Ravensdale/Cumberland road race report 3/28/10

First road race today!

I accomplished my primary goal of not crashing and finishing in the main pack. I started with the CAT5 men that left Ravensdale park at 9:30am. The starter told us the first mile was a rolling neutral start but it turned out to be closer to 3 miles. I can’t complain about the slow start though, the easy pace helped me relax a little bit.

The race got going in the 5^th mile, it was interesting that the pace would pick up and slack rapidly w/o much rime or reason. 7 or 8 miles in I moved up near the front of the pack for a while, never actually taking the lead though. From roughly mile 10 to 16 I hung out at the back of the pack with a guy from recycled cycles.

For several miles there was a solo rider leading the pack by several hundred yards, at some point before mile 20 he was joined by a second rider. The pack didn’t seem too concerned by this, I guess because they were in sight and not that far up the road. Mile 21! I got tired of hitting the brakes at one point so I decided to hit the gas! The right shoulder was open and well paved, I shot forward from the back of the pack. As I was passing the leaders in the pack the bikesale guys (a team that had 5 riders in the pack) yelled “break up the right side”. This made me puff up a little and I really hammered it as I went off the front, my HR hit 187bpm! I stayed away for 2-3 miles on my own. I got within 25yrds at one point of the 2 leaders but couldn’t close down the final gap. The bikesale guys gave me props for the “nice attack” as the pack gobbled me up. I actually had a tough time slipping back into the pack and ended up jumping on at the back, 3^rd to last in less than a minute. The 2 riders in the break away were caught right after me. The pace had picked up a bit and I had to fight to not get dropped for the next ½ mile.

As the race turned on to Kent/Kangley around mile 28 the pace really picked up. I was near the lead of the pack or actually leading from mile 28-30. The course takes a sharp left on to the Cumberland/Kanasket RD at the start of mile 31. I was leading at this point and gave myself a good scare entering the turn at over 35mph! I scouted the course yesterday and thought the race finished at Ravensdale park sooo that sharp turn and the climb that followed were a surprise. Right from the start of the hill I started getting passed. When we crested the hill I was still near the front (10^th or so) I was starting to catch my breath when I saw the 200M sign. CRAP, it was on and I was not prepared for it. My “master plan” was to launch an attack in the last mile so I wouldn’t be caught in a sprint, heck, I don’t even know how to sprint. Long story short I hammered it the best I could, passed a couple guys and got passed by a couple others.

End result I was 13 out of 29 finishers, just a few seconds behind 1^st. I learned a lot and plan on racing again in a couple weeks!

32 Miles

1:27:00 – 22MPH – average HR – 163bpm

Garmin File

Weekly recap

Got about 120 miles in on the Tarmac in the last 3 days. Since Wednesday I have also logged 13 miles running. Wednesday's run I managed a 8:42 for 5 miles, not great but it's fantastic to be running again.

Here's a nice reminder of what my ankle looked like back on 1/9/10.

Took advantage of day light savings and got a ride in after work to night.

Monday 3/15 ride

Sunday 3/14 ride with Werner and Rob.

Got in 52 miles yesterday and squeezed in a apple cinnamon roll at the Black Diamond bakery too!

Saturday 3/13 Jill team ride.

Team Ride, 2 laps around Mercer Island. Jill pulled for the 1st lap and I pulled for most of the second lap. Glancing at the power data I probably put out 40 additional watts per miles pulling, it's good to be in the draft!

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Training Ride

Black Diamond Bakery training ride

Ice Breaker Time Trial

3-6-10 - So, today was my first bicycle race... It went OK. The event was the Ice Breaker Time Trial in Black Diamond. The Time Trial format is pretty simple, ride a specified distance as fast as possible, you against the clock. Today's race was 10 miles on the SE Green Valley rd, 5 out, 5 back. I "raced" the course back on 2-21-10 after a 96 mile ride the day before. I averaged 23.7mph that day, I was working hard but I thought if I was fresh I could get it closer to 25mph. WRONG. I was WAY to amped this morning and went out WAY to fast. 187bpm hr in he 1st minute can't be good, can it? :-) I ended up fading pretty bad on the second half or the race (albeit slightly uphill) and only finished a few seconds faster then my training ride on the 21st.

Overall I had a blast today and look forward to improving for my next race!

Here are some stats today broken down by mile.

Werner and I warming up in the JFT2 tent before the race.

Choppy race video.

Chilly Hilly 2010!

Hunter and I rocked the Chilly Hilly today. We totally lucked out with the weather, it wasn't so chilly but it sure was hilly!

Pictures

Garmin ride details.

Update from the last week:

Had a good commute to work on Friday 2/19. Little slow coming home (15.2mph) I had the saddle bag loaded down though.

Saturday 2/20: Had a great ride with Aveen from Jill's team. We started out from the Eastgate Sbux @ 7:15am and I pulled into the house at 3:00pm. This time did of course include a sit down breakfast at the Black Diamond cafe. My GPS puked itself on the "course" I created and downloaded to it so no good power/hr data. I didn't need any data to know I was pretty pooped by the end.

Here's a link to the ride route.

Sunday Morning 2/21 I checked out the Ice Breaker TT course in Black Diamond. The weather was perfect when I started the course around 10:00am. I didn't feel like I had much power after the long ride the day before but I did average a respectable 23.7mph over the 10 mile course. The Felt felt great! Man I love riding that thing on a flat road.

Garmin Ride data.

Hunter shot this video of me with eating a GU!

Here's a shot that captures my riding "style" :-)

Later Sunday afternoon Hunter and I rocked 20 miles on the Cedar river trail. it's the perfect trail for us on the tandem, wide and flat! The weather is looking good for this coming weekend so we'll be rockin the tandem at the Chilly Hilly!

Tandem ride data.

More boring bike stuff

Dear silly Surly hipster boy, did you really try to hold me off across the I-90 bridge tonight? You should know better :-) Took advantage of today's great weather and additional daylight and rode home around the south end of Mercer Island.

Saturday 2-13
Got in a nice 60 miler with Rob and the team today. Rob and I were out at 94 Stewart the night before with the Ladies and Charlie Woods but still met up at 7:30 the next morning!


Sitting at 260 miles so far in February.