I was fortunate enough to have my friend Dwight from the Minerva Design Cycling team come out and offer advice as I was riding.
I got at the front during the warmup lap which was my first mistake. I should have fallen back a little bit and hid in the middle of the pack. Once we neared the horse farm Mike let the gun off and the pack took off. I was slowly getting chewed up and spit out the back. I fell off and then I get tapped on the back and Dwight yells get in a bigger gear and get up there! I managed to get back on the group, but got dropped again at the first pop of a hill before the right hand turn.
So Dwight rode with me and pushed me. I thought I had been riding as hard as I possibly could the last few weeks. I was wrong. Just when I thought I would puke or the thought of passing out would cross my mind we hit a downhill. Dwight would say get in a harder gear, keep pedaling, you are recovering now. We hit the base of a hill, Dwight would yell adjust your gearing stand up, ride!
I won’t lie .. I was hurting so bad that I actually was not liking Dwight at those moments, but I am glad he came out and did that for me. Those were the hardest 2 laps I have ridden this year.
I also heard that Tyler attacked the group 3 times that night. Nothing came of the attacks, but 7 weeks ago the thought of attacking would have never occurred to him. Hopefully I will continue to improve so he is not out there by himself. My goal for this season is just to finish a race with the pack.
The GVCC was on the Victor course last night. The weather was a little hot, but not as bad as last Thursday when we were on the Rush course.
I had decided to try something different on Thursday. I allowed myself to have my morning coffee, but drank nothing but water the rest of the day. A typical day at work could see me drinking 3-4 cans/bottles of Mountain Dew! I felt a little sluggish by Noon, but by time I got out of work @ 4pm I was feeling really good.
Tyler had not raced on this course yet so after getting all our gear ready we headed out and took a warm up lap with one of the G2 riders (John). We came back from our warm up lap and Mike had us do bumping and wheel touching drills. It is very difficult to bump/touch wheels with someone on a bike when you are trying to do it intentionally. Neither of us fell off our bikes so that is a good thing.
We rolled up neutral to the start/finish at the top of Blazey Road and I was still feeling pretty good. Now usually I just hang in the back and try to stay out of everyone’s way. Which usually results in me getting dropped shortly after turn #1 on the first full lap. So here I am sitting in the back riding my brakes and I thought why I am riding my brakes? So I decided to try and move up near the front. It was downhill so I wasn’t exerting much energy to move up. Tyler was up in the middle of the group. I caught up to him and he just did a double-take like “What are you doing up here?”.
Once we hit the flat part of Dailey Road I stayed about midpack until about the middle of Wilkinson Road. As we started up towards Pannel Road I just got slower, and slower, and slower … By time I turned on to Pannel Road I had fallen off the back of the peloton. Now I know I burned myself out, but at least I got a little experience of riding in the group with riders on either side of me at speed. I got all, but one lap in due to the fact that I was lapped by the B5′s just before the finish line.
I have a lot of work to do. I should have gotten some base miles in over the winter. I have wanted to race ever since I started riding again in 2004. I get one day a week to ride and I would choose to ride with the GVCC group and get dropped every week then to just ride by myself. It can only make me better. I want to thank everyone that yells words of encouragement during the race. It does help.
Looking forward to the Wheatland course next week.
It was kind of breezy, but the weather turned out to be really nice. I think somewhere between 30-35 people showed up to race. Since the race was in Webster Carrie decided to bring the kids out to watch. I’m not sure how interested they were in any of it, but it was nice to have them there. I was very absent minded this night for some reason. I had forgotten my Garmin Edge 500 bike computer so that meant I wouldn’t collect any data from the ride. The bigger mistake was that I had forgotten my helmet! No helmet = No Racing! Luckily Eric (runs the TT’s) had a helmet I could borrow. Not only did he have a helmet, but he had a TT Helmet!
Last time I did this course in 30:40. This time around I think they got my time messed up with someone else’s because when I checked in they said my time was 24:33. I would really like to believe I got that time. It is a HUGE confidence booster, but I don’ think there is any way I improved my time by 6 minutes in just a few weeks.
I will say that I felt tired all day, but when I got to the race I felt like I was on fire. I couldn’t believe how good I felt. I must say riding without the Garmin felt very liberating. I didn’t know what my cadence, speed, or heart rate was. I just felt good. I think sometimes I see the numbers on the Garmin and I start to freak out. My heart rate is normally 101% or higher when I am racing. So I think when I see that I think I psych myself out and think I am too tired or too weak to race. My friend Dwight always tells me to “be the bike”. Well last night I think I was definitely the bike whether I got 24:33 or not I am extremely happy with my run.
Next week is a road race in Rush, NY. I am told this is one of the toughest courses as well. Very hilly. Hopefully I can stay with the peloton this and not get dropped.
Bike on Sun, Aug 15
50.08 mi in 276:26 (10.9 mph)
HR 151 bpm - Burned 1,977 C
Cadence 76 rpm