Dropped like a bad habit

There were rumors about the course being hilly before my carpool even arrived to the scene of the Independence Road Race. I should have known better considering it was part of the Washington Cup race series. Come to find out there are two hills on this looping 19 mile course - the first of which was about 1k long - a small ring climb but sustained - about 3 miles into the race. And the second hill, a big ring burner - about 1/2 k and at its steepest pitch 14% grade - at about mile 14. In between the climbing the winds were drafty and our group maintained a rotating paceline to quicken the pace on slightly rolling hills.

I started the race pretty anxious - I took the past two weeks off from the race scene to attend to a family emergency but was still able to get some good riding in. It's not like I was out there to win the race - but let's just say the thought crossed my mind a time or two before the race. (It always does - it's that competitive streak rearing its ever present head!)

We hit the first climb and I felt fantastic. I breezed up the hill and ended up pulling down the hill first - even putting a couple bike lengths between myself and the pack. Then the group consolidated and we pacelined through to the next hill. I felt strong - but once we turned the corner and the second hill came - it was almost as though everything was in slow motion. Everyone was standing up and started pulling away. I must have dropped an anchor off. I tried giving it more juice but was completely zapped. I chased the group on the descent but they kept pulling further and further away. I didn't give up though and soon I was joined by a teammate and another girl. We worked together to try and join back up - but to no avail. We were all cooked and the pack was turning up the heat. My teammate ended up pulling herself once we passed the finish line (we had one more lap to go) - she wasn't feeling well and headed back to the car. The other woman and I said let's go for it - you never know how things will pan out further up the road. We finished the race together - and got to chat for a while - unfortunately never catching up to the group. Both of us had no idea what happened on the hill - but at least we were in good company. Maybe it was fate for us to meet one another.

In retrospect - I definitely went way too hard in the beginning of the race. My heartrate was sky high - which is typical for a race - but I maintained an average of 173 for a solid hour and ten minutes. My max is 189 to give you an idea of how hard I was pushing. So when the time came to use that little bit of energy everyone else had stored - I had nothing to give and was dropped like a bad habit.

Lesson learned. Chill out - relax, deep breathing and make sure you are doing the least amount of work as possible to save it for when it really counts. Who needs to be the first one up a hill when you have two more laps to go? Do you really need to pull that hard during the paceline? Ahhh... there's nothing like experience. Slowly but surely I am gaining a treasure chest of knowledge. :) I just can't wait to get back out there and learn more.

Well, it's still an exciting race report! Maybe you should look at the article about Is Fatigue All In Our Minds? that I posted in the Open Topics Forum yesterday. It would explain to you why it is so important to _know the course_ ahead of time so there are no surprises! Anyway, you're _out there_ which is so cool! I am so envious. And you made some friends! That's the cool thing with riding.

Nanci

The women's 4's race split apart early. Our field has a really really strong girl- she's actually got enough points right now to get a mandatory upgrade, but she's never done a crit so they are not going to force her until she's got at least one under her belt - watch out after Walla Walla she'll probably be up with you guys! Anyway she went with 2 of her teammates, one of mine, and one other gal on the first climb. One of my other teammates and I weren't too far off, but when we all hit the flats they took off faster than I could chase.
We gathered up 4 people and were starting to organize a chase when the first of my teammates came back, just after she made contact with the break. I think she may have dropped her chain, but anyway she dropped back and helped us take up the chase. At this point we still weren't too far off of the break. Around corner 2 we spotted our other teammate up the road a bit. It took a while, but she finally spotted us and dropped back about 3/4 of the way through the first lap. After that we took up a bit of a team time trial to see if we could catch the break. We had 6 after all and they had 4...... wishful thinking, but it was still a good experience for us. For a while it was 4 of us and 2 gals from other teams that were actually first timers. We, I hope and think taught them a bit about rotating pacelines before they dropped off. It was good practice for us too, as few of the races have given us any opportunity to ride like that. So we TTT'd down towards the finish and then practiced doing a sprint lead out for one of our team mates.
We heard the original break dropped one rider and had about 3 min on us in the end. (did I mention they have a really really strong rider :D ), but who could complain, none of us would finish less than 8th (me - I figured I was the least likely to be able to out sprint any of my team mates so I volunteered to be the first lead out and thus last over the line and we wanted to allow our veteran rider to get the upgrade points so we practiced our lead out for her)

Hey, way to go, you two. I'm getting a kick reading both your race reports in the same thread. Seems like you both gained alot of knowledge out of your respective races, which is always a good thing. Pink -- I can't recall -- are you still a Cat 3, or did you upgrade to the 2's?

My next race is April 8th....the Sea Otter (Cat 4). Should be alot of fun and alotta pain, too! :p Any excuse to go to Monterey is excuse enough for me....

Keep at it grrrlzz. Just think -- time change is next week....more time to train!! Yippee!:D
~BikeMomma