icy/snowy it was.

Once we got to the ITT though, the weather was great - mid 40's and above. Unfortunately, the ITT was cut short yet again (thanks Rutgers), so we just had 2.4 miles to distinguish ourselves from each other. I ground it out way, way too much (not enough spinning), but felt great. I just couldn't bring any aerobic power to bear, with cadences so slow. Still, I got 6th, which was good enough for the second best Penn State time of the day.

Sadly though, my tubular wheel flatted - I'm not looking forward to changing that. Somehow, I was unlucky enough to put a cut in a tire that retails for $90 in the first 10 miles of riding it. I'm having trouble letting it go.

The crit was particularly exciting for me. As usual, I started in the back, and kept having to close down gaps in the field. I simply couldn't seem to move up. As people got tired, however, I managed to charge up the sides of the field, and eventually worked my way on to the front.

Once I got there, a kid from UVM attacked the field into a headwind, and I stupidly watched him go. About 60 seconds later, I decided it'd be a good ida for me to go too. Unfortunately, the field wasn't interested in letting me get as big a gap as the UVM guy had, and I was working against the most ferocious headwind I've ever seen in a race. I stayed between the field and the leader for the last 2.5 laps, and got caught with about 600m to go.




Sad, but this is the strongest I've ever felt. Maybe not the most fit/capable, but certainly the strongest.

Pictures here.